My day job as a technical evangelist for Microsoft keeps me right on the bleeding edge of technology all the time. I spend a good portion of my time talking to software developers all over the country about how technology can help them do their jobs better and more efficiently and improve their lives overall. I’m about as “in the thick of it” as you can get.

And yet, I often find myself humbled by just how interconnected the world is these days. This revelation usually comes from the most unlikely of places.

This week, I was contacted through DrummBlog by a young drummer from the UK named Seamus who has a relatively new drum blog called Beatgeek. He found DrummBlog and wanted to get some input from me on blogging about drums. As this was a refreshing change of pace from the seemingly endless litany of spam I get, I gladly replied and told him that being a successful blogger about any topic is about knowing why you’re writing in the first place.

His reply named the following three reasons (paraphrased):

• The drumming world can be a very expensive place to young players
• Needed to find inexpensive yet good quality drums and accessories
• Get tips from experienced players about good prices for quality gear

Reading this reply from Seamus got me thinking about my early years as a player. My primary source of information for anything related to drumming was Modern Drummer magazine. While highly informative, a magazine is a static piece of content, locked for all time the minute it gets spit out by the printer and shipped to the news stand. If I had questions, I could always write a letter to the editorial board of the magazine, but it was highly unlikely I would ever get a worthwhile response (I did try on several occasions). This was not the fault of the editorial board. It was simply that the medium itself didn’t encourage interactivity. It was a loudspeaker for broadcasting the news and information that the folks at Modern Drummer thought their audience wanted to know.

Think about that for a minute and contrast it with today. Online, right now, there are thousands of drummers, myself and Seamus being a couple of them, publishing content about their favorite drummers, tips for playing better, reviews of hardware and publicizing events that might have easily been missed before. Yes, this wellspring of information is almost common sense in our everyday lives in this era, but when you compare it to the way drummers of my generation and the generations before obtained the same information, it kind of blows your mind.

I remember being a kid constantly scouring the TV Guide trying to find out if any of my favorite drummers were going to be on the tube any time soon. Hell, the old Friday Night Videos was good for at least one Van Halen video where I could watch Alex pound away on Jump or Hot For Teacher or something. Today, if I’m listening to a Tool album and want to check out Danny Carey laying down the final part of Lateralis, all I need to do is visit YouTube and voila, there it is.

The point is, the Internet is chock full of vital information for drummers of all ages, but especially for young drummers. Obviously, the accuracy of information found online must always be evaluated, but honestly, I’ve found little in the drumming sites I’ve visited that would make me think that anyone was trying to mislead or misinformation through their sites. Granted, it’s not always presented in the most polished or professional format, but that’s actually cool as well. It gives the information a realism that you don’t always get from “official” sources.

Drummers have always had a tight-knit community. Maybe its from being the target of the ubiquitous jokes about having a sub-par intellect or not being able to keep consistent time that brings us together. But whatever it is, we can leverage the reach of the Internet to bring us all together in ways that simply didn’t exist before, no matter where we are, and share ideas, information and wisdom.

So go visit Beatgeek. See what Seamus has to say and send him your opinions. Because at the end of the day, we’re all here to learn from each other and make ourselves better drummers. Take full advantage of the incredible resources we have right under our fingertips to make it happen!

Technorati Tags: Beatgeek,Drumming,Percussion,Danny Carey,Lateralis,Alex Van Halen,Hot For Teacher,Jump,Friday Night Videos

A couple of months ago, I posted about the "Drum Your Way to Hollywood Contest" that Dixon Drums was sponsoring. Well, Dixon announced the winner about a week ago and I wanted to be sure to mention it here. The winner of a Dixon Demon drum kit and a trip to Hollywood, CA to play live Westlake Studios in front of an A&R panel is Lou Mars. Here's a video of Lou's winning performance at Herried Music in California:

Congratulation Lou on a job well done.

I've made it no secret that Chad Smith is one of my favorite drummers playing today, and I'm really excited about his new Chickenfoot project with Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Joe Satriani.

Now, Music Radar is taking questions for Chad via their web site. To submit your question, have a look at this post and submit your question in the comments section (you'll need to create a Music Radar account to do this).

Curious about the RHCP's next album? Have questions about Chickenfoot? Want to know about dynamics within the band? Here's a great opportunity to ask and get an answer from Chad directly.

Enjoy!