Learning the solos of great drummers note-for-note is a great way of expanding vocabulary, skill, technique, and attunement with your drumming heroes. While attending Duke University, my teacher Paul Jeffrey encouraged me to transcribe numerous solos, document them in musical notation software, learn them, memorize them, and eventually play them real-time from memory along with the actual solo. At first this seemed like a daunting task, but as I worked at it I was able to make progress, and it helped me tremendously. In the practice room, I’d imagine I was the drummer who I was emulating at the moment, and later I’d find I had picked up a little piece of that drummer’s spirit and style through this practice.