Improve Your Groove

If you want to work on establishing a great groove, you gotta practice along with some of the best groove makers out there; and they all recorded with Steely Dan! SD always used the best studio musicians and hand picked players for each song (yes, even drummers) with Bernard Purdie*, Jim Keltner, Rick Marotta, Jeff Porcaro, and Steve Gadd.

Not gonna lie - Sting did the same thing - best drummers = Omar Hakim, Manu Katché, Vinnie Colaiuta, and currently, Zach Jones.

Great Sting albums to practice with

Fields of Gold

Ten Summoner's Tales

Mercury Falling

Brand New Day

I should also mention that Sting composed a fair amount of music in compound meters. Vinnie is the king of making 5/4 or 7/4 sound like 4/4! "Love Is Stronger Than Justice" and "Seven Days" are great examples. I like to find the sheet music online so I have a roadmap of the song as I play along - until it's memorized.

*Here's a YouTube interview with the 'hitmaker' Bernard "Pretty" Purdie ↓