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Just a couple things related to this that I've learned. in terms of space. You don't leave space, you CREATE space. There's a massive difference. Intend it just as you intend any note you play. Don't just pause after 3 every other measure. That ends up sounding a bit contrived. Pick and choose your spots intelligently as you would any other motif or phrase you come up with. As for "Mistakes." I had a teacher from an improvisation class who paraphrased Miles Davis' ideas in regard to things like brain farts, senior moments, whatever you want to call them. This guy was brilliant when he said, "it's not a mistake, it's the beginning of a journey." It might be a flub to you, but like you mentioned, if you repeat it, then you can use it as a springboard to another idea. And if you can come back to it and develop it again, people will think you're a genius because well, that's what geniuses do. One other idea I've used that I heard someone talk about ages ago, and I recently heard Dave Weckl bring this up, is to impose certain limits on yourself. For instance you can say, to yourself, only play hat, snare and floor tom with some bass drum notes to break things up, or you might start out with a call and response thing between the snare on the call and toms on the response. You can also map your solos this way, for instance, only play eighth notes and double stroke rolls on drums for the first part of the solo. For the second part add cymbals and make it groove. Going back to the original idea of eighth notes and rolls on drums only in the third section creates a reprise and slowly going back to a groove to bring the band back in makes it all a cohesive musical piece with form and intent. Weckl talked about doing these kinds of things both in a pre-meditated manner and spontaneously in the moment. The results can be striking.

Outstanding Brett. Soloing is certainly one of my weak spots. Love learning anything that helps me improve. Thank you for putting this out to the community!  😊

Great video! One of my New Year’s resolutions is to play a drum solo live on stage! I have never done this so it’s a little intimidating. Your video gave me lots of great ideas -thank you so much.

Man, you good 🙌

Look into Joe Morello, big boy .

It’s was e good video, but maybe you played e little to much