One day when chatting with Paul Johnson,  a great drumming friend/co-worker at Disneyland, he asked me if learning to play the banjo had helped my drumming, and if so, in what ways?  At the time, I hadn’t really thought about it much, and although I had many musicians telling me that my musicianship as a drummer had improved significantly, I told Paul that I did feel it helped, but I couldn’t quantify or articulate exactly how. Paul’s answer had his typical zen/mentor insight: “and that’s the good stuff.”   While I will suggest some of my favorite cross-training endeavors and how they will help you in the subsequent tabs of this section of Drum Fillosophy 101, know that sometimes you won’t necessarily know all of the benefits you are getting from cross-training – “and that’s the good stuff.”