If a specific groove gets stale, I try to switch it up and experiment.  Like reverse the accents, or play the ride on the off beats, or add an open hat, or vary the bass pattern, or add a couple of accent notes on the ride bell, or switch from crossing over to open-handed working the weaker hand, etc.  But most of all, I've found playing with as many people as I can and listening to as much music as I can jumpstarts a stale groove.  Especially multi-percussive bands like Santana, Al DiMeola, etc. who have so much going on that it stimulates my brain to break down all the different parts and apply fresh, unique grooves to basic patterns.  The opposite of stagnation has got to be inspiration!


I'm surprised you didn't say add more cowbell!

all of these ideas are great, but also try setting a part of ur practice time to figuring out new stuff to play, like something with a completely different feel to it, i spend most my practices just writing random piece after random piece trying to make everything as varied as possible,

also learn new rudiments, i started to find that when i varied something it would come out based around a paradiddle, so i started learning some new rudiments and then making variations on those rudiments etc, i find that really helps

also try watching some other drummers you know play, i often find i get a lot of fresh ideas just watching another drummer play on a table with a pair of sticks, maybe try looking at random objects and thinking what you could drum to describe it,

There's this book I saw when I was looking through Guitar Center book selction that looks like a pretty cool book for new grooves. It was titled "Famous Grooves" or something like that, and had around 3 to 7 grooves from 20 or so famous drummers. It looked like a fun book to run through, you may want to check it out for some inspiration.

Now we're talkin'!  This is a great opportunity for a lot of new things, like rigging up an additional snare, playing syncopated 16ths (one handed) on the hat straight through and reversing our too common implementation of the upbeat of the 2 and 4, a common symptom of playing straight rock all the time.