Pathways

There is the desire to sound good.
The desire to control the expression
so the notes occur on an area that is
intellectually understood in advance.

Licks, grooves, scores, charts, notes etc.
Or as Milford Graves calls it
Standard Organized Music.

A conceptual framework somehow legitimizes
and proves knowledge of rhythm and melody,
an execution of a predetermined structure,
or an improvisation projected onto a predetermined structure.

It's like "Oh he is repeating himself therefore he knows."
It's safe. It's a form of GPS. It has its pleasure and limitations.
Groove. It's OK have structure sometimes but how deep are the roots?
If the roots are not deep "music" can become imprisonment.

The foundation is built upon breath and the feeling of the intention.
Fear and vanity keep people on the surface and afraid of violating the structure.
Conversely if you are at the center of the wheel you are omnipresent and timeless.
You are time, keeping it or not keeping it is redundant.
You can't reach the center without breath and relaxation.

Control without balance is FASCISM
Letting Go without balance is NIHILISM
and both together are TAOISM or SURFING

Lose Control in the name of gaining it.
Weave these domains together.
Sure practice MASTER Studies and Stick CONTROL
but then also get out the machete and do some bushwhacking.
How are we going to become strong and fearless if we only mow the lawns
and don't forge new neural pathways.

These new pathways come about by making music
at the level of silent intuition and openhearted innocence.
By stumbling into methods and sounds that are unknown
and possibly uncomfortable and awkward.

Falling and flying and failing.

The axiom in creative writing
"no surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader"
Lovemaking requires no GPS.

Constraint and Innovation

Do to a complicated vacuuming accident my fellow blogger and drummer Sheldon can't use his right arm for awhile. 

Obviously there is the one armed drummer from Def Leppard .. but deeper than his personal victory is the principle that made Twitter virtually explode on to the scene.

When restrictive parameters are laid out with absolute clarity the conditions are ripe for wild experimental creativity and growth.

Limits are opportunities to test drive and/or implement new perspectives.

Take the book STICK CONTROL: do 8th notes with the hi-hat using only the foot. R=Kick. L=Snare. 

Open and expand through times of constraint rather than contracting into victimhood. 

Interpreting Stick Control.

I am writing this entry because I have a deep fondness for fundamentals. I also have an intense love of the avant garde and the wild unknown territories of art and music.

Stick Control is the quintessential drum instruction book. It's the book you get after you go to your very first drum lesson. Because I have an insanely linear mind and I tend to follow rules, I was locked into a very rigid understanding of this book. It was only recently that I discovered the ABSOLUTE JOY of INTERPRETING this book and using it as FOUNDATION work but also as a way to work on independence, creative reading, and other more advanced techniques.

Just with pages 5-7 there is an infinite number of ways to interpret the exercises. My most recent teacher was James Dreier at the University of Iowa. He started me off doing:

1. pg 5-7 sticks on pad following the recommended sticking pattern over a samba with kick and hi hat

2. pg 5-7 R=Floor Tom L=Snare drum over a Samba. Instead of reading the exercises in order you just go straight across the entire page as if you were reading a book for both 1 & 2

3. pg 5-7 R = Floor Tom & Snare in unison L= Kick Drum hi hat is on quarter notes.

4. pg 5-7 Same as number three except with a swing feel and hi hat on 2 & 4. For exercises 3 & 4 do each exercise 2 times and then on to the next first time through. Second time through as in exercise 1 & 2 reading across the whole page as a line.

I was talking with Stephen Hodges, the drummer for Mavis Staples, awhile back and his use of maracas and shakers inspired me to interpret stick control as a groove with R= Kick and L= Snare while the shakers and maracas are doing eighths over the top.

My friend Craig Waters, drummer for The Bell Rays and Cody Chestnut, told me he would just practice it as straight Soul groove with eighth notes on the hi hat with R=Kick and L=Snare.

The point is not so much HOW you interpret STICK CONTROL but more that YOU CAN!!!! Get totally creative, the more flexible your mind is in coming up with systems and honoring them the better.

Just yesterday I spent the ENTIRE AFTERNOON listening to D'Angelo and then locking in a jazz pattern on the ride with hi-hat on 2 & 4 and going through with R=Kick and L=Snare.

It is a really fun way to work on independence. Another amazing book for this is The New Breed by Gary Chester. He has 39 systems that you lock down one by one and then many pages of melody to play on top of the non-changing parts. It's a terrific book to learn sight reading and it REALLY irons out any weakness in your groove and then starts to incorporate singing as the FIFTH LIMB of drumming on a foundation of invincible groove. Excellent stuff.

The message is clear as drummers we are charged with mastery of the entire field of NON-CHANGE and the entire field of CHANGE. A metronome is good at pointing out both of those worlds at the same time.

Putting the Baby to Bed

Recently i had a long conversation with drummer and percussionist Stephen Taylor Hodges who has played with the likes of Mavis Staples, John Hammond, Smashing Pumpkins, Tom Waits.

One of the first things he said about playing the drums was "how hard would you pat your baby?"

This resonated with me immediately because as a drummer and a father I have realized that volume has a limit. In fact this conversation opened my eyes to what I already believed, that the drums should invoke silence, that the dynamics of the trees should be the reference point, the swaying of the ocean, the aura of the moon of the snare drum has ancient power at the level of the whisper.

It's not so much a negation of volume, but an embrace of the full dynamic range holding close to the center as the silent hub of the wheel and from there exploring the lightning of the storm and the violence of ecstasy always returning to the whisper of the leaves and the black sky.

It has completely transformed my practice routine. Right now I am going through stick control for R i hit the bass drum soft for L i use a brush on the snare and in my right hand I am using an egg. Mr. Hodges said that using shakers is a very powerful way to bring you back to your center. Also playing at this volume allows you to use a metronome without headphones which is amazing.

I had an amazing experience tonight. My drum set is in the living room now because I am playing at a volume like a quiet radio. My son's room is right next to my drum set and while my wife was putting him to bed I continued playing dropping my volume to the quietest possible. Barely audible, my kick with the synthetic lambs wool beater sounded like far off thunder, and on the snare with the snares off I used a Native American drum beater. I felt like I was in a dream playing this music that could facilitate the transition from waking to sleeping. It was shamanic, primal, mystical, and grounded in the dynamics of nature. So I have decided to dedicate a blog to my experiences along this path so clearly illumined by Mr. Hodges. .