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Today we have a two-fer I’m very excited about.
One of the forefathers of jazz drum instruction - though as you’ll hear he doesn’t like the taxonomy, preferring to say he’s an “improvisation teacher” - and an 80/20 hot take on a ubiquitous concept in drumming that I think is almost-worthless as an umbrella term.
Change my mind!
Let’s start with independence. I think as a global concept it doesn’t get us any closer to the things is purports to solve than just practicing those things individually.
For instance: a swing beat, being able to improvise with the kick drum during a groove, something like clave in the left foot, and soloing against weird ostinatos, the way Dan Weiss and Marcus Gilmore do.
I wager that you’d be better off practicing all those things individually than creating an overarching category and calling it “independence”. In the video I drill into why we have so-called “meta categories”, when they’re useful, and when they’re not. And I make some conjectures about the history of “independence”, and why the word might be a marketing vestige.
Which might seem at odds with one of the most venerated drum teachers of all time. Until you drill in and realize Ed Soph is himself an iconoclast. His energy is pure punk-rock, and he has no time for the idea of “handedness” on the drums, nor the “walling off” of jazz from other forms of improvisation.
(I chose the thumbnail photo because, agree or disagree with the views, I feel it captures his defiant attitude.)
Ed and I chat about hierarchies in music, how Denton, TX became a music powerhouse away from either of the coasts, teaching psychology, the value of honesty in music, and more.
Couldn’t be more excited about a couple of bits of content, and hope you enjoy!