First things first - grab your free transcription here.
After 3 years of running the podcast, I finally got the opportunity to talk to one of my drum heroes, Gavin Harrison.
That complete podcast will publish soon, but after dropping knowledge bombs for the better part of 55 minutes, Gavin surprised me with something I did not expect. (I guess that’s kind of the definition of “surprise”.)
He said he had a question for me.
Turns out, he’d seen the video I did 3 years ago on his fill on the live version of Bonnie The Cat. Ok - very flattering.
And he thought I’d missed a trick. Doh.
Naturally, I asked him to tell me more. And his answer uncovered something fascinating - to me at least - about what he’s consciously focussed on when playing, and what’s buried at the subconscious layer.
It’s not that he never thinks while he’s filling, but that he thinks of the overview - the big picture. So in this video we’ll get into what that big picture is, because it’s an organizing principle behind a lot of how he thinks of drum improvisation.
Just just as fascinating is what’s happening underneath.
Because I could think “big gesture culminating with a snare note” and just let my hands and feet go, and it would not sound like Gavin Harrison. In that respect, it’s not that the underlying mechanics - the stuff you practice to be able to think gesturally and have it sound clean and “good” - aren’t important. It’s more that in my original lesson I was too focussed on the mechanical layer, to the exclusion of the inspiration and musical context.
Phew!
Because you’re on the list, you’re also getting the “director’s cut” of this video, with a full extra 5-minutes explaining how I’d apply my “clave flow” system to creating the underlying muscle memory to “let go” and still hit figures clearly and cleanly - not necessarily like Gavin, but like yourself.
Hope you enjoy!