How to Steal From Max Roach

Three weeks ago, before my Asia trip began, I put out the call on Instagram: what should I make my next jazz lesson about. Responses ran the gamut, from comping at fast tempos to...coordination. And I’m sorry to say this lesson is about none of those.

But I believe it will satisfy you, because it answers the spirit of many of the questions I get about jazz drumming: “if I’ve never played legit jazz drums before, where do I begin? And what’s authentic?”

Well, it doesn’t get much more authentic than Mr. Roach. Anyway, the lick I cover in this lesson was inspired by Max, but I’ve heard Philly Joe and Jimmy Cobb play it as well. As well they should: it’s just a combination of two extremely simple rudiments. Which is sort of my point: jazz isn’t necessarily a whole different vocabulary. It’s familiar things, just in a slightly different context.

In this lesson, I expand on the ways Max used this lick, then I show you how I would use it in “modern” playing. (Though I’m sure there are those who will say “Max was modern!” and in one very important sense they’re right.)

Anyway, you’re probably here for the transcription.

And for the comment thread this week, another “selfish” one - what’s your favorite thing to do on a long flight, and what do you most look forward to when visiting New York? (I’m going to need both in two short days;) (You can also comment about drums or the lesson;)

What I Really Think About Hand Technique

It’s been a few weeks since I waded headlong into a controversy, so I figured “what the hey?”

Maybe even more than foot technique, hand technique is the subject of debate, orthodoxies, and sacred cows. Fingers or wrists? French or German? Bounced or articulated?

At various stages in my life I’ve studied all of those approaches, and the technique I use now differs from all of them in two respects. First, it’s not a fixed approach, but rather an adaptive one. It can look like French grip with a thumb-index-finger fulcrum at times. It can look like German grip with the fulcrum in the back fingers at others. Second, it’s not a left-brain, top-down approach, but rather a backward-justification of what “feels right”.

In this video I cover the primary things a good technique is supposed to do for you and 3-dimensional spectrum of possibilities techniques can fall into. Then I share the one secret that’s responsible for most of my “success” taming the hand-technique beast.

And for the comment thread this week, I’m again inviting drama. Have you had a hand technique issue you’ve solved. How?

JP Bouvet, Purdie Shuffles, and Hertas

Whoever says I only cover famous drummers, and I that should do more lessons about how to play like yourself, is flattering me unnecessarily. I’m waaaaaaay too lazy to transcribe a new drum solo every week. Thus, most of the “non-famous-drummer” lessons have to be about just that.

Besides, I still want the core message of my channel to be “you can sound like a better version of yourself by borrowing/stealing from your heroes, then learning a superior Operating System to get their...vibe...into yours. Quite often, after I study a drummer to make a lesson about him/her, there are a few weeks of extra stuff he/she inspires, and not to make a lesson about that would be selling you guys short.

So, while this lesson isn’t directly transcribed from JP Bouvet, it is inspired by him. Two weeks ago, when I filmed this, I had just learned that indeed I’d have the privilege of performing for a room of enthusiastic drummers in Thailand, and was in a wild-eyed panic now that I had to figure out something to talk about. As such I binge watched a bunch of Real drum clinicians, and, quite frankly, JP stood out because he was the best.

If you’re worried, however, that this week’s lesson will “spoil the surprise”, don’t. After getting inspiration from JP, I took a different direction, exploring two seemingly unrelated subjects (though you’ll see that they’re actually quite closely related;)

And for the comment thread this week, I’m opening a Pandora’s Box, so Be Honest, but Be Nice;) Is there a subject you feel I’ve covered so much it’s like “alRIGHT already with the…”? Is there one that you’re just praying I’ll get to, only to be cruelly disappointed each week? (That Rat Bastard. Never again. NEVER again…”) ;) Let me know!

How to Play Like Tony Royster Part One

It’s about time.

My first memory of Tony Royster was as a youngster, alongside Dennis Chambers.

Then, with the advent of the internet, Gospel Chops, and social media, he started popping up everywhere. Fast-forward to present-day, and Royster, drumist behind Jay Z’s live apparatus and among the most sought-after clinicians on Earth, has come-of-age.

I knew as soon as I saw the deluge of covers of Show Me What You Got that I’d eventually have to do a lesson on Tony, but I wanted to wait. I wasn’t good enough as either a player or teacher to cover Tony in a meaGIT Iningful way (I tried in the Faster Hands video, a process that took me weeks), and I was building a brand around learning the most important things first, and Homicidal Single Strokes seemed outside the wheelhouse.

But in the last year I’ve come to realize the point is extracting the most useful parts of every player, Bruce Lee style, and that if I could make The Royst accessible, maybe my audience would believe me that all of you, too, have the capacity to steal from the Best.

Anyway, you’re probably here for the transcription.

And for the comment thread this week, was there ever a time you thought you had everything together, then you watched another drummer and he made you feel like a rank amateur? (For me, Eric Harland, Lee Pearson, Nate Wood, Marcus...the list cotinues;) If so, who?