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I’ll be opening the brand new Jazz Course to the general public Monday, March 3.
And when you join before the end of the first day, you’ll get a free custom video from me, reacting to up to 10 minutes of your jazz playing.
See you there!
First things first - download your free transcription.
Years ago, I heard Spanky McCurdy playing a funk beat in a super innovative way. He had moved his right hand to the middle of the snare instead of the hats, and was catching ghost strokes with the left hand between the snare and hats.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but recently I was wondering “what happened to this beat”? “And who invented it?”
My very cursory look into drum history revealed a surprising precursor: Dennis Chambers.
In this lesson, I’ll trace the lineage, as I understand it, and show you some of my favorite applications.
Hope you enjoy!
When you search “Dilla Beats” on youtube, the third result, right behind David Bruce, is still a video from 8 years ago from this week’s podcast guest, Arthur “LA” Buckner.
As he explains, Dilla was one of the early influences that got him passionate about drums. And Arthur knows about passion. His excitement about drums and music is palpable. Whether it’s his performances with his band Big Homie, talking about practice approaches and philosophies, or evangelizing for his city, Minneapolis, which I’m now sold is one of the most underrated music scenes in the world, Arthur can’t help but be excited.
Let’s talk about that Dilla video - at the time Arthur made it, as part of something of a thesis project at the now sadly shuttered McNally Smith College of Music, nobody was talking about this stuff on such a deep level. In every video I’ve made on the subject, I’ve shouted out Arthur’s original. I asked him about how his thinking on Dilla has evolved, and he wasn’t shy in expressing that he feels Dilla’s beats have become a bit “caricature-ized”, and that we need to embrace the subtleties. (I’ve updated my approach lately as a result of this convo.)
And the thing that put Arthur back on my radar recently is all the clips and videos of his band Big Homie, both energetic and subtle - an “alternate reality” blend of many of the influences we’ve all consumed in the “post-Glasper-Black-Radio, post-Snarky-Puppy” days, who don’t sound quiet like anything you’ve heard.
Arthur speaks about the band as both a product and showcase of what makes Minneapolis music great, and their music makes a strong case for it.
Hope you’ll enjoy this conversation - it was one of the most fun in recent memory.
First things first - download your free transcription. (Raw video of the 4 grooves below the article.)
Had an interesting discussion during one of my coaching groups the other day. One that touched on what ended up being the twin themes of this week’s video:
1) What are the limits of “click bait” - is there a slippery slope where the tiniest effort to describe what you do in a more-exciting-than-strictly-anodine way is already a transgression and you might as well just promise to double (triple) people’s hand speed in 2025?
2) How is the sausage made. How does one command the attention necessary to get traction for a band or “personal brand” in 2025.
The later is the subject matter of the video that, at the time of that discussion, was already on the “editor’s desk”, and the former is what it promises.
Every so-often, I like to give people a peek behind the curtains, to see what’s currently working to make a career as a “pro drummer”. For purposes of today’s video, I’m defining “pro drummer” as “making a good living playing the drums full-time”, though, as you’ll see, I include teaching - at least the way I do it - in that category.
It is perfectly acceptable to play the drums as a hobby, with a band, with a series of bands, or otherwise. There are some amazing drummers who have that relationship with the drums, and it’s one I had for all but the past 2 years. If you’re in that position you can continue to enjoy the drums and get better year-after-year, or eventually “go pro” after building up enough momentum.
But this video tries to dissect in an unflinching way what I see as the headwinds and tailwinds of the current “climate” if and when one makes that jump.
Because it’s not 1990. I don’t think you can succeed in building a broad audience without social media. (Sorry - I might be wrong. And “broad audience” isn’t what everybody wants, or should want…)
But it’s not even 2014, because a ton of drummers have already gotten online.
It’s not even 2020, because now there’s a generation of “social media natives” who also have “first-call” level skills.
So is it time to throw in the towel? Not quite. As I’ll discuss, the very fact that it’s “hard”, means the competition for “didn’t wash out at long form after 2 years” is smaller than you might think.
Anyway, I’ll dish about it as frankly as I know how. And to the clickbait angle, my recent philosophy has been “start with the title”, then make sure the video delivers. The “bait” in clickbait implies a bait-and-switch; not an outrageous promise you fulfill. (I’ll leave you to judge whether I succeeded.)
Also forgive the “road digs”. I had a video for this week filmed in the New York studio, then deleted the audio from my DAW, like a champ (more behind the scenes), trying to save memory, so this week’s is a “run and gun” from Beautiful Malaga, where I don’t even have the lights in storage back in Barcelona. Pero bueno. (“But whatever.”)
Know you’ll enjoy this one.
Here’s the “raw” video of the 4 grooves I used to accompany this video.