Four Tricks To Make Your Jazz Drumming Sick(er)

I’ll admit it. I was ¾ into editing a lesson on a totally different subject when I sat back and sighed. “This is all shit they’ve heard before.” Really, though, I just wasn’t cracking. I wasn’t entertaining myself. So I did what I’m going to try to do more often in coming weeks: I started from scratch, and started simple. I remembered an email I’d received from an earnest student.

“What should I work on? I’m practicing 45 minutes of your course, then….” and it was a laundry list.

I remember the response I’d composed in my head. “Maybe you should try to simplify, and stick to just a couple of things.” The funny part is, that’s what my course is designed to do, and he was taking it! Then it occurred to me - why not make my response to him into a lesson, so that everybody can see it?

So that was the genesis - instead of working your way through 10 books every day, here are some methods I’ve worked out (that I’ve heard some of my drum heroes talk about too) for taking one lick and spending an entire practice session on it.

Anyway, you’re probably here for the transcription.

Joe Smith Lesson for Subscribers

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Louis Styx Newsom Beat for Subscribers

So begins a few weeks of lessons that depart from my usual "play like this or that drummer" pattern, in order to delve more deeply into the process of Learning to Play. It just so happens that this week's source material comes from gospel drummer Louis "Styx" Newsom, by way of friend-of-the-channel and killer-in-his-own-right Chesley "Cheese" Allen, of whom I've been a fan for almost 2 years.

Drumming, at its core, consists of two elements - a "what" and a "how", and the further we get along our journey, the more we start to sound like ourselves. Everything we take in/borrow/steal from our heroes goes through the filter of "us", and comes out sounding "Chesleyfied" or "Guilianized" or, in the case of these lessons "Nateified". It just so happened that Louis Newsom supplied the "what" - a sextuplet lick not unlike one Jojo or Spanky might play, and I attempt to supply the "how" - to take you through my process of discovering a new influence, stealing his best licks (thanks Louis;), and bending/shaping them until I can connect them with the growing jigsaw puzzle of my own "voice" (still fledgling, at this point, compared to my heroes).

Anyway, let me hook you up with the transcriptions...

IN THE SPIRIT OF THIS LESSON, I WANT TO ISSUE A FRIENDLY CHALLENGE...

As another gospel great, Tim "Fig" Newton is fond of saying, "don't let it end here." Take the licks, mess with them, and make them yours. So I invite you to show me what you can do with Louis' source material. Take one of these licks, and invent something else with it, then post the video in the comments.

Hard Drum Beat for Subscribers

I have to shout out Drumeo, my behemoth compatriot in the drum lesson space (I don't consider this Zero Sum competition, so I don't use the word "competitor") for the idea for this week's lesson. In truth, though, the idea has been marinating for a few months - ever since I read Josh Waitzkin's book The Art of Learning, and listened to Mark Guiliana, Oli Bernatchez, and Ofri Nehemya.

Josh, chess-champion-cum-Taiqi/Juijitsu-phenom, speaks about a concept called "making smaler circles" to refer to gradual refinement of a skill. You start out with all the steps explicit, giving everything equal weight. Over time, you gain a feel for the "80/20" of the movement, and learn to perform it with fewer-and-fewer explicit steps. The end result is a Taiqi master who can throw an opponent out of the ring with zero movement visible to an inexperienced onlooker, because the movements are so deep and subtle.

I immediately thought of Mark, Oli, and Ofri. What makes these drummers (and Marcus Gilmore and Ari Hoenig) so great is it often feels like you're only seeing the outward manifestation of about 20% of what they've got happening inside.

Like a reduced balsamic vinegar or high quality whiskey, TONS of source material has gone into producing something very minimal, but it's not a 1:1 tradeoff: you still see evidence that there's more-than-meets-the-eye when you watch Mark, Oli, and Ofri. They've made smaller circles.

Anyway, I was at-a-loss as to how to communicate this to you good folks until my buddies over at Drumeo produced One Easy Drum Beat That Sounds Hard, and, jokester-that-I-am, I knew I'd have to produce a lesson on precisely the opposite, I realized - "OH. This is Making Smaller Circles Redux."

Finally, Easter Egg - I'll be in Hong Kong October 12-16 and Taipei the following week, and planning to do drum clinics. More info coming soon!