5 Subtle Ways Experienced Musicians Can Tell if You're Legit

The email subject affords me more nuance than the YouTube Title field.

How to express a strongly held opinion - that drumming's about a lot more than just chops...and even a lot more than just how good your solos sound in the practice room...

...without coming across as a self-important douche.

Put yourself in this headspace: you know you've got a lot to work on. You're well-acquainted with your flaws.

Sometimes it's a struggle.

Sometimes you go weeks without feeling like you see any improvement.

But you're in the shed every day. Trying gamely.

Then, you flip open the laptop, and see some videos from people who obviously didn't even try.

Who, at the time of the video, weren't aware there was a bar, much less that effort was required to reach it.

I knew this week's lesson would be a tough one to pull off.

How to express that, flawed-though-I-am, my 20-some years of toil...

...of getting yelled at in percussion ensemble...

...of sweating through rough rehearsals and gigs, and festivals with jazz bands...

...of not-getting gigs, then, finally, of getting gigs...

...I've noticed a few things that bandleaders - and, indeed, audiences - appreciate from a drummer.

Things I thought were obvious.

Then you go on the internet, and realize they're not.

So, I've gotta make a video that makes it sound like I think I'm sitting above a whole echelon of musicians.

In Judgment.

Which I'm not.

And I've gotta call it something like "5 Ways Pros Can Tell a Good Drummer from a Bad One".

And I'm not impervious to these flaws, either. I run afoul of them all the time.

But, switching hats, some people don't even f@#$ing try😛

And a lot of the general public, it turns out, is not even aware these are a thing.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this week's lesson.

See you next week,

N

The worst things about sharing a practice space in NYC

It's tough to keep aware of the nuances of our situation.

Once a situation, skill, or routine becomes "normal", it's easy to lose sight of what about it would seem exotic to an outsider.

So it goes, routinely, in jiujitsu class, when a brown belt will remark, after I finally nail a move, "oooh - that was the detail you were struggling with? It never occurred to me that I'd need to highlight that."

And so it is with practice situations in big cities. "Lockouts".

I made today's lesson mostly in a fit of frustration.

I'd been talking with my perennial jam buddy about, some day, making a lesson about how musicians can be...predictably...terrible.

Petty with money.

Careless and disrespectful of other people's time, and their property.

Forgetful and unreliable.

So it goes with many-a-musician one runs across in the ubiquitous shared practice dungeons dotting NYC.

Most things in life - and most-everything in New York - has a taste of "love hate" to it.

Mostly we relish it. It's what keeps us from being "basic".

It's in that spirit that we'd occasionally quip, "musicians, amiright?"

But, a few times-a-year, it hits...I dunno...boiling point.

It was after one such week that I decided to make this week's lesson.

But I assumed it might resonate with a few hard-core folks who'd also lived through it.

I was wrong.

I was too deep in it to recognize the novelty. Since I published the video, it's gotten a ton of comments, many of them from people who had no idea this is what it's like in big cities.

"Now I understand your snare head."

"Now I understand your 'depressing' environs".

Sidebar - I LOVE my practice spot, the same way I love my family. It's got a window.

It's got a window.

Anyway, be it with city diehards, or suburbanites who never dreamed one might not have a house one can practice in...it looks like I've struck a chord.

See if you agree.

Back next week with another LOW. See you then,

N

The Top 5 Stewart Copeland Beats of All Time

First things first, you can get the transcription for this lesson here

Stewart Beats

Stewart Copeland probably looms larger in the development of modern drums than even diehard fans acknowledge.

At 4-years-old, I played along with Regatta De Blanc on overturned cardboard boxes.

(My parents soon decided the sound of a real drum kit had to be better than that of cardboard boxes. Then immediately regretted their decision.)

At the time, I was like "yea, this is killing, but what's the big deal?"

"Also, how do I walk?"

(Ok, I guess 4's a little old for walking :P)

More-years-than-I-care-to-admit hence, and I'm only now realizing just how difficult it is to do what Stewart did.

And everybody he's influenced.

There are the obvious ones, for sure.

But how about Brian Blade?

How about Eric Harland?

It's not just the "cleanness", but also the *context* Stewart gave to beats and fills - it's hard to describe, but it involves dynamic extremes, and whether everything occurs within a given tesitura (which just means "range") - beats, embellishments, etc - or whether there are tiered dynamic ranges.

Sheesh - lesson on this coming soon. Which will probably get, like, 45 views.

But seriously - this is the Blade/Harland stuff. (And you could argue Marcus is to that style what Stylebender is to Anderson Silva.)

Anyway, picking just 5 beats from The Bard is a tall order. (Even when I cheat, and allow myself 7.)

But choose I had-to, so choose-I-did.

I present you the FIVE (plus two) Most Influential Stewart Beats...of ALLLL TIIIIIME;)

Enjoy, and catch you next week,

N

Reacting to the reactor - Nate on Josh Crawford

Josh Crawford is know as the "reactionary-in-chief" on Youtube...

...but that pretty substantially undersells his drum ability.

So, I react to one of his drum covers, break down some licks, bish-bash-bosh, right?

Well, of course there's a little more to it.

In truth, this lesson was the perfect story of "cool stuff to transcribe/share" with "ultimate irony."

I'll admit it: I was mixed about the reaction videos at first. I misunderstood it. "This other guy's doing all the work, and you're just filming yourself, watching him, then getting tons of views from it."

Like many-a-YouTuber hoping for more video views, and getting outmaneuvered by this upstart, I was salty.

I now understand that I misinterpreted two things:

First, if you actually watch one of those reaction videos, Josh comes across as humble, funny, and disarming, and his commentary does add to the enjoyment of the original video.

What's more, many of his reaction/tribute videos have more views than the original (yes, with a few exceptions), which means he's bringing additional exposure to the artists.

Second, Josh's not an armchair ninja weighing in on other playing. He's a high-level player himself.

Who could feature himself more often, but frequently chooses to relinquish the spotlight to the drummers he's featuring.

But Josh's recent videos, by-and-large, have featured his own playing, and good goddamn thing, because he's killing.

Anyway, sensing the overlap of genuine admiration and funny irony, I messaged Josh to see if he likewise saw the potential in the idea, and, luckily, he did.

As such I bring you - The Josh Crawford Lesson.