Madden Klass - "I Just Wanted to Sound Like a Record"

You either know Boy Genius’ drummer Madden Klass, or you don’t know her yet.

Equally at home playing fusion tracks, creating her own “live” arrangements for hip hop songs, or holding it down behind roots rock groups, Madden has a depth to her playing that belies her 25 years.

She was quick to realize the upsides of digging in when her teacher Peter Greco introduced her to reading and rudiments, and, unlike 9/10 of people in that situation, she gave it 110%.

That attitude carried her through high school, when she redoubled her efforts to expand her repertoire by learning to play big band jazz, and college at Berklee, where at first she dabbled in the “sheds” scene and learned the “live arrangement” style of drumming ubiquitous behind R&B stars and shows like American Idol and Rhythm and Flow. (To this moment I’m still not sure when she worked djent in, but she apparently did.) Finally, the lack of a “quit gene” saw Madden double-down on home recording when the pandemic forced Berklee to send its students home in 2020.

So while it may be surprising to see somebody who plays with a maturity and taste of someone twice-her-age and the technical proficiency of someone exactly-her-age backing Boy Genius at Madison Square Garden and on SNL, it’s not once you understand her back story a bit.

I hope you’ll be as charmed and inspired by Madden as I was.

Mazyck "Zyck" Wyatt - "I Had to Work For It"

If you know this week's podcast guest as "zyck the freak" on instagram or YouTube, you may place him as the instigator behind the latest generation of Berklee shed videos. (Those with "2023" or "2024" in the title.)

If so, you might have clocked him as just another of the groups of elite drummers who go through Berklee's system and dazzle us along the way. But according to Zyck, that's not how it happened. By his own account, Zyck was unprepared for the level of playing he encountered in the first of his "sheds" at Berklee, and had to dig deep to raise his level.

(By the time you see him on video, it's manifest that he's succeeded.)

That's just the first of multiple surprises about Zyck, a drummer unafraid to take a "first principles" approach. Zyck also says he didn't gig at all for the first several years at Berklee; something he now advises young drummers to take seriously.

He's also "self-coached" - if not self-taught, having gone long periods without lessons, and having had to figure out many of his impressive abilities on his own.

But perhaps the most "controversial" of Zyck's take is that that landed him on my radar in the first place: his unapologetic defense of young drummers on the internet.

He's tired of the "old guard" taking pot shots at the way things are now, he says. Things have changed, and to decry it won't change it. (But he gets more descriptive.)

Whatever your opinion, I can guarantee you'll enjoy spending an hour with this thoughtful - and controversial - figure.

Check Out The Brand New Jazz Course - Opens thursday, october 16

If you like what you see, watch your inbox.

I’ll be opening the brand new Jazz Course to the general public Thursday, October 16.

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!

The Revolutionary Drum Groove That Everybody Forgot About

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!