Music is not all about regularity and rehearsed-ness. It’s often more the feel of the moment that creates the best music, rather than the reward from playing it again Sam time over (which is no less important, and has its place perhaps more often in successful musicianship).
In this vain, this post is a draft of an idea for a drum lesson, perhaps number twenty or thirty for any given student. Pretend you want to play drums (if you don’t already). In this lesson we’ll use the internet as a resource; specifically a Youtube playlist I have compiled. Only four videos, but four which display the expressiveness and flair of some of the most pioneering and gifted musicians.
The objectives of this lesson: to integrate your own feel into these songs, to surprise yourself with your own interpretation, to witness top class players’ emotion on stage (piano and bass as well as drums).
It doesn’t matter if you aren’t a proficient jazz player; it doesn’t even matter if you have never played a typical jazz beat. I will play you each of these videos and you will play what first comes into your head. Just try to play whatever you think fits well with the music. If when you try again you play it differently that’s fine. It’s all about the expression of the moment.
Undoubtedly Thelonious Monk never jived his right leg quite like that before or after that performance; Duke Ellington is relying on communication with his band at a critical change in theirs. Mark Fletcher removes the snare on his drum due to bass hum because the bass is the prominent instrument here and drums provide a subtle accompaniment. And no doubt Gregg Bissonette relies on his confident gift of the gab rather than a script to record these video lessons.
Understanding the importance of knowing how to preempt the right way of doing things on the fly is a key factor to this lesson. Carrying this out, like so many things, requires many hours’ practice.
Now create a 4-video playlist of your own
