Anyone can play a ton of notes. The difference between being an apprentice and a master is CONTROL. Control is developed through consistent (i.e. every day) practice. There is no substitute. Playing with control is what separates the elite players from everyone else.
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One of the most rewarding moments in teaching is when you have a student that has been working on a chart, or a groove, or a technical aspect of their craft, and you see the moment when the proverbial lightbulb over their head turns on. This is what I call The Breakthrough.
Breakthroughs can involve big picture concepts or tiny details. Often, The Breakthrough arrives when you don’t expect it, when you aren’t trying too hard, when you are not trying to force things. In other words, The Breakthrough arrives at mysterious times, but the common theme here is that you can’t force yourself to advance to the next level. You work, you fail perhaps, you try again, and over time diligence and persistence do pay off. Get your instrument in your hands every day. Pick up the sticks every day. Over the long haul, there is no substitute for consistent practice.
Once a student has The Breakthrough, that student creates his or her own momentum. Success creates confidence, and confidence creates success. It’s a loop. Once you can get into that loop, your growth will follow.
And….most importantly, you will find that these concepts apply in music, in school, in business, and everywhere else. It is universal.
Drumming is a lot like life. You can't bash your way through it all the time. Sometimes (rarely) you have to, but mostly, I find subtlety to be FAR more effective. With drumming, and music also, when you are playing full out all the time, the listener will grow bored very quickly. Music is like conversation, sometimes you yell, sometimes you whisper. The peaks and valleys are what make the trip interesting.
So one of the areas of focus for my more advanced students is dynamic control. Playing a tough passage at forte (loudly) is great….but can you play the same passage with the same intensity and performance level at mezzo piano? That’s one of the overarching goals here: total command of your dynamic abilities, and the pursuit of playing with total control. Control is what separates the elite players from everyone else.
Studying at grooveKSQ is about much more than drumming. There are a few lesson slots open now available. Email me at bryan@grooveksq.com for details.
As someone who has performed in many percussion ensemble situations over the years, I can only begin to describe the feelings of peace and empowerment that group drumming sessions can create. It really is something you have to experience for yourself to fully understand.
For those who want to read all about the scientific bases describing the healing power of group drumming, take a deep dive into this recent study sponsored by the Royal College of Music in London and published by Public Library of Science.
Here are a key excerpt to consider:
This study demonstrates that group drumming leads to enhanced psychological states, specifically less depression and greater social resilience, across six weeks compared with a control group, extending the findings of our preliminary study.
It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and I must admit I am a bit ambivalent about the game when neither the Steelers nor Eagles are involved - unless there is some compelling storyline that should be followed. Another reason to tune in is for the halftime show, which for quite awhile was THE marquee live performance event of the year. Only the titans of the music industry get invited to play the halftime show: Bruce Springsteen, U2, Prince, Tom Petty, The Who, Beyonce, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, and the list goes on and on.
But of those performances, on the biggest stage in the world, some were pretty good, some were terrible, and occasionally one or two performances were transcendent. Of the dozens of Super Bowls and halftime shows I’ve seen, only one stands out as truly great - Prince’s performance in the driving rain at Dolphin Stadium in Miami at Super Bowl 41 in 2007. That band and that performance - in my humble opinion - will live forever.
I won’t recount all of the circumstances, because those have been ably documented elsewhere (the documentary below does a pretty good job of setting the stage).
What is really notable about Prince’s performance here is that it tells us something significant about live performance. Great performances are few and far between, unless you are at the top of your craft and in complete command of your ensemble, your instrument and the audience. A transcendent performance, like Prince in a driving rainstorm at Super Bowl 41, is a rare thing indeed.
It is the rarity of this level of performance is that makes it special. You can remember standing there looking at the TV, watching it unfold and being transfixed by it all. If this kind of thing happened everyday, you would soon stop appreciating it and move on to the next thing.
There is a trend among concert promoters and bands these days to relive, recreate and repackage the past. You can sell tickets to just about any tribute band performance nowadays, no matter how atrocious the musicianship or presentation is. There are many pretenders out there.
If you have read this far, you do care about these things. If you are a student of mine, current or former, and have read this far, you know by now I want YOU to be a great one in your own way. Be a great one, and be original. Demand that of yourself overtime you pick up the sticks or mallets. This is what propels the art form forward.
The first percussion students I taught were at Upper Darby High School in 1990. Since then - twenty nine years ago - I’ve worked with a lot of young people to perfect their musical skills and watched them go on to college/university and do great things later in life.
There is a core set of capabilities that students develop when they apply themselves to their practice and their pursuit of musical excellence. These are not just capabilities that young people develop, I’ve witnessed this in adult students also. Most importantly, and this goes without saying, these skills directly translate to all other phases of life.
