{"id":111029,"date":"2017-05-19T13:32:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T17:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=111029"},"modified":"2017-05-21T09:37:28","modified_gmt":"2017-05-21T13:37:28","slug":"drumset-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/19\/drumset-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Drumset = You"},"content":{"rendered":"

In seemingly bland method books, drummers\u00a0become\u00a0writers\u2014and\u00a0their eccentricities shine through in remarkable ways.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Greg Gandy, Brett\u2019s Drums<\/i>, 2015, oil on canvas.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I\u2019m a mostly untrained drummer. I\u2019ve taken lessons for brief periods, but until recently I\u2019d missed out on that most essential component of drum pedagogy: the method book. In my efforts to improve, I\u2019ve been drawn to the introductions of these books, which feature efficient, often dull language\u2014and in which, occasionally, the eccentricities of the authors shine through in remarkable ways. In the last few months, I\u2019ve become obsessed with gleaning hints about drummers\u2019 personalities from these books, far too many of which, perhaps unsurprisingly, have been written by men. Lost in the hinterland between art and technique, their introductions tend to exhibit grouchiness, pretension, narcissism, penury, New Age quirkiness, and sometimes even wisdom. What follows is a survey of some of the more striking entries.<\/p>\n

Method books, intended to help you master a specific aspect of your musical craft, are usually flimsy pamphlets filled with exercises in musical notation. They\u2019re aspirational texts, meant to be worried at and wrestled with, written in and dog-eared. Many are so frustratingly abstruse that they seem as though\u00a0they weren\u2019t made to be used at all. And like infomercials, some of them make outrageous claims; their titles alone can be a source of amusement. On my shelf I have Advanced Funk Studies<\/em>, Drummer on Parade with Street Beats<\/em>, The Hardest Drum Book Ever Written<\/em> (by the inimitable Joel Rothman, the author of more than a\u00a0hundred drum method books), The New Breed II<\/em>, and Inner Drumming<\/em>. Often the titles contain the word modern<\/em>, which traditionally distinguishes between military-style parade drumming and contemporary rock and jazz playing. This distinction has been in place for almost a century, so it makes for an odd juxtaposition. At the same time, the term cozies up to a vision of the drummer\u2019s future: some crowning moment after thousands of hours of dogged practice, in which, at last, the exercises are mastered and the drummer becomes truly \u201cmodern.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the books are oriented toward practice, and since most drummers aren\u2019t seasoned prose stylists, these method books tend to be pretty thin on introductory material. Even the most classic books sometimes have barely a paragraph of prefatory text\u2014but these concentrated statements open windows into their authors\u2019 minds, deepening the mystery behind the mastery. Stick Control for the Snare Drummer<\/em>, for instance, by George Lawrence Stone, is the <\/em>drum method book. It was radical at the time of its publication, and its clarity and simplicity has allowed it to endure since its publication in 1935. That may surprise you, though, when you read Stone\u2019s introduction, which is chiding instead of encouraging: \u201cIt seems that there are too many drummers whose work is of a rough-and-ready variety and whose technical proficiency suffers in comparison with that of the players of other instruments.\u201d It\u2019s hard not to imagine Stone creating his masterpiece with a series of deep sighs, hoping to buttress the profession against scores of unkempt stick wielders. Even today, the phrase \u201crough-and-ready\u201d might be the most apt description of rock drummers ever coined.<\/p>\n

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Ted Reed\u2019s classic book Syncopation<\/em>, published in 1958, is the foundation of probably 80 percent of jazz-drum instruction in the United States. Rather than begin with some strategic advice, Reed starts with a hero\u2019s origin story of sorts. He describes working as a teacher in extremis, with a Herculean student load and an unimaginable schedule. His struggle to finish Syncopation <\/em>on the side becomes a metaphor for the creative life:<\/p>\n

I was teaching drums at the Hartnett Music School, located at 1585 Broadway in New York City. I gave 85 half-hour lessons each week and had approximately 55 students (some took two lessons week). I taught Monday through Friday, 9am to 2pm and 6pm to 10pm. In each half-hour lesson, I would listen to the student\u2019s last lesson and then write, demonstrate, explain and play with them on their new lesson. Since I could not find any books on syncopation, each lesson had to be written out individually.<\/p>\n

When I would get home at night, my hands and arms would ache as a result of having to do so much writing. It was then that I decided to write the lessons out on manuscript paper. I wrote every night from midnight to 4am, until I had a total of 60 pages. I had 200 copies of each page printed, which enabled me to hand whatever page was needed to a student\u2014no more writing out each lesson every time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The rest of the book is nothing but pages and pages of exercises; none specify which rhythms correspond to which drums, though there are a few suggestions. You\u2019d think this relative absence of instruction and explanation would mar the book\u2014instead, it probably helped transform Syncopation <\/em>into an unassailable classic. Many teaching careers have been built on a single page from it\u2014page thirty-eight, in my edition. Simply called \u201cExercise 1,\u201d it\u2019s a sequence of evolving rhythms based in permutations of displaced eighth notes that change bar to bar, while the kick drum never strays from a steady quarter-note pulse (also known as the \u201cfour on the floor\u201d beat common in disco and dance music). It seems as if its simplicity has created a vacuum into which a river\u00a0of pedagogical creativity flows. The book amounts to a Rosetta stone for a certain common jazz-drumming style. Probably every drummer you\u2019ve ever loved has worked out of it. It\u2019s still, somehow, up-to-the-minute current. In the April 2017 issue of Modern Drummer<\/em> (the profession\u2019s oldest trade magazine\u2014and there\u2019s that word modern <\/em>again), there\u2019s a feature outlining a new approach to that one page from Syncopation<\/em>. It suggests that drum literature can, at the same time, suffer from a serious lack of creativity and a seemingly infinite expandability.<\/p>\n

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If Syncopation <\/em>and Stick Control <\/em>are the urtexts of drumming, then what about the more obscure, obtuse, handmade texts? A lot of the wildest method books are self-published, often by extremely accomplished musicians whom you\u2019ve never heard of. Not long ago a friend lent me Polyrhythmic Training for Two Drummers<\/em>, a bizarre, spiral-bound method book by one Randy Peterson. It includes some provocative and extremely complex ideas for two drummers. Each page contains two blindingly intricate patterns that two players are expected to execute together\u2014an approach to drumming that goes beyond practical application into a kind of postmodern fantasy. The patterns are \u201cplayable,\u201d but penetrating them would probably take years of study, even though the book is only about twenty-five pages. My friend sat for a single lesson with the author. As they went over the concepts, Peterson corrected the typos in the pamphlet by hand. He wrote a couple of questions beneath some exercises, including, \u201cIs it useful to even talk about a rhythmic continuum?\u201d<\/p>\n

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From Randy Peterson\u2019s Polyrhythmic Training<\/i>. Photo: Noah Hecht<\/p><\/div>\n

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Photo: Zach Lehrhoff<\/p><\/div>\n

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From Inner Drumming<\/i>. Photo: Zach Lehrhoff<\/p><\/div>\n

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Meanwhile, the Bay Area\u2019s George Marsh recently reissued Inner Drumming<\/em>, which fuses Tai Chi and yoga with Marsh\u2019s own oddly compelling graphic notation: it kind of looks like a cross between Mondrian and Cubism. The original, self-produced masterpiece, which was only available directly from the author, contains illustrations of Marsh himself: a bearded, balding, bespectacled drummer shod in Birkenstocks straight out of central casting for the Summer of Love. (Online, Marsh can be found explaining his approach in brilliant tie-dye<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

On a recent visit to Toronto, I was introduced to the work of Jim Blackley. Now a nonagenarian, Blackley is a Scottish-Sufi snare-drum champion who had a revelatory experience when he saw the Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet in the midfifties: in a flash, he recognized the parallels between the Scottish snare playing he\u2019d mastered and the jazz innovations of Roach. Blackley\u2019s books are unique in the literature, filled with Sufi-inspired wisdom and some evocative lines. This one is from the introduction to his Essence of Jazz Drumming<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The only reason for devoting yourself to a life of jazz performance must come from a sincere need from within. You must feel deeply from within your heart that this is the path you wish to follow. A decision based on any other reason is fraught with danger.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His Syncopated Rolls for the Modern Drummer\u00a0<\/em>(the title is an amazing recombination of the method-book clich\u00e9s) contains marginalia like \u201cBeing a musician means being part of a total experience\u2014no winning, no losing.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also this politically incorrect tangent, from the educator Charles Dowd\u2019s A\u00a0Funky Primer for the Rock Drummer<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The Afro-Cuban influence on rhythmic development has increased with the passage of time to the point where contemporary man is now able to experience rhythms of a higher degree of complexity than ever before. In a sense, the timeless rhythmic virtuosos of Africa have \u201cturned on\u201d drumming in the Western world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Photo: Hannah Nichols<\/p><\/div>\n

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Perhaps the strangest drum method book in the mainstream is Bob Moses\u2019s Drum Wisdom<\/em>, released by Modern Drummer Publications (an offshoot of the magazine) in 1984. Moses, who now goes by\u00a0Ra-kalam Bob Moses, is a legendary figure among jazz drummers; a professor at the New England Conservatory, he\u2019s rumored to give eight-hour lessons that leave students reeling. A friend of mine said he was introduced to more concepts in a single lesson with Moses than he could digest in a lifetime. To my surprise, then, Drum Wisdom <\/em>contains almost no exercises. Instead, it meditates on the metaphysical aspects of drumming; Moses attempts to codify the experience <\/em>of playing drums, and he\u2019s not afraid to reach for it:<\/p>\n

Very little in real life is metronomically even. A tree has an organic shape, and I can play that shape on the drums. I can play like a bear moving, like a bird flying, or like children rolling in the grass \u2026 I could play like the ocean on \u201cStella By Starlight\u201d: I might be an avalanche on \u201cAll The Things You Are\u201d; I could soar like an eagle on \u201cBlue Bossa.\u201d I must caution that I don<\/em>\u2019t recommend this type of playing for everyone. <\/em>[Emphasis mine.]\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Likewise, Martin Bradfield\u2019s Drumming: The Forest and the Trees<\/em>\u2014a spiral-bound, homespun volume filled with clip art, personal anecdotes, and philosophical musings\u2014uses fully half of its sixty pages to define Bradfield\u2019s logical and even religious groundings. Coming from a Judeo-Christian background, he advocates for a kind of squareness: \u201cI can\u2019t help but notice,\u201d he writes, \u201cthat a lot of the hardcore avant-garde players seem very unhappy, in print, in pictures, and in person. There seems to be a certain sense of bitterness in their tones \u2026 To be constantly criticized by the establishment, to be constantly battling the norm, must be a very defensive and lonely struggle. Because they reject the establishment<\/em>\u2019s<\/em> criteria for excellence, it is highly likely that any criticism would be taken personally<\/em> rather than objectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo: Hannah Nichols<\/p><\/div>\n

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From The Forest and the Trees<\/i>. Photo: Hannah Nichols<\/p><\/div>\n

*<\/p>\n

Is there any decent advice to be found in these texts, exercises notwithstanding? Yes, occasionally. Maybe because drummers deal in machinelike rhythms, they\u2019re at their most lucid when they\u2019re direct and programmatic. One of the simplest and most brilliant introductions belongs to Peter Erskine, who opens his 1987 Drum Concepts and Techniques<\/em> in giant, bold, capital type:<\/p>\n

THE DRUMS ARE ONE INSTRUMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

DRUMSET = YOU<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the second line. You are not here to conquer the drums. Have compassion for yourself and make sure your setup complements your body and the sound. Take as much time as you need to find a comfortable setup; don\u2019t just sit down and bash away mindlessly.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s one newer book I want to single out: Lisa Ann Schonberg\u2019s DIY Guide to Drums<\/em>. First, the presence of women in the method-book world, as in the drumming world more widely, is sorely lacking. The DIY Guide <\/em>was created in 2001 as a pamphlet that Schonberg could sell on tour. Her guide is great for true beginners: the impenetrable morass of most method books is swept away by her approachable illustrations and clear explanations of basic concepts. I could even imagine a beginner picking this book up and using it, without an instructor, to become an excellent utility drummer. An illustrative, hand-lettered passage goes like this:<\/p>\n

Buy a drum kit. You can get one for $300-400. The brand isn\u2019t real important\u2014just put good heads on yr drums! But if you have the $, old<\/u> 60s & 70s Ludwig & Gretsch kits are sweet<\/u>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Can you see the difference? At last, you\u2019re speaking to a human, instead of a robot, a showman, a pretentious virtuoso, or a guru. Books like Schonberg\u2019s are far too rare in music instruction\u2014they actually make learning an instrument seem fun<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The student musician\u2019s lot is a lonely one. Often these books are your only companions, outside of occasional meetings with an instructor. You hunger for some kind of contact, some wisdom beyond the mind-numbing exercises. Sometimes it feels as if you\u2019re only engaging with the slog of the process instead of the transcendence that comes with deeper practice. These books are the key to understanding music as something beyond performance; at their best, they activate the empathy essential to collaborating with an ensemble. We\u2019re all kind of insane to do this work. The justifications in method books, whether they\u2019re awkwardly or fluently phrased, illuminate the practice and its practitioners\u2014they point beyond the bandstand, maybe into the tangle of stories musicians tell ourselves daily to stay the course.<\/p>\n

Thank you to Brian Chase, Adam Budofsky, Jamie Douglass, Todd Bishop<\/a><\/em>, Bob Sweet, Hannah Nichols, Noah Hecht and others for help and recommendations for this article. <\/em><\/p>\n

John Colpitts is a drummer, composer and writer who lives in Brooklyn. Writers and poets interested in drum lessons should contact him through <\/em>johnwilliamcolpitts.com<\/a>. His new Man Forever album <\/em>Play What They Want<\/a>\u00a0is released today on Thrill Jockey.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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