Practicing musically, approaching the task like a musician and not an athlete, working on music, not performance statistics. I’m struggling to write an introduction, so here are some things to think about, scattergun style: Dynamics, […]
Category: musicality
Other things besides speed
A lot of us have very limited imaginations about how to get better playing the drums— basically, do it faster and that’s it. There are other things— sound, dynamics, touch, a number of musical considerations. […]
Too perfect
Perfect and boring For a long time I thought robotic perfection was basically impossible to achieve for people not practicing massive hours… so you may as well just try your best to achieve it. Lately, […]
Ornamentation overdose
This has been going on a long time. Another entry in the ongoing real-world musical saga I call “Music didn’t suddenly get good when a lot of people learned how to play fast.” Let’s reminisce […]
Very occasional quote of the day: Ndugu on musicality
“I think a drummer’s success and notability are based on sensitivity as a musician—not as a drummer. I don’t even approach myself as a drummer. I’m an orchestrator. The drums are just the instrument I […]
Barry Altschul on playing melodically
This is an excerpt from a pretty amazing 1981 Modern Drummer article by Barry Altschul, in which he discusses the drummer’s relation to tunes, form, and melody, and playing melodically: It is […] the drummer’s […]
Interpretation and playing expressively
I hate long instructional videos, except when I don’t. Usually they go long because they underestimate their viewers’ knowledge, and get caught up in explaining WHAT IS A DRUM STICK and a lot of other […]