Grace, creativity, composition. One would need many more words to adequately describe Max Roach’s solo playing. One of the absolute all times greats - he would be on drumming’s Mount Rushmore if there as such a thing. To my students - watch this intently, then watch it again. Required viewing that will vastly improve your soloing if you take some pointers from the great Mr. Roach.
ENGINEERING NOTE: This performance was recorded with a single overhead mic.
We’re not “just” drummers, we are musicians first. That is what I preach every week. Focusing on creativity during the pandemic has given us a bit of an opportunity to incorporate new sounds and new approaches into our playing that we might not have thought of before.
Lately I have been working on incorporating a couple of electronic elements into my set up, and the initial results have been very interesting. Here I used a Roland Handsonic and a Boss RC1 looping pedal to create a live loop that I could improvise over. By creating the loop live, I can build in some space so that the loop does not feel metronomically rigid. More of this kind of experimentation to come. (Best experienced with some good headphones!)
It is helpful to consider the question of why practice everyday, and why work so hard on technique and hand speed and dexterity? The answer is pretty simple. When the performance arrives, as a drumset artist you do not want to spend energy or time or concentration on how your hands and feet are going to work together. All those practice hours train your hands what to do.
All that training gives the performer freedom to simply be creative on the drumset and have a more effective communication with the audience. Any time spent thinking about how your hands work during a show is robbing the audience of something potential magical, which is the connection between performer and audience.
For those of you playing along at home….here you go! This challenge included 7 stroke rolls and also there were a couple of “odd” groupings of single 5s and single 7s in there to keep you on your toes.
Next time, we break rhythms up around the drum set. First the video, then the score:
Thanksgiving is approaching, and as grooveKSQ enters its third year (already!), there are many things and people to be thankful for:
The students, who work hard to get better every week, and come up with interesting ideas for material to develop;
The parents, for supporting the students, bringing them to and from lessons, and reminding the students to practice;
The donors who have made financial contributions to assist in carrying out grooveKSQ’s programming; and
The business partners who have sponsored events, or have participated in projects with us.
THANK YOU ALL, without this tremendous growing community, none of our programming would happen. There are big plans for 2021 that I will share with you in the coming weeks. Until then, I hope that you all stay safe during this challenging time.
John Evans, principal timpanist, is in his thirtieth season with The Naples Philharmonic Orchestra. He received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from The Ohio State University and a Master of Music degree from Temple University, where he was a student of Alan Abel, former associate principal percussionist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
This is a great conversation that contains many lessons for aspiring professionals.