“Columbus Sailed West”

One of my pet peeves is when musicians take forever deciding what to play. As bad or worse is a group that takes the stage but hasn't discussed the content of their set or even tuned their instruments. I once played in situation where I was able to set up my entire drum kit in less time than it took the front line to decide what tune to start with! I was shocked to say the least. 

So what's this got to do with Christopher Columbus? The famed explorer’s plan had a bit more to it, but Columbus's basic idea was to sail west rather than east. Simple plan, profound results. So even a plan with as little meat on it as “Let’s go that way” kept them on track.

Another useful saying I picked up along the way is “Fail to plan and plan to fail”. Again, the plan doesn't have to be elaborate. Certainly an ambitious project that will take years to complete may need project management software, but deciding how to spend the next 10, 20 or 30 minutes should be a simple thing.

Planning applies to every facet of your musical life. Weather looks bad? Leave a bit early. Snare head is too worn? Take a spare, or maybe change it now. The band is sitting in for a short set?  Line up 4-5 tunes and get the guitars in tune before hitting the stage.

The same applies to your personal practice and band rehearsals. A rehearsal that lacks direction can be soul killing. Same with wood-shedding. Without a clear goal, the chances of achieving something worthwhile fall dramatically.

Aside from helping you appear more professional and generating warm feelings from management and audience, you'll find that your stress level will also drop when you know you're well prepared when you step on stage. And everyone will appreciate the effort:  audience, management, other musicians, agents.

How to Cure Drummer’s Block

When I was teaching college, I became very aware of something called writers block. It seems that as the due date for a term paper approaches, a number of students experience a brain freeze and will essentially forget how to put sentences together. Fortunately it usually disappears just as mysteriously the night before the paper is due.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that the students who got writers block simply didn't have anything to write about. And the reason they didn't have something to say was because they hadn't thought about the topic, nor had they done any research. It's pretty hard to write knowledgeably about something if you haven't learned anything about it or thought about it analytically and creatively.

Which brings me to creativity. Creativity comes out of synergy. It's the taking of something that is known (your ‘research’) and then doing something with it. A creative soloist will take the melody, the harmony, the rhythm, and even timbre and derive something new by adding in some of their accumulated knowledge. A great soloist will also incorporate tradition. This would not be possible if the player has not done the homework: practicing, studying, listening.

Your research also consists of learning the song, its various parts, your part, and perhaps the harmony. Listen for catchy or distinctive ideas. You might also listen to different versions and interpretations of the tune. You can even go the extra step and review the lyrics and perhaps look up a bit of history: What’s the song really about? How did the writer come to write it? What was the context? All of this will give you grist for your creative mill.

The next step, for the writer, is to organize the material and then start writing, and ideally that will result in multiple drafts as the ideas and writing evolve. So we too need to organize, analyse, synthesize, and apply our learning, and develop it further as we gain a better understanding of the music.

A great way to work on creative solutions is through mental practice. For example, I tend to write my blog articles almost completely in my head, and I'll mentally create two or three drafts before committing anything to paper. I do the same with tunes, mentally trying out parts that I think might work. And I’m always discovering something interesting.

As you build your store of musical knowledge and skill, you’ll find that the opportunities for creativity will explode, and that will cure your drummers block.

The Drum Yoda's Guide to The Classics

There are so many drum books available today that it’s easy to be confused by the range of choices. And new books seem to be arriving almost daily. But there are a few epochal books that really kicked things off for drummers the world over. What's even more impressive is that these often unassuming books can launch a whole new field of investigation with just a bit of creativity.

These, then, are the books that, for me, provided the most bang for my buck in the beginning and that continue to nurture my creativity years later.

Progressive Steps To Syncopation by Ted Reed This is just about all the reading chops anybody really needs. The book's forté is its logical layout. It starts out with the basics and then builds gradually from there, never introducing a concept prematurely -- as the title says, "progressive steps". You can find a lifetime's worth of study here.
Stick Control for the Modern Drummer by G. L. Stone May as well call this one the drummer's bible (and many drummers do). As well as providing a wealth of creative and useful stickings, the book also introduces rolls, rudiments, syncopation, polyrhythms, and more.  And it can be reinterpreted endlessly.
Modern Reading Text in 4/4 by Louie Belson & Gil Breines Reading, reading and more reading. While at first it seems like just a lot of snare lines, this book takes you step by step from quarter notes all the way to triplets and 32nd notes, with emphasis on syncopation. (Also available and recommended: Odd Time Reading Text.)
The Essence Of Jazz Drumming by Jim Blackley I admit that I'm a Blackley-ite, and a hard-core devotee of the man and his ideas. And with good reason. This is the only book I know of that pares jazz drumming down to its most basic and essential elements, and lays things out in a logical, easy-to-understand and musical plan for success. Even for a non-jazzer and the non-drummer, this is a must-have tome. (You can find a downloadable study guide to Jim’s book on my website.)
Advanced Techniques For The Modern Drummer by Jim Chapin What sets this work apart from virtually all books that preceded it is that it's a method for independence on the drum set. In a field once dominated by rudiments and snare etudes, a book for drum set players was welcome. Also for the first time (1948), the book incorporated musical lines and mixed phrasings.
The New Conception For Drums: The contemporary approach to jazz drumming, by Morris Lang Out of print and almost impossible to find, this one will get you moving around the drums like a pro. The concept is short fills and solos using all parts of the set, and the applications are universal. Well worth looking for (I foolishly sold mine in a fit of ‘decluttering’).