Re: First Contact (or, a drummer defends his breed).

[Eric Cook <ecook@conch.aa.msen.com>]

Here I was on the way to bed, and then...

On Wed, 20 Nov 1996 GregWest01@aol.com wrote:

> In reference to the asynchronous looping, I'd love to find a drummer who 
>can
> keep track of beats and time signatures without help (isn't that what a
> drummer's supposed to do--keep time?)

Ack!  Sorry for going off-"loop-topic", but this is a pet peeve:

One of the best drum teachers I ever had was a man named Cliff Davies.
During one of our first lessons together, Cliff looked me straight into
the eye and gave me one of the most valuable lessons I ever had about
drumming:  "The drummer does not keep time.  Many people -- many drummers
-- think this.  They're wrong.  Metronomes keep time.  If the people you
are playing with can't keep on beat and in time without you doing it for 
them,
you shouldn't be wasting your time playing with them.  They need a
metronome, not a drummer."

What he meant was not that a "real" drummer should play entirely free, or
in out time, or something like that.  Rather, a drummer should interact
with the beat, create a dialogue with it, emphasize certain parts,
de-emphasize others.  Dialogue and emphasis -- not "just" time keeping.


> But I've not found one yet who can
> play freely and creatively against a separate time signature or 
>polyrhythmic
> textures.

Ok, tomorrow I present to you all the alpha version of my "Drummers guide
to playing with Loops."  It's not really all that hard, though it did
take a little of a conceptual shift for me.


> just couldn't get used to it.  He felt too "exposed" by being out there 
>with
> no one else holding down the beat with him.  My concept was that the 
>drums
> create their own space while the loop makes a "context" for the events 
>that
> occur within its "domain."

Absolutely.  Did you explain it to him that way?

> It seems that drummers feel "naked" without a
> bass player or someone else keeping time with them.  (I'd think that 
>would be
> liberating!)

It is liberating.  I haven't played drums with a bass player in years.  I
don't miss it.


--Eric Cook                 ecook@mail.msen.com
  Gravitar-Guy              http://www.msen.com/~ecook/gravitar.html