Metronomicon

To metronome, or not to metronome? Is there a question? Everyone thinks he has great meter. Well, this thing will test you, prove you're wrong, then help you get better. For the last three months I've been working on one of the most difficult drum pieces I've ever tried to learn and this humble little appliance has been an invaluable assistant/slave driver the whole time. Actually, I use a pair of isolation headphones with a built in metronome, but that's beside the point. The salient bit here is: this tool will help you improve. Here are a couple of things to try with your little clicky friend. Set it to play a quarter note and solo against it. Then set it to play a half note and solo against it. Then set it to play a whole note and solo against it. Next, set it to play a quarter note and solo against it, but play so that the click is on your "e", "and", or "a". Next, imagine your telephone number is a string of note groupings, i.e. 737-4279 (by the way that's not my number so don't call it). Set your metronome to play a slow quarter note and play those groups against it as tuplets. That number would be: septuplet, triplet, septuplet, quadruplet, duplet, septuplet, novuplet. 'Taint easy my friend. Okay, one more thing. Any clock with a second hand is a great metronome. Of course you're stuck playing at 60 bpm or 120, but who cares? It's still a great way to waste time at work.

More On That

In my last post, "Strictly Need To Know", I talked about a teacher who I think is doing his student a disservice. Well, this subject is eating at me and I just can't let go of it. I'm talking about teachers who seem to have some codified, age-old methodology that they believe is the one and only true way to teach a subject. Frankly, that concept makes me sick. I have a student who also takes piano lessons. When his mom told the piano teacher that I was teaching her son to play drumset, he said that's ridiculous, I should be starting him out on snare drum and I should be teaching him rudiments. Well... first off, what the hell does a piano teacher think he's doing telling me how to teach percussion? Second, who says there's one way to teach? As I study modern education theory (and yes, by the way, I am currently studying education theory) it is more and more apparent that the best way to teach is by getting students interested, engaged, and participating in the learning experience. That said, I can't think of a kid in the world who wants to play drums, that thinks it would be great to play rudiments for the next six months. However, if I can get a kid to play drums in a way that he thinks is fun, I'll bet I can get him to play some rudiments in the process. Why does a kid want to play drums? Probably because he thinks it looks like fun. If it isn't fun will he keep trying to learn it? Probably not. If it is fun will he keep doing it? Probably. The kids in the picture I put with this post are from my summer percussion camp. They're playing with their teacher and a full band in front of an entire church congregation. Do you think they're having fun? I know they had a blast. They're nine years old. They didn't know what a paradiddle is, but they played them and they had fun doing it. Now they know paradiddles.

Strictly Need To Know?

Last year I gave a clinic at the junior high school of one of my students. One of the drummers there was intrigued by the notion of 7/8 time. Now they are both in high school. My student (a girl) is the percussion section leader in her high school symphonic band and the student who was intrigued by 7/8 (a boy) is playing snare drum in the marching band. My student told me that the boy came to her the other day and said he just can't get that 7/8 thing down. It turns out he has a marching band piece in 7/8 and asked my student to help him out with it, which she did. I asked her if the boy was taking drum lessons and she said he is, but his teacher didn't feel that learning odd time signatures was important just now. There seems to be a school of thought among some drum teachers that the focus needs to be on rudiments and grooving before anything else. I could not disagree more and, at least in this case, it's apparent that understanding 7/8 time is extremely important if this kid is going to be able to play the piece his band director wants him to learn. Certainly a teacher needs to focus on rudiments and grooving, but it's just as important that a teacher teach music theory. Furthermore, I believe that it's extremely important for a teacher to teach what a student is interested in. This kid was intrigued by the concept of 7/8 time. Well, for god's sake use it! You've grabbed a kid's interest, that's a magnificent thing. If he's interested he'll think and try. If you squash that interest there's a good chance you'll loose him forever. Besides, who says you can't teach rudiments and grooving in 7/8? Be contemporary, be creative, be attentive, and tailor your teaching to the student's individual interests and characteristics. No two students learn the same way. Hell, I thought that was basic education theory. I'm inclined to think that kid needs a new teacher.

Drum Charts

I was playing a piece for some folks today and I realized they had no clue what was going on., so I showed them the chart and started to explain what was happening in a certain measure. One of them asked what key signiture the chart was in, and I explained that it's not in a key signiture because it's a drum chart. then he asked if it was some kind of tab. On further investigation, I discovered these fellows had no idea that there is such a thing as drum music, and one of them is a drummer! This is not the first time I've run across this situation. There seems to be a common misconception that you can't write down music for the drumset. Well, you can. The example I've added here is from a song called Time To Kill with drummer Bill Bruford. The top line represents hi-hat/cymbal, the middle space is for the the snare drum, the bottom space is bass drum, everything else is a tom-tom. Notes and rests are the same as any other music.