STEWART COPELAND

Last night played an open mic blues jam. took forever to rotate people in, and for other reasons, arrived at the drumkit peeved. My drum instructor made the point that attitude is a huge part of the feel in your drum playing; well, i played mad. Not wild, but i beat the tar out of the groove. And people dug it, it was entertaining. Usually too mellow, too diffident, the groove isn't that good.

Has anyone else played with emotional state in their groove? to what end?

I'm still working on keeping my paradiddles to the 90 bpm click. I would say right now my attitude is "stressed".

Stewart told us in Everyone Stares "Break a smile, dude" so we should all remember to just relax and have a good time while drumming...

Hit hard, keep in time, and above all else, have fun!
As Stewart said on Storage Wars,
when you thwack that snare drum it should be able to bring a bird down out of the sky.

ltwoman wrote:I'm still working on keeping my paradiddles to the 90 bpm click. I would say right now my attitude is "stressed".

Calm, relaxed, fun.
Maybe its like the force. The angry way leads to the dark side, with gains, but at a cost. Calm and centered is the Jedi way...

Self-censure and diffidence are what kill me, you can hear it so clearly and, not good.

Self-censure, thinking too much, restraining- what for? Beat the shit out of them, enjoy it! Yes yes yes, there are of course times and places where you need to play appropriately, at appropriate levels. But my overwhelming reasons behind playing are for the pure enjoyment it brings to me. If I'm able to show that, the other musicians pick up on it- you collectively enjoy it better and create a better product, which then ups the enjoyment for the crowd. This is an upward spiral because now the crowd is showing you the love, and as musicians we feed off that, and up the ante so to speak. Wash/rinse/repeat.

If I arrive at my drums pissed off for whatever reason, it's a rarity that once I sit down and play that I remain angry. It melts away soon after the music begins. Drumming is therapeutic.

Spec A! wrote:If I arrive at my drums pissed off for whatever reason, it's a rarity that once I sit down and play that I remain angry. It melts away soon after the music begins. Drumming is therapeutic.

I totally know what you mean. Same. I was laughing after the first song, it felt so good to get it out. but tried to keep that same drive/energy/confidence going!

Some of the best performances I've seen came out of really pissed off musicians. Same goes for writing, painting, dance -- sometimes emotion can choke off your energy or creativity, but other times it can loosen up and/or fuel it.

Be careful of advice from Spec, though, dneckels. He's famous for 2 things: supreme talent and breaking gear.

ANTHONY SMASH!

I play African drums... and my teacher told me to relax the arm to play

I have nothing to say except dneckels, your current avatar may be one of my favorites ever

Also you should hear my great nephew Matthew bang away on my SC snare every time he comes over to the house. The first thing he always begs me to do is to go to the basement and play my kit. Talk about bringing birds down from the sky, this kid is like 6 and would do Keith Moon proud!

sockii wrote:I have nothing to say except dneckels, your current avatar may be one of my favorites ever

Also you should hear my great nephew Matthew bang away on my SC snare every time he comes over to the house. The first thing he always begs me to do is to go to the basement and play my kit. Talk about bringing birds down from the sky, this kid is like 6 and would do Keith Moon proud!

Thanks sockii, thats a really cool compliment! Tell the nephew to keep it up! At some point you start trying to be all musical and quieter, more tasteful... but is that really a good thing? Hope he sticks with it.

DirtyMartini wrote:Be careful of advice from Spec, though, dneckels. He's famous for 2 things: supreme talent and breaking gear.

ANTHONY SMASH!

Yes, DirtyMartini, i saw the youtube vids, pretty talented. Haven't seen the breaking, but sounds fun.
Any angry musician stories?

I'm a painter, not a musician, and it's a different thing...(painting wears me right out, actually, which seems strange but you have to concentrate to do portraiture - if you wanna get a likeness of someone, anyway.)

Angry painting. You get to make a mess.

I saw a clinic in boulder with vinnie and carmen appice. they were drumming very close.
As soon as they started playing it was like they were different people. It was like this sort of cocky,
cool badness in their attitude. I just don't think their playing would sound they same if they didn't put
that persona on.....
Glad you like the Avatar J
Yeah, painting is probably different. Drum teachers point was that attitude yeilds feel with drums especially cause you're hitting things....
thanks for all the comments.

Divemistress of the Dark wrote:I'm a painter, not a musician, and it's a different thing...(painting wears me right out, actually, which seems strange but you have to concentrate to do portraiture - if you wanna get a likeness of someone, anyway.)

Angry painting. You get to make a mess.

i would like painting but i am bad!!!