THE MUSIC

As a musician and performer, I have vivid memories of practice rooms, rehearsal spaces, and stages large and small, bright and dim, organized and chaotic… and all things in between. I always tried to bring a positive, energetic vibe to all of them when playing drums or percussion.

Hitting drums brought pure joy, even when the written music in front of me seemed confusing, difficult and hard to diffuse a meaning from. I tried to look upon small sections of a piece of music as part of a larger picture, or part of a larger work of art.

I considered my role in any ensemble in much the same way. What can I do to support the music? How can I listen and hear all that is going on around me and add to it, while not losing the musical intentions of the composer? Those questions were constantly flowing through my subconscious as my brain and limbs did the work together. A bit of volume change here, a splash of color in the form of a tom tom or gentle cymbal punch there, a touch of interpretation of the written tempo to push the ensemble a bit ahead of the beat, or, in reverse, for a laid back effect. If you are not a musician, I challenge you to stretch you ears the next time you listen to a piece of music made and played by humans and not computers by trying what I suggest below:

There are a few ways that the music can illustrate a “feel.” What I mean here is, try to listen to the percussion. This will be easiest to try on a rock or pop tune….as long as it’s being played by a human and not a machine.

Tap your hand along with the steady beat of the song (steady beat Gerry….subject, a subject, each fugue has a subject). Feel the pulse of the music, almost like you would feel a heartbeat. See if you can keep your hand going (or foot) until you are playing right along with the music. Now for the fun part:

Does the music seem like it wants to speed up? In drum world, we call that ‘playing slightly ahead of the beat’

Does the music seem like it’s slowing down just a bit? Almost like an old tape being played just as the batteries start to lose juice….not all at once, but instead….just….a…bit….slow. This is known as playing ‘behind’ the beat.

Did I lose you? Do not fret. It’s quite difficult to describe and feel if you have never sat at a drum kit and played. There are ways to hear this, and I’ll share a few examples in a moment*, but playing ahead or behind the beat is also an interesting way to look at how I live life. In fact, rehearsing and performing music is the way I live life.

Life is the whole piece. The full composition….in order. One time through. Do not stop. You will make mistakes, but the piece is still playing, so you can’t go back and fix the wrong notes like you can at a music rehearsal. You can’t even play your music twice. You get to play it from measure one until the end and your piece is different than anyone who ever lived before you, during your time, or the people who come after you. How amazing is that?

Of course you don’t decide the beginning of your piece…..mom and dad take care of that. The rest of the music is up to you. The color of each measure, the tempo of each and every phrase, as well as sections that you decide to play ahead of the beat, right smack on the beat, or a little bit behind the beat….it’s all you. Every. Single. Note.

Music is also structured by form. Just as in poetry, we call the first main section of a piece the ‘A’ section. When the music changes into a different set of chords, or new instruments are brought in, we call this the ‘B’ section. We can add letter C and beyond, but too much new stuff in one piece sounds like it’s something entirely different, so the majority of composers stick to A, B, and C for their sections.

So, your music is played from beginning to end with no stops, but it also contains repeats: you go to school more than one day, you work more than one day, etc. Perhaps your ‘A’ goes on for years, followed by B, with a sprinkling of A mixed through again….career change or marriage could be C, and so on and so forth. See? You’re always composing, making each section play through as you tick off the notes and measures until you get to the double bar line. A bar line in music represents the end of each measure, while the double bar line signals the end.

The vast majority of us do not know what measure signifies the last one, nor do we usually know when it is coming. We simply live in the days, live in the measures, until the double bar line shows up.

Finally, in music, material added on to the end of a piece is called a coda. In life, other people write your coda and stick it after the double bar line, with directions on how to get to that part of the music. The piece might say ‘D.C. al coda’, which means to play from measure one (da capo- DC) and then jump to the coda measures when delineated in the music with words saying ‘to coda.’ Perhaps this is your celebration where people do a slide show of your highlight measures, share stories, and gather as a group one last time to discuss your entire piece. You composed it, you own it.

Without realizing it, you are publishing it each and every day. What are you writing? As long as you make it interesting, many people will enjoy it. Keep playing.

Stay safe, stay awesome, and stay tuned.

*songs that are ‘ahead’ of the beat in the drum world: September (Earth, Wind, and Fire), I Think I’m in Love (Eddie Money), Go Your Own Way (Fleetwood Mac). Listen to the drums on these tunes as they ‘push’ the tempo ahead and almost feel as though the song wants to rush or speed up….but it doesn’t.

*songs that are ‘behind’ the beat in the drum world: Lights (Journey), When the Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin), Back In Black (AC/DC). Focus your ear on the drums and you will feel the song ‘dragging’ a bit.