I am a drummer and this weekend I finally have a set of drums again. If you hadn't guessed, it's a Pearl. It brought back some fun memories of high school and a few less interesting ones. I once went to a jazz festival when I was in school and attended a percussion workshop that was terrible. The instructor would bring students up on stage to play a little bit and then give them some tips on how to do it better. The problem was he kept asking students to play things that they had no idea how to play.
Some poor kid went up and the guy wanted to him to do some fills. A short drum solo basically. The kid floundered. I could tell he was probably from a very structured program where technical drumming was drilled into his poor head. Creative expression through drums just wasn't something he could do. He could probably play you all the basic beats and styles but asking him to depart the norm was a stretch. That was the program, learn the core skills and worry about creativity later. It's not a bad way to do it, it's easier to paint with good brushes, if want an analogy. The sad thing was, that's all I could do...drum creatively.
I was called up to play some salsa beat thing. Now, it's an important style musically...I get that. As a session drummer it's just something you better know. I was not a session drummer. I was a high school kid that was self taught and in a very old school swing style jazz band. I floundered as well. It was horrible. He couldn't believe that I hadn't been taught the 'basic' beats. Well guess what:
IT'S NORTHERN MINNESOTA - WE DON'T SALSA HERE.
Seriously. If you go to college and start expanding your musical horizons then you can get all excited about salsa, Cubano, Brazilian beats. Fine. It's cool. They're interesting and fun to play apparently. Unless you live in Florida then nobody really cares except for other music majors. Jazz in northern Minnesota is big-band swing, the blues and classics like Miles Davis. That's what we know and what a kid without formal training is going to know.
In the end I think it's a sign of how people can get so wrapped up in their system they don't step back and realize that not everyone is in the same system. Perhaps you could have asked those poor kids what their stronger skills were before choosing crap at random that they may or may not have any experience with. At least I a got a free t-shirt.
THE CLUE OF THE DAY!
Alright. This weeks category is music!
Clue #1:
They changed the face of a major music style during the eighties and helped shed light on a growing problem in America.
3 comments:
Mmm...salsa. I salsa chips all the time.
I remember that drum guy. He was a d***.
Awww, man. I should be able to get this one, but it'll probably take me a few more clues. The bands I keep thinking of either didn't change the face of a major music style, weren't in the 80s, or they didn't help shed light on a growing problem in America.
It's NKOTB isn't it? They raised the growing problem of manufactured pop in America.
Although, they may have been early 90s.
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