Percussion Deconstruction™

OK, I'm back… I'll try not to sound like the old man here, but younger drummers often don't realize how good they have it when it comes to studying and learning drums. Back in my day (yeah, I'm that old), when I was a young aspiring drummer, I had school band, private drum lessons, and once in a while was able to see a live band. That was it. That's all I had to learn drums from. Today, the choices are much broader and more accessible. Besides school band and private lessons, there are: Drum videos/DVDs/downloads Podcasts Cable/satellite TV Hundreds of books Bazzilions of recordings And that window to the world, the internet As both a teacher, and an ongoing student (I will always be a student), I take advantage of all the above. It's amazing how much information is out there. If I want to see a video of X drummer, I can probably find one, or more. How do you do that Moeller Stroke ? There's all sorts of videos on the web shot at every possible...

O n March 10, 2011, I tentatively put out the 1st blog post of Percussion Deconstruction ™. I had no real plan except to talk about something I knew and loved deeply: percussion. I wanted to tackle the subjects the often were ignored, or fell through the cracks in other writing about percussion. I've always been a sort of rebel/misfit in my musical and artistic life, so the blog carries on with those same ideas.  The 1st post was entitled, The Death of the Drum Set . Upon rereading it, I still feel much the same way. While there are some true innovators out there, too much of what I hear is just the same old drumming recycled over and over. Trust me, I'm not anti drum set. I'm just bored with so many people taking the easy road and copying their heroes, instead of finding their own creative path. If you were to take a look at my iTunes music playlist, you would see heavy doses of both '60s pop music, and '70s hard rock. While I love listening to both, I ...