Drumming and creativity: build your own world

Creativity in drumming and ways to express ourselves are possible to explore whatever our skills are: we do not need to lock in a room with a metronome for ten more years. Musical knowledge can be used to express our own ideas.

There is so much information, there are so many possibilities, and there are so many people drumming so well in very different styles, that it can be a bit overwhelming. The time dedicated to the instrument is precious and any comparison has to blur it. An instrument is a way to invest our time in finding new connections, possibilities and spaces that we haven´t visited before. Much better than scrolling social media.

We can be grateful we have so many drummers who can show us the way. Personally, I prefer people who have something to say. So many advanced drummers just play what it is supposed to play, with high technical skills but no personal emotions involved at all.

What do you like about the drummers you listen to? Try to identify what makes them effective, and patiently cultivate that in your own practice.

For example:

-Of Anika Nilles (whom many recently discovered after Rush’s announcement of a new tour where she will be drumming), I especially love her personal expression, made of accents and contrasts. And her musical sense to play, at a high drumming level where other people just show their advanced skills, regardless of whether the song needs them or not.

–Aric Improta blew my mind away with the way he pushes his creativity to the limits and thinks about the instrument out of the box.

-The drummer of this trio called Corto.Alto has a clear execution in every stroke and a huge humbleness to choose what he does (besides it is super complex).

-In this album of the English jazz fusion band GoGo Penguin, I really like the way the drumset creates different atmospheres with the combination of ostinatos at the cymbals and ghost notes at the snare drum.

And so on.

If you discover something that works for you and makes you feel like practicing, stay there, no matter what it is: a groove, a fill, a rudiment, or whatever. The world always will be running around you, and probably that reel with a complicated linear pattern impossible to fit in real situations is not what you need right now.

Studying technical stuff can be so much fun, but it’s even more fun applying it to help one’s own ideas grow.