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Keeping It Simple

by Todd London

As a drumset teacher, I get a lot of questions from my students. One of the questions I get asked most often is, "How can I learn to play less?" My usual wise guy answer is to simply say, "Well, don't play so much".

However, this a very serious issue facing many drummers and deserves a better answer than a wisecrack. In order to respond intelligently to this question, it's important to understand the origin of the question. If you are like me as a drum student, you have probably spent countless hours working on coordination and independence studies that require you to play unusual and often highly complicated combinations of notes. In other words, you've spent a lot of time learning to play "busy" rather than simple. Thus, when the time comes to play "simple" grooves and patterns, you have a rather deficient vocabulary. This deficiency leads to a confidence crisis and, ultimately, causes you to question your playing skills. It is at this point that you (the student) come to me (the teacher) with questions about learning to play "simple". Let's examine some ways to answer this question.

1. Learning to play less requires good listening skills. You must be able to hear more than just your part. Develop ensemble listening skills; learn to hear the whole group and the relationships between the different parts. This type of listening will help diminish the tendency to play too many notes.
2. Learning to play less requires disciplined practice. You cannot hope to be able to play simple grooves with conviction if you don't practice them. One of the suggestions I often give my students is to practice very simple, uncluttered grooves for extended periods of time without variation. This is a very difficult task. Try it and you will discover how much discipline and restraint it requires to play this way.
3. Learning to play less requires trust in your internal clock. One of the reasons we often play too much is because of a lack of confidence in our time-keeping abilities. As drummers we want to hear all the subdivisions of the beat. Develop good time-keeping skills and let space become your friend.
4. Learning to play less requires trust in your fellow musicians. You must have confidence in the timekeeping abilities of the other musicians in your group. If you don't trust them to keep good time, you will overplay in an effort to "keep things together".
5. Learning to play less requires you to "know" the musicians in your group. It is very important to learn about the other musicians in your group. Find out who and what they listen to, who inspires them, and who doesn't move them as musicians. Discover their tendencies as players and their strengths and weaknesses. Find out what they like to hear from the drummer.
6. Learning to play less requires you to serve the music and not your ego. One of the hardest things to learn as a player is how to serve the music. You must learn to take pride in the sound of the group, not in the sound of the hot licks coming from your hands and feet. Music-making is not a competitive enterprise; it is a collective effort on the part of a group of people to create something meaningful.
7. Learning to play less requires study. Listen to the master drummers in all styles of music. Discover how they serve the music and emulate them. Eventually, your own style and approach will begin to surface.

I want to offer a couple of exercises to help in this process of learning to play less. The first exercise is designed to increase your level of discipline in groove playing. Play each of the patterns for one minute with no variation whatsoever. Gradually increase the time you play each groove so that you eventually are playing each pattern for five minutes without variation. The second set of exercises is designed to improve your time-keeping skills by teaching you to internalize the time. By decreasing the frequency of the click track beat subdivisions, you learn to rely on your internal clock to keep good time. Also, you become more comfortable with space and are less likely to overplay. Happy practicing!

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About the Author

Since 1994, Todd London has served on the percussion faculty of Belmont University's School of Music as an adjunct instructor of percussion. From 1997 until 2001, Mr. London also served as the percussion area coordinator and was instrumental in the creation of the Belmont Percussion Ensemble. Currently, Mr. London is teaching private applied commercial percussion. Mr. London received his Master of Music in Percussion Performance from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor of Music in Commercial Music from Belmont University. A versatile musician, Mr. London is an active performer in the Nashville area. His performance skills run the gamut of musical styles, and Mr. London is equally at ease in both commercial and classical musical settings. His performance credits include such diverse names as CCM artist Jeni Varnadeau, country artist Charly McClain, jazz artists The Barber Brothers, and the classically-oriented Nashville Chamber Ensemble. In addition to his performing activities, Mr. London is also an active composer. He has recently composed the music for two children's ballets performed by the Nashville Ballet and is currently at work on new music for percussion ensemble. Since 1996, Mr. London has been part of an Emmy award-winning production team whose compositions appear regularly on programs such as Guiding Light and As The World Turns.