Drum Arabesque Communique: #4
I've been playing Cajon more than
Darbuka lately, band practice with my band Iron Dwarf has been
excellent, the more I relax into the music the better I get,
prolonged drum rolls now flowing with much greater ease than ever
before. I thought it was about confidence. Confidence is something
that you build up, just like you build up skill, and so, the better
one's skill, the corresponding confidence should make musicianship
profoundly stable and reliable. But that's not the case is it?
Somehow, the greater the skill, the
more teetering the vertigo is from atop that assumed height.
I think that somewhere there is a
plateau where one's concern for the imagined outcome is no longer
relevant to the music. When one's concern falls away, the real skill
can stretch unburdened by thinking. Drum rolls flowing with much
greater ease, nine beat gypsy limping finally feeling like skipping
dancing and that tightness in my chest is gone as if it never were,
and my shoulders no longer hunch up as I play faster, but rather each
beat lets me sink further into a state of unconcerned attentiveness.
Still passionate, still involved, still all the good things of music,
but without the fear of falling. Without doubt my qualities make
themselves know to me...
Igor Stravinski said Music restores
order from Chaos, in particular, the relationship of man to time.
Tangled up in our
ideas and feelings about time, how powerful are our expectations?
Anna Enquist, in
her book Counterpoint, says this:
Music taught you strange things
about time. Music transported you outside time, produced a state in
you where there was not yet a question of time. Music filled you to
such an extent that watches no longer ticked. Yet there was no
medium that indicated the passing of time so exactly. Music
synchronised the strokes of rowers, could make soldiers march in step
effortlessly, let two thousand people in a concert hall breathe at
the same moment. And music referred to her own silence because in
every beginning an ending was announced. Despite the sorrow of the
announced conclusion you longed for the unfolding of the melody, for
the harmonies slipping by, even for the cursed ending. A puzzle.
I would like to
share some music with you.
First, The
Mexican, by Iron Dwarf. I share this one because it has some
interesting timing changes that would serve as good drum practice
just listening to it. It's a fast and furious instrumental piece.
Second, a snippet
of my Saturday afternoon practice. I have been working on routine
patterns a lot in drumming. Play a rhythm through, make a variation,
return to the root, then play a second variation, then return to the
root and back again. This rhythm is a heavy variant on the Nau Ashta
9/8 rhythm.
Third is a demo recording of new song I'm still developing on Ukulele. It's
currently called HayAllah, for obvious reasons. When you
listen to this song, keep your ears open for a melody that follows
the HayAllah pattern, it will make for a good practice to drum along
with this one. Also, I think this might be the best thing I've ever done on uke.
And last but not least, a short video from your gig at the psychic fair.
So there you have
it.
Also, if you don't
already know about it, my new blog, Letters to Cicero (and my other
dead friends) is off to a strong start. So if you're into the
ancient world, or writing letters to ghosts, check it out.
Also Also, check
out Matt Stonehouse on Facebook. He has been posting little videos
for his frame drum classes in Victoria. He's one of my drum heroes.
DoumDoumDoum-tekaTek-kaTek-kaTekka
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