“Be yourself, everyone else is taken.” Oscar Wilde
Speak with clarity and confidence on the drums and in life! Music and life is all about communicating your ideas, so let’s develop some tools to use everyday. To put yourself out there just as you authentically are means you will be vulnerable, but ironically it’s great vulnerability that makes great art. The urge we all have in common to blend into the crowd and not get noticed is left over from our ancient ancestors, from a time when sticking out would get you killed by that sabre toothed tiger on the savanna. Evolution of our brains has not caught up with our fast developing modern world, so we must use habits to fight this deep seated urge. Once you stretch out of your comfort zone and get used to being your unique self, this will become your new norm.
The Kanye factor
Let’s look at the original Kanye West. The man has a line in a song that says ‘I am a God’… now that’s confidence! Let’s call it the Kanye meter, and Kanye is always at 100%. Now, if I ever show up at a show and proclaimed ‘I am the god of drums’ this would be way too much. But what I notice in so many drummers, and this would go for any field, is most will stay where it’s safe, wearing the mask of another. You’ve got to have a bit of swagger! (And have moves like… nevermind) All our drum heroes had this in common, to be unabashedly themselves. John Bonham, Stewart Copeland, Tony Williams, Keith Moon. It’s always a vulnerable, lonely place to be yourself. What if you’re laughed at? Who am I to out my own art out there, alongside my heroes? We all feel like that, scared we’ll be found out to be a fraud. But life won’t wait, and we need your ideas and creativity that’s all your own… use your Kanye factor!
The Bernard factor
There’s a story about the great Bernard Purdie, when he recorded with Steely Dan. While setting up his drums in the studio, beside the drums he propped up two signs on either side. One sign said “You Done It”. The other, “You Done Hired The Hit Maker, Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie”. Find your own ways to be bold and audacious. Go big!
Bernard does not have the facility of many others drummers like Vinnie Colaiuta or Terry Bozzio, but he does Bernard Purdie REALLY WELL. That’s the key, and since we only have one lifetime to delve into the deep ocean of this instrument, it must become your mission to get really good at just a few things. What’s your ‘superpower’, in life and drums? What’s your passion? What were you put here to do? Don’t add, but DELETE, use simplicity and minimalism to go from good at many things to being great at just a few things. Hold outyour thumbs in the air right now… yes right now! Look at your fingerprints, and remember there are literally no other fingerprints like that in all the billions of people on this planet. This is YOUR voice, a voice the world needs to hear! Life is short, so remember: don’t die with your music still inside you.
