In My Mind’s Zen Garden

While I’m on a role here with my ramblings regarding music, I might as well write another essay on the subject of music before I go to my gig tonight. Sort of a way to get my inspiration on for tonight’s performance.

Now, music obviously means many things to many people. It can be used to bring people to dance. It can inspire and uplift like gospel music. It can tell stories like country music.

I guess, when I think about music from a jazz or classical perspective, I think of instrumental (and vocal) music that uplifts one emotionally and maybe at an intellectual level as well.

Usually, when I perform music live with a band, I’m in situations where the music is rather fluid, and improvisational. It’s more challenging in a sense that you have to come up with something on the spot, at that precise moment, AND while interacting with other musicians who are doing the same thing… interacting with you and improvising yet keeping within a framework.

With jazz music, and with flamenco music (i’m finding out) is that both are rather fluid, improvisational, open to much interpretation and feel. there is a common structure to the music, but there is room to improvise one’s own ideas, and reacting to the other musicians’ improvisational ideas. This kind of fluidity makes it more open to expressing one’s own creative ideas.

But at the same time, a musician needs a large arsenal of musical ideas to keep things as fresh as possible. You can recycle a musical idea, but it’s best to try to keep new/fresh ideas coming in the span of one 4 hour gig.

And the big challenge I’m finding out with certain bands is the challenge to keep bringing in those fresh ideas. Otherwise, one becomes rather repetitive.

At the same time, though, if some musical idea works so well in a given part of the song, then that musical idea becomes good enough to use consistently for that part of the song, building up an arrangement that becomes satisfying to the musicians and the audience. And that’s how songs can evolve when in a LIVE process of exploration.

One of my methods of improvisation is to introduce a musical idea into a certain part of a song and see if that gets a particular reaction from another musician in the band. And test that idea to see if it works better than I thought it would.

Usually, a drummer has opportunities to bring in a new beat or rhythmic pattern. This pattern could be traditional (a samba, or merengue, etc) or it could be completely original, or a hybrid of a couple of different beats or patterns. This is another method of improvising that can prove successful, by trying different grooves to various songs. Of course, this sort of experimentation and exploration can only work in a musical environment that welcomes those things.

Another method a drummer can improvise is to vary drum fills. Usually, a drummer can mark the end or last measure of a four or eight bar phrase with a drumfill. This has a couple of benefits:

1. Create a bit of drama, tension in the song.

2. Provides a means to transition from say, verse to chorus, or from chorus to bridge.

3. And a drumfill can mark and communicate a transition from one section of a song to the next.

I like to experiment with different fills, until I find the right one for that part of the song. And if it works so well then it becomes part of the song, and a way to let other bandmembers know that this change will be taking place. Kind of like an acknowledgement that it will take place.

Then again, it places the demand on the drummer to know the drumset well, to know all possible combinations of grooves and drumfills, accents and so on, to be able to experiment in this way, and keeping the music as fresh as possible on successive gigs.

It’s sort of hard to get really detailed about various patterns, grooves, drumfills and such without written examples. But, for now, I’m trying to explain it without notation for the benefit of non-reading musicians.

But, to summarize, for me true expression of music is being able to improvise certain parts of songs. To ad lib, create, throw one’s personality and character into a song so as to make a personal contribution towards the music.

And hopefully, the audience will understand what you are trying to do, and appreciate it and get something out of the performance.

It’s all about being able to communicate to the audience. The pressure is on the musician to be able to do that successfully.

Otherwise, one might as well just play the instrument at home. So, it’s ultimately all about communication… about saying something….