It's been a bit hot lately hasn't it? As a result with spectacular predictability everybody is making comparisons to the legendary Summer of 76 and how we all baked. Interestingly no one has anything to say about the Summer of 1977, which as I recall was for the entire duration of the school holidays, overcast, dull and frequently wet. The summer of '77 was, however, far more significant for me, and the poor weather was a major contributory factor.
Having managed to get by as a drummer almost entirely on what natural talent I had been blessed with, (and it was in this same Summer that I did my first grown up gig with grown up musicians for grown up money) being largely confined to indoors prompted me to renew my acquaintance (these days more an obsession or ritual) with the practice pad.
Up to this point I had spent very little time with drum books, and such time as had been spent had consisted of dipping in and out of the pages of William F Ludwig's erroneously titled 'Modern Jazz Drumming'. Much of this consisted of rhythmic patterns that my young eyes simply could not comprehend and was not particularly heavy on rudimental or sticking-based materials, nor was it full of the kind of cool beats that would appeal to a late baby boomer such as I.
Many, many years earlier my Dad had walked in when I was messing around with the sticks and told me that if I wanted to play properly I would have to learn a 'proper' stick grip. From a cupboard he got a copy of the Gene Krupa Drum Method and opened it at this page,
told me to get on with it and went back into the other room to watch Z Cars.
I remember his utter astonishment when I went and found him about ten minutes later to show him that I had 'got it'. (I hadn't, and still haven't but you know what I mean).
Anyway so back to 1977 and the miserable Summer climate. Simultaneously at a loss for something to fill the dull summer days and feeling the pull of what would grow into a professional career before very much longer, I took a look in the cupboard from which my Dad had got the Krupa Drum Method all those years previously and I found this....
It scarcely bears repeating that if you are even slightly serious about developing any sort of genuine prowess on the instrument this book is an essential. Some students mistakenly view Stick Control as a little akin to "Eat your vegetables and then you can have some ice cream". It really isn't. Approached correctly not only will it sharpen up your hands (the benefits of the Summer of 77 have been an everlasting foundation that set me on the road to technical fluency) but the myriad ways in which it can be adapted and interpreted will help you to develop the habits of creative thinking, to look (and listen) between the lines.
Forty one years later it's looking a little the worse for wear which is not all that surprising as it is arguably the most used of all the drum books in my collection, and although there are many dozens of books in that collection there is only one that I have played from cover to cover.
It's this.
Sometime in the late 70s the drum department at Yardley's in Birmingham got hold of two or three copies of this book and by a stroke of sheer luck one of them came into my posession. I had admired Roy Burns for several years as he had been the first 'big name' American drummer I had seen in the flesh. Why was this book so important? Within its pages Roy sets out some core principles of technique in a way that none of the drum books I had seen up to that point made any congruent attempt to do. Bear in mind that this was late 1970s Birmingham with no internet and limited availability of information and resources. Also he takes the most important and often played permutations from Stick Control and presents them in different rhythmic subdivisions. This is a key point. How much time do you spend practising endless triplets or sixteenths? Too much, that's how much. Certainly an amount disproportionate to the musical necessity of playing constant note rates. Shifting between different layers of time is a far more important skill that you will use every time you sit down to make music. Otherwise it's a bit like learning to drive in an automatic car on a completely flat, straight road. The ability to articulate constantly changing sticking permutations (and don't be daunted, there are only twelve of them) over changing rhythmic patterns will set your technique free and liberate your playing. Thanks to the initial inspiration and tangible benefits, after a spell working with this material my hands would demonstrably improve, I have subsequently taken this underlying core skill and extrapolated it in my own methods.
Some years later I ran into Roy at a Summer NAMM show in New Orleans and had the opportunity to thank him. Far more recently I managed to source a spare copy of the book, you know, just in case.
If it is the case that you only know of Roy Burns on account of Aquarian drum heads then have a listen to this.......
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