Enough about 'licks', 'chops'.

 

What are the generally agreed-upon metrics for identifying greatness? There are very few for the drum set, and most of them are misguided, rote and disembodied. There are standards for greatness, which were set by the masters and have not been upheld.  

 

Now, those who perpetuate the disregard and abandonment of those standards are the same people who the masses of musicians entrust to identify and define greatness for them. 

 

Some of you don’t even know why you like certain musicians. You just believe you’re supposed to like them. What does it give you to feel proximal to them through your admiration for them? 

 

Often times, it’s not even what someone played that causes someone else to admire them. It’s how what they played made the admirer feel, and often (whether conscious or not) for the reason that the admirer feels that they can’t do what their hero did - meaning they don’t somatically understand how to (re)create that feeling independently of their hero, but want to understand how to. 

 

The challenge is that most people’s will to understand is superficial and lacks discipline - they don’t want to understand enough to actually know how to do it, which creates a separation between them and their hero, which then perpetuates the belief that they themselves can’t be that great. 

 

Now imagine nearly everyone thinks that way. It shows in the music. 

 

How many people will give up on trying to understand without ever asking the right questions? The questions which would lead to the answers that would inform them on how to understand?

 

Who do we put our trust in? What somatics do you believe you need to live into? What do you believe that the sounds you’re after will bring you?

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-NK