Drumming and Meditation www.louiesimon.com

As my drumming continues to evolve over decades, I realize more and more how closely linked are the daily practices of drumming and meditation. Watching vintage videos of some of the greatest drummers (available for free at www.drummerworld.com and through Hudson music videos), I am most impressed with their equanimity and poise, even amidst the most furious physical activity. "Papa Jo" Jones is the king of this poise, his demeanor self-consciously, humorously sly. His composure reveals the still place where his playing comes from, the calm center that flashes bursts of energy. As his hands do wild cross-sticking patterns between his snare and the two toms placed on each side of it, he looks as if he could be sitting down to wine and casual conversation. He produces a dizzying, mesmerizing array of sounds and ideas, but his expression is serene and unperturbed by the turbulence of his limbs. He looks ever the gentleman.  

When I first noticed the great contrast between the flurry of sounds his hands and feet produce and the easy calm of his manner, I had to try to understand it. Was there some kind of "disconnect" between the furious flying sticks and the detached, peaceful demeanor? Was he, like an athlete, using mind power over his own body, coaxing it to do things the rational mind could not believe?

One of the great lessons I get from "Papa Jo" is the reminder that drumming is as much a mental practice as a physical practice. As I worked with combining meditation and drum practice I began to understand the nature of the connection, not "disconnection," that animated "Papa Jo's" playing. I began to see that in order for his sticks to move with such speed, precision, and agility, he had to be inwardly calm and confident. Otherwise, if he were tense or rigid, he could not execute such fluid moves.

I noted, also, that his expression is one of vast assurance and authority--the inner confidence, the trust in his own abilities and body, enable the amazing feats of drumming to flow through him. The inward calm is necessary to relax the body and the hands to the point where they can effortlessly execute anything the intuitive mind can imagine.

Another connection between drumming and meditation involves the fact that while you're practicing either of them you are not necessarily aware of their benefits. For example, I may spend a few days or a week devoting twenty minutes a day to my buzz roll. Now, while I'm practicing the roll I may not feel like I'm playing it very well; I may feel I'm still a long way from making this roll sound sweet and effortless. So, while I'm practicing this particular thing I'm might be making judgments about my playing. I might be giving myself conscious feedback: "This is not so great, Louie."

Over the longer run, though, I see that, regardless of how I feel about it at the time, my practice actually does greatly improve my buzz roll. I've noticed the same effect in regard to meditation. While you're meditating you soon see that you can't be sitting there all the time thinking, "Oh boy! Now I'm meditating alright! Just watch me go! Man, I am something special, being able to meditate so well!" At some point, you realize you're just talking to yourself to keep your ego going, to give it something to do. Once you see this, you can stop being attached to these egotistical thoughts. In my particular preferred meditation, I just bring my attention back to my breath, making no big deal about having indulged my ego.

Just as I can be practicing the buzz roll and thinking, "Wow, I'm   really playing poorly today," I can be meditating and thinking, "Wow! What a bad meditator I am today; I can't focus on my breath at all." But again, in the long run, and even in the short run, I still notice significant benefits from practicing, even when it seems to be counter-productive at the time.

So far, my experiments with drumming and meditation have enabled me to attain some of that confident calm I see in "Papa Jo" Jones and other great drummers. Being centered on the throne, limbs free to move, and drums sounding great provides a solid foundation for some seriously rewarding and fun drumming.

An Exercise Combining Meditation and Drumming

You can do this exercise on a practice pad with sticks or on a hand drum. You also need a metronome. You will be playing a simple pattern throughout:

            L     l      l     l     L    l     l     l, etc. (the capital letter indicates an accent)

            Or,

            R    r    r    r    R    r    r    r, etc.

Begin with the metronome set to 100 bpm. At a medium volume play one of the above patterns with each strike sounding the same time as the metronome (you could say each note is a quarter note or eighth note). Make sure to distinguish each accent from the following three notes. Make your playing even and smooth sounding; do not deviate from the metronome, either by placing notes just before or just after the beat. Also, spend some time playing each pattern pizzicato and fortissimo, and everything in between.

Now, after playing these patterns for a while (say five to ten minutes with each hand), lower the metronome twenty degrees. So, go from 100 bpm to 80 bpm to 60 bpm, etc., practicing as described in the preceding paragraph.

You will notice that as you slow down it becomes more difficult to place each beat precisely on its corresponding beep. As you get below 50 or 40 bpm, you may find you need to count the silent notes (in your head) between each beat in order to come down correctly. If you can play at 30 bpm by doing that, then also try playing at 30 bpm without internal counting (this is even more challenging).

The key to benefiting from this exercise comes from playing softly and quietly at the slow tempos (40bpm and below). Doing so requires good control of the stick against the head. Playing below 40 bpm also requires a great deal of patience and calmness of mind. If you tend to rush at moderate to high speeds, playing at 30 bpm will force you to confront this tendency.

In a way, playing quietly and slowly can be considered a kind of magnifying glass on your stick control. At low volume and low speed, all of the warts in your playing become much more visible. You may find that it can be much harder to play very slowly and very softly than to play fast at high volumes. Speed can hide weaknesses in your playing. If you have the patience to play slowly and quietly, you will find that your playing in general will become more confident, easy, and assured. Never underestimate how the power of your mind and your attitude affect your playing.