Dynamics

It’s been my experience that when playing music, it’s important to have a sense of dynamics. Not everything is meant to played as loud as possible. This is true whether you’re at a jam session (“sitting in”) or whether this is a group that you rehearse with in your garage. To me, music is meant to breathe – to have ups and downs, and tension and release. This makes it exiting to play and to hear!

The drum set is a very powerful instrument. Power does not always equal volume in my book. When playing, I can help create some musical moments by playing powerfully – which sometimes means playing softer. This takes quite a bit of work – to play the ideas you want to play at all volume levels. It’s something I still work on, and I’m trying to improve upon it constantly.

Dynamics are relative. My forte (loud) in a piano jazz trio may be my piano (soft) in an R&B group. My studio has microphones and headphones and a certain sound through the electronic gear. I can hit at a medium loud (mf – mezzo forte) level and it can sound pretty darn loud. The studio itself is not huge either, so when I play in a smaller room such as this out in the real world I don’t tend to hit as hard. It’s not necessary and the audience seems to appreciate the fact that they’re not going deaf.

At all dynamic levels, my goal is to stay relaxed and let the sticks do most of the work. If I need more volume, I focus on bigger arm movements along with an increase in velocity.  I use the same basic motions for softer playing, but they are smaller motions. Smaller muscles are more able to give me what I want when I don’t need a big sound. I still strive to stay loose and relaxed. It helps the groove, but I also like the sound that comes from that as well.

I know that I’m not the hardest hitting drummer out there and that’s just fine. There are certain gigs I won’t get, and I’m not trying to get those gigs. More and more, I’m interested in playing music with people of a like mind. I will try to give the band leader what they want when I’m at a gig including any volume requests – up to a point. I’ll only hit so hard these days. If that’s not enough for that particular band, then I always have a few drum mics with me. That may not be my ideal situation, but even if it’s one gig, I’ll try to deliver what’s asked of me.