You may have noticed that I am very active in my church and involved with a number of different ministries. Especially in our church, with age comes mentor-ship. Finding people who are young in age, or young in Christianity, and help them to grow and use their gifts. As part of the music ministry/performance technology group, I have become close to a couple of young musicians in our church.
I grew up near Rochester, New York, home of the Eastman School of Music and a region that is know for Jazz musicians. I was part of our high school jazz ensembles, occasionally worked with various musicians on stage, and listened to even more over my life. My tastes in music are wide and I listen with a technical ear to how the performance is put together musically and technically.
Our church drummer is very talented but limited in experience and exposure, with most of his listening and playing being in gospel, with occasional stretches into soul or rhythm and blues. After talking to him about how he wanted to grow his skill set. I started to build him a listening list. In addition to my experience, I asked my two step sons, both semi-professional drummers, their thoughts on great drummers to listen to. Based on all that, I came up with not a just a listening list, but a video list where he could listen and observe some of the best drummers in music play (and sometimes talk technique). This list spans time from Gene Krupa from the big band era, to Steve Gadd who played with many of the biggest names in music, to some drum corps stuff.
What was amazing when he started with the list, as he did not confine his experience to just what I provided. For every musician, he explored more of what he could find by them, in different styles and tempos. He is still growing in skills, but everyone in the team has noticed that his tempo is better and his variety in styles has expanded.
From this experience, I applied to an teen aged trumpet player in our church. He has a lot of talent which comes naturally to him (mom and sister are both renown flute players). So I went through my favorite musicians and songs and developed the same kind of experience for him, based on trumpet players. He has just started exploring the list but has already expressed his enthusiasm for what he has already listened to.
Well done Bayraider! Speaking of drummers, have you listened to Max Roach? He's a favorite of mine. more recent drummer whose work you might include is Terri Lyne Carrington. She is fantastic!
ReplyDeleteKnow Max's work but will add Terri to my list.
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