Are you slapping skin or are you dancing?

Did you see this viral video? The drummer who is in the wrong band? If not, then watch it, because there is a lesson here.

You may want to click into it about a minute or so, and then things will be more apparent. While the rest of the band is performing ZZ Top’s Sharp-Dressed Man (in a pedestrian manner, no less), the drummer is just playing.

The song is not that complicated, three chords and a cloud of dust. But the drummer is taking it to a different place entirely, because his focus isn’t on slapping the skins.

The Master Sought a Master

If you get an opportunity, check out the documentary “Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage.” VH-1 will air it Saturday night, June 26 at 9p.m. Eastern. I had a chance to see it in the theater a couple of weeks ago, and it is highly entertaining even if you don’t like the band. But in particular, watch for the segment with drummer Neil Peart and his drumming guru, Freddy Gruber.

Freddy Gruber

Peart called him the Yoda of Drumming, which is high praise when you consider Peart’s resume. He was Modern Drummer’s Best Rock Drummer from 1980-1986, and was essentially retired from competing any more. He is still listed among the top percussionists alive. I wrote about it a couple of years ago (with an unfortunate parallel to Tiger Woods, but I digress…)

In the segment in the documentary, the two of them “collaborate” to tell the story of Peart’s tutelage. It’s touching and funny, but it’s also instructive. What Gruber taught Peart was that drumming wasn’t a technical exercise in maintaining a rhythm through violent impact with drumheads.

It’s a dance.

Process Trumps Product

Gruber’s mantra is that the movement away from the drums matters just as much as the impact. Your flow matters, because you can fight the energy of the recoil by pushing directly against it; or you can turn it around and harness it in another direction. A redirection of force, instead of a negation. It creates a pretty flow that is effective and efficient.

Crane Pose

There are analogues in the martial arts. Many Kung Fu forms and sets employ circular motions designed to turn one momentum into another. Traditional Snake styles will turn those movements around on a small axis, as a little circle; Crane styles will invert that philosophy, moving energy in big sweeping circles. The Crane’s footwork does some things in the vertical axis that you’d never notice. Even that stance, with one foot on the ground and the other in the air is important — because the Crane is already halfway through the next step (and it can be in one of 300 different directions.)

If you think about drumming for a moment, the only thing that matters is being in the right place at the right time: the end of the drumstick on the drum head. But how you get there is open to a lot of room for improvisation and flow.

Focus on Process

Coaches that preach process tend to do better than those that only focus on results. Sure, you can force the stick to hit the drum when you want it to, but that doesn’t mean you got there in the most rewarding manner. And it also doesn’t mean you’re in position for the next strike. Drumming is a strenuous activity when you’re doing it the hard way.

In fact, most things are more work than they need to be, when you’re committed to straight lines for no reason other than the fact that you’ve always beaten them that way.

Be warned, though: those who dance to their own drummers tend to draw a lot of attention. Be prepared to either entertain, kick butt… or both.