Video: soloing concepts by jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez

Have you seen the movie Birdman?  Jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez wrote the film's score and most of the soundtrack is solo drumset.  He has also been Pat Metheny's drummer for the past 15 years.  I recently watched his instructional feature called Creative Soloing & Freedom presented by Drumeo and was impressed by the clarity with which he explained and demonstrated his concepts.  While I think it's well worth watching the video, I'll list the most important points here.

Try Drumeo Edge For Free, Today: - http://www.drumeo.com/trial/ It was incredible to have four-time Grammy Award winner Antonio Sanchez visit the Drumeo studios, where he shared his creative concepts for building solos over a groove, over a form, as well as completely open solos - in addition to sharing his techniques for sustaining motivic development throughout your solos.

Sanchez says that he tries to tell a story when playing a solo.  This means stopping yourself from operating on autopilot.  Instead of just letting your hands play your usual licks, you start with a motive (idea) and then develop it using techniques such as:

1. Giving yourself space to think.  The space could be silence or going into a holding pattern such as a groove.  "Give space...be patient...be friends of silence."

2. Using repetition to establish the motive in our memory and the audience's memory.  Ending a solo with the same motive from the beginning is a very effective way to structure it.

3. Creating an answer to your motive's call.  As an example, Sanchez sings the opening 2 bars of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Allegro) to see if his interviewer could sing the response (he did easily).  Another example was the melody of 'shave and a haircut - two bits.'

4. Using the full dynamic (volume) range of the instrument.  "I cannot stress enough how important soloing dynamics are."

5. Creating contrast through rhythm, sound, dynamics, etc. to interplay with the motive.

6. Developing your vocabulary by copying others, then making the material your own by exploring new ways to play them.  Emulating great players in the genre you're studying is crucial to learning that specific language.  It's important to understand the historical context of the style.

7. "Practicing with a metronome is extremely important...allows you to get your ideas in to the grid that is time.  You have to be very certain of what subdivisions you're playing all the time."

8. Making sense.  "People start following you if you make sense...saying something meaningful."  An example of NOT making sense would be the statement "I love scrambled eggs, but the movie was terrible."  Those two things are not directly related.

Sanchez says that this kind of approach in which you are truly improvising is more challenging as it has more risk involved.  But "going into the unknown" is the way to explore fresh ideas and play differently each time.  Because the possibilities are endless, it can be intimidating to start with this "blank sheet of paper."  Sanchez says that these ideas can be applied at any level since you don't need a lot of technique to start practicing this way. 

To me, everything presented in the video is spot on.  Soloing and improvisation is a topic I'm often asked to teach in workshops and private lessons, and it was good to hear new ways of thinking about the topic from one of the most in-demand drummers working today.  I would encourage everyone to check out this video and then share your most memorable take-away points.

Northern California teaching tour recap

My teaching road trip to northern California went really well.  It helped that gas prices were low and that my Prius gets about 45 miles per gallon, plus I was fortunate with good weather during the 11 hour drive each way.  Thank you to the taiko groups for booking my workshops and to the individuals who took private lessons with me.  And thank you very much to the kind friends for hosting me as a home-stay guest.

On this trip I worked with Sakura Taiko Kai of Berkeley, a wonderful group of taiko players who told me that their age range is 60s to 80s.  It's very inspiring to feel their energy and dedication toward learning about taiko.  I also noticed that, of all the groups I have worked with, Sakura Taiko Kai was one of the most consistent in collectively keeping a steady tempo.  The saying goes that wisdom comes with age, and perhaps good timekeeping goes along with that.

Another group I was invited to work with for the second time was Sonoma County Taiko based in Santa Rosa.  This is beautiful wine country and my hosts treated me to a fantastic dinner at Francis Ford Coppola Winery as well as lunch at Bear Republic Brewing Company.  Sitting outside by the bonfire under the stunningly bright stars listening to a chorus of frogs while drinking local red wine long into the night is about as good as it gets.

After years of talking about it, I was finally able to work with Stanford Taiko on this trip.  They requested a shinobue workshop and a ji playing workshop.  I was most impressed by these students' organizational skills and willingness to completely commit to any exercise or concept I proposed.  I'm confident that the twenty members whom I met all have bright futures, and that the group will continue to be a leading voice in the collegiate taiko scene.

I was also happy to be invited back to work with the Mountain View Buddhist Temple adult class.  We covered small drum technique and had a lot of laughs while exploring exercises designed to help with tempo control, dynamics, sticking patterns, and playing along to recordings of Santana, Michael Jackson, Steely Dan, and Norah Jones.  After the workshop, we went out for ramen and talked about food and cooking, and a little bit about taiko.

I also had a blast hanging out with shamisen player Kyle Abbott in Santa Cruz, but I already wrote about that on my previous entry so check that out if you haven't yet.  Kyle is a home coffee roaster like me and he made me a fantastic cup of coffee right after I arrived.

My next trip to northern California will be in late May and I look forward to seeing friends and meeting new people in the community.  I will have a couple of performances during that trip so you can sign up for email updates and check back on my events calendar for more information.  Anyone interested in workshops or private lessons can contact me directly through email.

Kyle Abbott of Bachido

During my teaching trip to northern California I had the opportunity to visit author and founder of the comprehensive shamisen website Bachido, Kyle Abbott.  Kyle kindly agreed to sit down and talk about music with me, and we decided to record the conversation to post on our blogs.  We touched on a bunch of topics including our backgrounds, teaching, performance, inspiration, coffee (we are both home coffee roasters), and the Bachido shamisen school.  Since I had my shinobue case with me, we stumbled through impromptu versions of a few standard songs and I've included those in the audio file here.  The titles are Yasaburo Bushi (beginning), Tsugaru Jinku (middle), and Ringo Bushi (end).  I really appreciate Kyle making time to share his thoughts and experiences with us.

You can find out more about Kyle and shamisen through these links below:

Kyle's website
Bachido website
Bachido facebook
Kyle's shamisen book
 

Miso making

Homemade miso

Miso making on Valentine's Day - why not?  I can think of several reasons as to why it's a good idea to make your own miso at home:

1. Quality control - I used fresh homemade koji, organic soybeans, really good sea salt, and will be deciding the time and conditions of the fermentation.  Mass-produced miso doesn't even come close in flavor.  Making your own allows full control of the salt level and other variables to suit your palate.

2. It's far cheaper than buying miso, especially if you make the koji yourself.  But even if you're buying koji and the best organic beans and salt, you will still be saving.

3. Making miso is fun and rewarding because of the long fermentation time as well as how incredibly useful it is in the kitchen.  And it's pretty easy to do.

4. You can make your friends very happy by giving them some, or by cooking for them using your miso.  It's a great idea to make a big batch and plan on giving some away and aging what you don't use within one year.

5. Great for learning - making something yourself deepens your knowledge and sharpens your appreciation of it.  Using your own miso makes you a more mindful cook overall.

For anyone who might be interested, I'm providing the recipe and photos from my 2016 batch here.

One-Year Miso
2.4 kg dry organic soybeans (soak 24 hrs)
1.4 kg koji (fresh homemade)
646g sea salt (17% of the weight of dry beans & koji)
1/4 c seed miso (from my 2013 batch)
4 c bean cooking liquid
 

soybeans after 24 hr soak

a talkative sous chef

koji, salt, seed miso

mashing beans with a 1 liter glass bottle (beans pressure steamed 45 min)

mix everything when beans are below 100F

press down to get out air pockets, sprinkle salt on top

plastic wrap on miso, then 1cm kosher salt

I will check the progress in about 5 - 6 months.  Usually it takes over a year to reach the flavor I'm looking for.  Some mold growth on top is not a problem (just scrape away) but it's good to be careful of bugs and other critters wanting a taste.  One memorable incident was when the miso was stored in a shed and a rat chewed through the plastic and ate through the salt layer and then a good amount of miso.  It was heart-rending to dump that year's batch, but lesson learned.

plastic wrap on top, taped, labeled

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I had leftover koji and decided to try a sweet-style miso with azuki.  This has much less salt and much more koji.  It should be ready in about 2 months.

Azuki Sweet Miso
170g azuki (no soak, boiled 75 minutes)
340g koji (fresh homemade)
30.5g sea salt (6% of the weight of dry beans & koji)
1/2 c bean cooking liquid

azuki pre-rinse

mashing with a glass

I will probably check this in 4 - 6 weeks.  Next up is experimenting with black turtle bean miso and garbanzo miso.

salt and koji

luckily just fits a 1 liter mason jar

Juxtaposing genres

説明

説明

In my recent research of traditional flute music in Japanese theater (such as Noh and Kabuki), I came across some interesting material by Yukihiro Isso, an extraordinary nohkan, shinobue, and recorder player.  These days it's becoming more and more common to see phrases like 'cross-cultural collaboration' to describe the juxtaposing of seemingly unrelated genres.  

Over the years I've been involved with many projects described this way.  Sometimes the collaboration is on a shallow level because there's no time to develop something.  Other times, and more rewarding, a deeper connection is made and something truly unique and inspiring emerges.  A lot depends on getting along with each other and having an open-minded approach to trying new things.

I wonder how audiences see a performance like these in the videos.  If they like it, why?  If they don't, why not?  To me, this works.  I like these pieces because the vision is clear and the adjustments made by the individual parts support the overall concept.  For example, careful thought went into how the nohkan would play in the 'correct key' sometimes, and other times would play independently from the other musical parts (as done in a traditional noh play).  It can be useful to break down and analyze the bits and pieces, but I found that these pieces provided an impact that glued me to the screen and then prompted me to find more of it.

If you have any thoughts to share, please comment below.

Eien