It’s been a while since I’ve written anything reflective and, at a time when so many things are challenging and in a place that makes them difficult to predict, it felt like maybe some words on something I love would provide much needed relief… my experience in performing music.

I’ve been playing the drums for over 40 years now, and one of the things that’s so amazing about music is how every time I sit down to play, the experience is different.  Certainly, in your early years and, over the time you learn to play, you spend time developing the technical facility to master basic drumming techniques (grips, rudiments), read music, learning different patterns and styles of music (jazz, rock, etc.), develop independence in what you can do within those styles, expose yourself to different types of players (professional and otherwise), rehearse and perform in small and larger groups, and explore concepts in how you improvise, whether as part of a song or entirely on your own.

Where music becomes interesting and fun is what comes after all that… when you have the ability to (largely) play what you want, when you want, and sitting down to play is more about expressing yourself and the music and experience you want to create.  This is what continues to inspire and amaze me and is probably why I love performing so much.  Every time I sit down to play, anything can happen, and the ability to create is solely dependent on my ability to be inspired and express myself in the moment.  It is very much like having a set of paints and an endless, continually unfurling canvas, and my ability to create whatever I can conceive of as it is all happening.

This is the primary reason that I try not to “rehearse” what I record today for YouTube and shoot for as many single take recordings as possible.  I want to evoke the experience of what it is to perform music live, where you don’t have a chance to “do it over”, you just have to put yourself out there, reach for the notes that express how you feel in that moment, and… if it doesn’t work out, you laugh it off, and move on.  In a way, it’s just like life.  We don’t get a chance to go back to undo things we wish we could have done differently.  We can always choose to play things safe and not make mistakes, but then we also will never experience the exhilaration that comes with creating something new and unexpected, that puts our personal touch into something that may otherwise seem commonplace, to express our voice in a way that may be new and refreshingly different.  Sometimes it’s something as simple (in the case of drumming) as a well placed accent, the feeling of a groove that is different than what the original artist played on an album, altering dynamics to express the emotion of a moment, and sometimes it’s a total flurry of notes, blasted out across the drums to convey the energy I feel in doing something I truly love to do… sharing music with others.

It can be difficult to convey what it is that is so special about music, especially for people who don’t have a passion for it, but what makes it so amazing to me is the ability to express oneself in a way that can be different every time you sit down, that can take you on a journey to somewhere you don’t expect, create a connection and an energy that wouldn’t otherwise exist for both you and the listener, and that can (for the set of people with whom you have the opportunity to perform) connect you in a creative experience that is very unlike anything else I know.

So, the next time you listen to a live performance, if you didn’t already, maybe take a moment to watch the performers, listen less to the notes and feel more of the experience… it is a moment in time that will never be created that same way again, and what a special and wonderful thing that is to experience when you have the chance to do so.

-CJG 06/14/2020