Take a song, play along!

Hey, it's a video! Click on it after you read my post, or you can click on it now since I'm not there to stop you...

In the clip above, I'm playing along to "Skylight" by Overseer. The idea is that by playing along to a song I'm familiar with, I can improvise, riff, embellish, and/or play along with it. It's like having a metronome with a strong, groovy beat.

As I compose songs like crazy for these 12 weeks, I don't have time to get into the studio and pull out drums to experiment. What you see above is my own personal "drum studio", complete with four, yes FOUR drum pads resting on my bed! Extravagant, I know. Actually, I wanted to show a bit behind my creative process and also show that it doesn't take much to hone your own striking skills.

Most of us have played along to music we like - have you ever tapped on your lap or the steering wheel while in the car? All I'm doing here is swiveling my chair around and thumping away to whatever comes out of my hands. You don't even need a drum pad, you can use a phone book or get creative with towels, chairs, etc. I use a pair of western drumsticks because I like the feel, but I can flip them over and they double as shime bachi.

So that's my drill for you: Take a song, play along! Then repeat it about 1,000 times. :)