Last Saturday, May 23rd, I had the privilege of attending a master class conducted by R&B drumming legend, Zoro, at the Mike Ehrhard Studio in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Unlike many other such events I’ve been to, this class was unusually intimate in a studio room that only sat twelve or thirteen people and one drum kit comfortably. However, it was exactly this quality that made this such a great event.
Zoro was playing at his DW kit (provided by St. Louis’ own Drum Headquarters for the class) when we all walked into the studio. He was playing along to a Motown tune on his iPod, just jamming along with the funk beat the way all of us do in our own rehearsal spaces. Honestly, it was a little surreal to walk in and see someone as famous as Zoro tracking along with a song like I had just earlier that morning. It helps us to remember that the famous are really just people living their lives after all.
I took a seat just to the right of his kit so I could see all the footwork and hand details of what he’s playing. When the tune was over and the room filled, we all engaged in a casual conversation about what he’d just played and Zoro introduced us what he likes to call the “Four Ts”:
- Time: The core tenet of any drummer and the primary purpose of percussion in any musical group. Regardless of outside influences, the meter of any piece of music is the responsibility of the drummer. Period.
- Technique: Technique is not a style of playing. It gives the drummer the tools he/she needs to express themselves on the instrument. The same way a baseball pitcher throws the same pitch a thousand times until it curves exactly the way it should and the muscles of his arm just know what to do without the brain having to even think about it, so does a drummer need to hammer on good technique until it just becomes part of the way we play the drums.
- Touch: This is what makes every drummer’s sound different. We all find ourselves playing the same general grooves, whether they originated with us or another drummer. But it is the way we play those grooves, what we do with them, that makes them unique, even though they would look the same on paper. Want a good example? Find a transcription of John Bonham’s shuffle groove from “Fool in the Rain” and play along to it. You can play the notes on the page, but it still won’t capture the exact way Bonham played that groove. I should know, I’ve been trying for years.
- Taste: This is as much about what we don’t play as much as what we do. Taste is something that comes with experience. It’s about playing for thousands of hours, both alone in the woodshed and with other musicians. It’s about discovering what works and what doesn’t and applying the previous three Ts in a way that is musical and appropriate to the gig you find yourself in. It’s about playing for the song above all else.
With this as a foundation, we spent the rest of our two hours together discussing specific ways to improve technique, tips and tricks for navigating the “business” half of the music business, Zoro’s spiritual beliefs about music and drumming and, of course, listening and watching him play alone with other tunes.
The most impressive demonstration was when Zoro focused on the Mozambique, a funky little afro-Cuban groove that, played straight, looks like this:
Zoro demonstrated several variations on the basic pattern and then played along to the most famous recorded instance of the Mozambique, Steve Gadd’s incredible groove on Paul Simon’s “Late in the Evening.” Yeah, he played it busier than Gadd did on the recording, but he never altered the main pattern and did some incredible fill work around it. It was a very good lesson in how taking simple concepts and building on them can be the difference between a good player and a great player.
Another important concept he discussed his how to play multiple levels of a groove. Zoro said, when he approaches a groove, he begins by practicing it at its most basic level and plays it until he feel completely comfortable with it. Then he begins to add additional color to the groove, keeping the basic feel, but adding cymbal and tom work. He continues with this until he feels like he owns the groove top to bottom. Logically, this allows him to better serve the artist he’s playing for: If he/she wants more he’s got it, and if they want less, he can back off to the bare essentials of the groove. This is an excellent strategy, especially in a time when drummers tend to try and focus only on making their grooves as busy as the song will withstand.
All in all, this was well worth the time and the $35 it cost to attend. If the opportunity ever presents itself to attend one of Zoro’s clinics or master classes, I highly recommend you take advantage of it. You’ll learn a lot about drumming and the life of a professional musician, but most of all, you’ll learn about the power of playing for the song above all else.
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