Syncopation

I was a percussionist in school (grades 5 - 12). OK, I was a drummer.?I took private lessons, a luxury my parents could hardly afford, for about 5 years, and became a passably competent drummer.?I was voted "Class Musician" of my senior class (an honor, I feel, I technically did not deserve).?During those private lessons (with the very classy, and hard-working professional Mr. Ken Craig) I learned many valuable life-lessons, not only about the value of practice (read "Outliers" or "Bounce" if you want to know what I mean), but also how to be a better improviser.

Improvisation has long been the purview of stand-up comedians and jazz musicians.?The ability to "riff" off of, or along with an engaged audience and your fellow performers, is (I strongly believe) a true life skill.?In order to develop this ability to acceptably improvise, Mr. Ken Craig taught me syncopation.?He taught it from a book, which may at first seem weird, but it's actually not.?That book is pictured above.

A Modern Drummer survey ranked this book as the #2 drumming bible of all time.?Whatever. There were times that I hated this book.?Most of the exercises were damn hard.?But what gradually began to happen was the almost unconscious adaptation of some of the nuanced and intricate strokes, beats, and fills into my playing.?

Syncopation was never about defying the beat. It was about finding the hidden rhythms within rhythms.?It was about not being limited by 4 quarter notes in a measure, rather being liberated by the "hidden" dotted sixteenth notes and irregularly accented eighth note triplets that reside just below the surface of that same 4 quarter note measure.

Constraints can actually set you free, if you allow yourself to see what the constraint is constructed of and how it is put together.?And oh yes, as Ken would say, "You only get better, by practicing".

Your thoughts?