Mangini - What time?

[peter c]

Teachers are a special breed. It's
tough to get a creative drummer and
teacher in the same package. The
problem with the creative person,
in general, is that their thought
process is radically different.

People have a hard time understand-
ing them. It's true in life too. I
see it all the time.

I believe that a student really has
to do the work in order to under-
stand what the teacher is trying to
say, whether it's communicated well
or not and this is the challenge
and an expensive one at that.

I'm going to give it a go. I enjoy
the lessons Virgil gives on the site
and will always be there.

[img]cool.gif[/img]

[Vdrummer]

Peter,

I tend to believe that the initial steps in learning a pattern require great attention to what you're doing, how it sounds, if the timing and dynamics are correct, and then after many repetitions you stop thinking about each and every note individually and perceive the whole chunk of notes as a whole. It's a Gestalt sort of thing. Start with the nitty gritty, and after awhile you stop thinking about all that and just play it with an awareness of whether it's even, musical, in time, sounding the way you want it to. Mangini feels you should focus on every detail, all the time. My brain does not work that way. There were other examples of differences - that's just one. Most were perception/philisophical differences that can be attributed to differences in the way people learn/think/process, etc.

Mike set up my pedals, adjusted the spring tension etc. They all had the red cams, were a medium or medium-light tension. When he played his feet were just above the pedal board and sometimes he brought his heels to the inside of the pedals - playing off them with his heels dropping lower.

I can't stress this enough - he's ridiculously fast - the fastest drummer I've ever seen - including Rabb, Marco, Virgil, Danny Gottleib, Buddy R, etc. He's got as great a command of polyrhythms and interdependence as anyone alive. To see a guy play over ten notes a second with one hand for short bursts is bizaare, to say the least. To hear easily play above 18-19 notes a second with both hands for extended periods is just plain freaky.

For those of you who've never seen him - do it at least once.

Brad