SKF NOTE: If you have recently spent time on social media you have likely seen one of many dance videos, such as the video included here from choreographer Moga Almeri.
What struck me most, the very first time I saw this video, was the contrast between James Brown’s very staccato, precise, up-down rhythms, and the joyful fluidity of the Beat Surf Tendo Dancers interpreting Brown’s rhythms.
The very best drummers I know, famous or not, hear that same fluidity, play with that same fluidity. There drumming is less like a pile driver, more like a flowing river.
SKF NOTE: From Neil Peart’s letter to me from Toronto on October 31, 1985. As much as I appreciated our drum discussions, I have very fond memories of the thoughts Neil and I shared about writing.
The older I get, the more time seems finite, the more I appreciate Neil’s discipline with his writing.In this letter Neil’s reminds us how far we’ve all come with computer technology. In 1985 Neil “just got…an electric typewriter,” and says, “it’s really time…to think about a word processor [and] printer.”
Neil’s China journal was published as “Riding the Golden Lion.” I still have my copy in a good place.
SKF NOTE: I was in my home office, Yo-Yo Ma was on tv, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I wasn’t familiar with Ma or his music. But after a few seconds of only half-listening to the sound he produced on his cello, I left my office to see who was this amazing musician.
That was in the early 1980s. I’ve been a Yo-Yo Ma fan since. In recent years I have especially admired Yo-Yo Ma’s adventures in music; his willingness to travel untested musical roads with uncommon musicians from many different musical genres.
Watching this trailer to Yo-Yo Ma’s Master Class, I loved his view of “human expression vs. human perfection.”
A good lesson, if you ask me, for all musicians. Including drummers.
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At one point I had the audacity to think I could play a perfect concert.
I was in the middle of a concert and I realized everything was going perfectly.
And I was bored out of my mind.
That was the moment that I made a fateful decision that I was actually going to devote my life to human expression versus human perfection.
Music connects people. You’re sharing something with others. You’re almost like the scientist for the inner soul.
SKF NOTE: Modern Drummer Publication’s CEO recently announced a renewal of the enterprise.
Meanwhile, a DrumForum.org member started a thread wondering what kind of articles actual and potential MD readers want to read.
I wonder how many MD readers are interested in the written word. With no data for proof, my educated guess is video is now a more popular learning format than reading.
Second, third, and fourth place most popular learning formats vary among audio, photos, and text. Depending on which format works best with an article.
If we’re talking strictly about past vs. future Modern Drummer articles, it’s important to remember MD started pre-computers. Video and audio weren’t serious options for at least MD’s first decade.
When I left MD in 1983, the one person with a computer was founder Ron Spagnardi. And “computer” is a generous term. Ron’s was an early word processor. That it enabled Ron to cut, copy, and move text without limit was its exciting feature.
As for what kind of articles MD readers want to read? Great question.
Thumb through a 1980s era MD. You find a message from Ron Spagnardi, letters from readers, full-length interviews, short profiles of emerging drummers, method columns, product reviews, ask a pro Q&A, ads, and a teaser page for the upcoming issue. Then there were readers’ polls, Neil Peart drumset giveaways, and other features.
That MD issue format came together pre-internet. Yes, there were a couple of other drummer magazines competing with MD for subscribers and readers.
Today, the competition is everything internet related: social media, bloggers, forums, the works. Everything posted online is arguably online forever. Ever improving search engines make it easier to find information online.
Without going into depth, I think the path for any online drum endeavor is to find a niche in need of filling. Maybe it’s a segment of the drum world on which no one is championing. Or maybe it’s a drumming perspective only you can offer the drum public.
That’s age old advice. But I think it applies now more than ever.
Now, the question about what kind of articles 2023 MD readers would like, takes me back to 1983, a few months before I left MD.
At the time, MD’s editorial staff had become so efficient at putting together each issue we opened a block of free time each month. I approached Ron with the idea he allow a few days of the monthly free time to be used for finding and interviewing local drum legends in different states.
My suggestion backfired. Ron’s wife interpreted it as me saying I didn’t have enough to do. Which was true, but not in the way she meant it. Just the opposite. I was suggesting a way to be more productive, not less.
My point? I still like the idea of finding and featuring local drum legends. Maybe they’re players, teachers, drum shop owners, retired — there are tons of variations.
But the local legends are out there. Their stories deserve telling.
Scott K Fish 
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