Getting in the zone, the Whole Body Experience (WBE)
That’s the goal for me at the moment.
The older I get, the more I realize the importance of learning, going beyond then forgetting about technique and becoming one with the music on a higher level, really feeling the rhythm you’re playing within your body. When you as the performer fully experience it from the inside out, then the more convincing your performance will sound. This would be the musical equivalent of “getting in the zone”. This applies to *all* styles of music. When you play, it must groove with the deepest pocket from the very first note you play. I think of this like it must be gushing through you like a river and you’re just unleashing it in a controlled manner.
For example check out Travis Barker in his remix of Soulja Boy’s “Crank That”. He is totally in the present moment playing for the song, and it seems like every fiber of his body is fully engaged and used in this performance.
The king of groove, Steve Gadd, is another master of this WBE drumming. There are many examples of his playing to be found, but I had to choose one to show here. I might change it or add more to it later. In this video, as the intensity builds you can see more and more of his body kicks into gear. By the time the whole groove kicks in in the last few seconds you can see his whole body is involved.
These performances are all about the players, and not the instruments. Their instruments *do* sound awesome, but I’m confident they could make a set of empty paint cans sound amazing if played with the same conviction.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about this whole body experience in the context of drumming, improving my groove, locking in more comfortably with other musicians and even pre-recorded music or metronomes/click tracks. I’ve ideas brewing on this and feel I’ve more to write about it. Watch this space.
May 17th, 2008 at 2:33 am
[...] google search for “whole body experience” (context was this article I wrote tonight) turned up this completely non music/drummy but completely fascinating video on the [...]