Peter Erskine - "Always Compose When You Play!"

A few pieces today from the ever musical Peter Erskine. I always learn something new whenever I hear Peter play or talk about music (incidentally, don't forget to check out Peter's excellent lesson series on ArtistWorks) 

In his highly recommended autobiography No Beethoven Erskine recounts how Joe Zawinul encouraged him to "always compose when you play" and I think this is great advice for anyone. Rather than spewing sticking patterns and rudiments around the drums just for the sake of it, it's always better to attach musical meaning and purpose to whatever you are playing when you are improvising. And I think Erskine's musical drumming is a great example of this as well.

Furthermore, here's another similar piece of musical advice in the same spirit to consider as well:

 

One thing that I've been working on and practicing lately is exploring the idea of ostinatos, specifically using different bass drum and hi-hat patterns while improvising with my hands around the drums and cymbals.

This is something that is: 

a) a unique aspect to drum set playing and a possibility that we should all consider and take advantage of in some form or another

and 

b) something that I find incredibly difficult!

Anyhow, keeping in mind the mantra from above, here is a great example of Erskine "composing" while he is playing and improvising over a foot ostinato:

 

Personally, I find this a great exercise and hopefully I will eventually be able to incorporate this concept and vocabulary into my playing in a musical way. One thing is for sure: playing this way sure forces you out of your comfort zone and requires you play things you don't know (and that's always a good thing!)

Quincy Davis also offers this great interview with Peter from his wonderful ongoing Q-Tip series, full of engaging pieces of wisdom to learn from:

 

And finally, take some time to enjoy this feature from the Sam First Solo Series. The production quality is excellent and, combined with his information and presentation, Erskine sets the bar pretty high in this day and age of on-line live streams and webinars.