Rob Brown on The Importance of Gigs, Whether Feel Can Be Taught, and The Future of YouTube Drumming

Throughout the years, I’ve had a running mental catalogue on the go-to videos for certain subjects. Jazz swing, building a solo on the drums, tuning, timing, etc. And when I look back, in a surprising number of categories, the “best resource” comes from Rob “Beatdown” Brown.

Rob was among the “OGs” on Drumeo, with a great video about Stewart Copeland, and consistently drops authentic takes on his channel. That’s why I’ve been meaning to have a conversation with Rob for some time.

I finally caught up with him in early August, and opened the conversation with a question that’s been on my mind a bunch: What does he make of this situation where everybody practices chops, but nobody’s “allowed” to use them? And has that created a situation in which they’re not taught very well. Rob didn’t hold back on that subject, and was equally candid in speaking about the importance of real-world playing experience for the “internet generation”.

We veered a bit into the nature/nurture debate as well, speaking about whether “feel” can be taught - my hobby horse is the crowd that seems to think that, even for people with the capacity for good feel, there’s no recourse except to “feel it”. Rob was a bit more open minded to the idea that some people have a better innate capacity.

Finally, we spoke about YouTube as a mature medium, and the future of careers in drumming.

If you want some unfiltered wisdom from one of the OGs, I know you’ll enjoy this interview!

Early Access - The REAL Reason You Can't Flow Around The Drums

First things first - grab your free transcription.

Even if we’re groove hounds, most of us, in our unguarded moments, probably dream about being to “throw our hands down the kit”, and have it all make sense.

I can think of a few recent examples of this type of playing that’s made an impression on me. On the shoulders of people like Vinnie, we have my fave Thomas Pridgen, and also younger players like Josh Crawford and my new “shiny object”, Stan Bicknell. I mention these players very explicitly, rather than “single stroke assassins” like Cobham, Chambers, Bruner, or Mitchell, for a specific reason that will become clear soon.

Anyway, many times when we try to “flow” in real life, we hit a wall. Whether it’s psychological or physical, that wall is actually surprisingly specific. It’s the difficulty of moving the lead rapidly from the snare to the high rack tom. If you try moving the lead hand from the snare to the floor tom, it’s easier. But moving to the rack tom requires lateral movement, and - especially if we haven’t optimized our setup a’la Brandon Green - vertical movement too.

And while there are exercises to make this easier, and setup optimizations to reduce the distance traveled, approaching kit-flow in a lead-hand-lead configuration is, like the jazz ride cymbal, a valiant project, but a “slow burn”.

A much faster way is to realize that many of our favorite players are using something else entirely to generate that kind of kit flow: entering the high rack tom with the non-lead hand. There it is. The head-exploding/”I’m saying when you’re ready you won’t have to” Morphuis-to-Neo moment. Now it’s just a matter of how.

And that’s exactly what I’ll discuss in this “old-school” drum lesson.

Know you’ll enjoy!

Early Access - YouTube Video AND Podcast - Isac Jamba and Eloy Casagranda

(Here’s the complete “lead sheet making” video for the Eloy lesson. And here’s the transcribed lead sheet.)

By total coincidence, it ended up being “Brazil Week” on the 8020 channel.

In one corner, my podcast guest, one of the most acclaimed Brazilian jazz drummers in recent years, with a ton of energy and wisdom, and some amazing stories.

In the other, possibly the preeminent drummer in modern metal, recently of Sepultura, and now, of course, of Slipknot.

I’ve been following the rise of Eloy Casagrande with interest. As a jazzer, I’m still not ride-or-die for 100% of the modern metal aesthetic. But certain drummers, like podcast guest Matt Halpern, polyrhythm wizard Chris Turner, and Eloy, capture my attention because of their ability to create interest within the constraints of the idiom.

Luckily, none of that will matter in today’s video, because it’s not like I’m going head-to-head with Eloy Cassgrande playing blastbeats…or whatever.

Nope - we’re meeting on much more neutral territory. The drum parts of Theo Katzman, and Vulfpeck. Drumeo’s series in which great drummers learn unfamiliar songs was the perfect canvas. And, though I’m a casual Vulfpeck fan, I too was unfamiliar with today’s song - Christmas in LA.

So it happened that on the hottest day of the year, I set up the cameras, clicked the stop-watched, and tried to learn in real time the same song that Eloy Casagrande did at Drumeo. You’ll see me reacting to both my final take and Eloy’s. Unlike other challenges I’ve done in which I’ve had days to memorize and perfect things, this was all about getting a decent take in as few takes as possible, which ended up being 2.

And if you’re tempted to skip the shed today, Isac Jamba wants you to know that’s fine, but he won’t be joining you. Jamba, who fulfilled his dream to come to the US and play and teach drums professionally, has the “do or die”/”no excuses” energy that’s motivated me to practice even harder. Listening to Isac describe all the intricacies involved in a seemingly simple samba beat, and the great fore-bearers who changed the game with things as simple as continuous 16ths with one hand, it’s hard to be anything other than motivated.

I know you’ll enjoy this pairing!

Early Access - YouTube Video AND Podcast - Keith Carlock and Ofri Nehemaya

Download the free transcription here.

Today we have a tale of two generations: one master at his apogee, one up-and-comer who’s already turning hears.

Keith Carlock is one of the most universally revered “drummer’s drummers”, and also one of the most unique. Like Brian Blade, Eric Harland, Nasheet Waits, Marcus Gilmore, and JD Beck, he has many “descendants”, but no fore-bearers who sound quite like him.

He’s been Steely Dan’s most long-running drummer since their original lineup (and maybe even including that - I didn’t look that second part up), but “true fans” will know Keith as one-third of the most interesting fusion trio of the early 2000s: that of Wayne Krantz, which often included Tim Lefevbre.

And Keith’s style is, in my opinion, one of the primary “tree trunks” in the style that became “New York fusion”, which includes Mark G, Nate Wood, Louis Cole (though he’s a west-coaster), Arthur Hnatek, and possibly Maison Guidry. Though these younger players have plenty of their own ideas, it’s hard to deny Keith’s DNA is in there.

All of which makes it ripe for a video. Because surprisingly, not much has been said about exactly what makes him unique. And this is a YouTube cliche, but some of the details may surprise you.

Ofri Nehemaya, for his part, is barely in his ‘30s, but has already played and toured with Shai Maestro, Aaron Goldberg, Avishai (Bass) Cohen (the same drum chair where Mark Guiliana got his first big break), and Gilad Hekselman. He’s also no stranger to bandleading, releasing a viral, self-produced, straight-to-YouTube single called Just Sayin at age…I think it was 19;)

Ofri has been on my radar since then, and I was excited to ask him about how he practices, how he channels flow, how he approaches moving to a new scene and “fitting in”, and more.

You’ll see in the opening minutes I’m trying to pull some practice details out of him, and he just wants to talk about flow state and making music, so we go in that direction.

(I still suspect he has some juicy shed secrets. Perhaps we’ll explore those in a Part Two.)

Couldn’t be more excited about a couple of bits of content, and hope you enjoy!