What a 10 Minute Gong Solo Teaches Us About Drumming

There’s an important practicing truth that is the key to really mastering anything on the drums. Without following this key truth, you’ll never fully learn something to your best ability. What’s interesting, though, is that a percussion piece written for solo gong actually teaches us a lot about this piece of “practice wisdom.”

“Having Never Written a Note for Percussion” by James Tenney is a solo percussion piece consisting of one note:

The instructions are simply to play a roll on any instrument for a “very long" time. Generally the instrument of choice is a gong because of how interesting and complex its tones are. So most of the time, a percussionist will sit down on the floor in front of the hanging gong, poised to play a very, very long single stroke roll with two large mallets on the face of the gong. Here’s a video of a good performance of the piece if you want to check it out.

So what can this piece teach us about playing drumset?

When I was in music school, one of my fellow percussion performance majors decided to perform this piece for a recital. Through his practicing the piece and performing it, the rest of us learned a lot of interesting things. But the big realization was this:

When you play a repetitive or continuous sound for an extended time, you start to hear things you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

If the gong roll only lasted 10 seconds, we wouldn’t have noticed all the tonal characteristics of the rumble yet shimmer of the gong. Nor would we have noticed all the ways in which those frequencies interacted with the concert hall. Part of the mesmerizing nature of the piece is the fact that it sounds different in every space, and part of the listening experience is noticing what the room does to the sound of the gong.

This was really fascinating to me, but my mind was blown further when I was playing drumset in the middle of a cover gig shortly after. We were playing an extended jam section of a song, and I had been playing the same groove for a minute or so. I suddenly had this weird realization that I was deeply listening to my groove - as well as to the musicians around me. We’d been grooving long enough that we’d settled into this deep state of hearing everything and fully experiencing the music. For the first time I knew that I was actually listening! I’d been told by teachers for years to “listen, listen, listen,” but I’d never really experienced what that meant. Of course I’m listening! I’m hearing everything around me! - But not on the level I finally experienced this night.

So what really happened on that gig?

Well, thanks to the repetitive sound of my groove, my ear started to pick up on nuances and details it hadn’t noticed before. My hands and feet went into somewhat of an autopilot since the groove was simple, and my ear diverted to picking up more than just the surface level noise. This was exactly what happened when listening to the gong solo.

I bet you can already gather what today’s big takeaway is - But I’ll specifically lay it out for you:

The only way to truly master a skill is to do it over and over and over and over again.

We get frustrated with our lack of progress sometimes, but how much repetitive practice are we actually putting into that particular coordination pattern, groove, rudiment, or fill? If you’re only doing the shallow practice of playing through a tough exercise a handful of times before calling it quits, how can you expect to master it? Most of the time you have to truly “get in the zone” and play something with your metronome a hundred times in a row. Then and only then do you really hear what you’re doing and really reach perfection (or at least near perfection). This takes patience of course, but the results are well worth it.

YOUR ACTION STEP:

Go practice a groove for 10 minutes without stopping, and see what happens. If you start with a groove you’re already comfortable with, you’ll find yourself listening much more deeply by the end of the 10 minutes. You’ll also find yourself much more aware of dynamics, fully in control over the subtlety and touch of each limb. If you loop a more challenging groove for 10 minutes, you may not reach that “listening perfection” - but you’ll become way more comfortable from a technical standpoint thanks to that repetition.

Repetition is the name of the game. This must be a part of your practicing - whatever it is you’re working on. So take the 10 minute repetition challenge and see if you don’t get results!

Here's a really fun (and really challenging!) exercise that will improve your pocket, your listening, and your overall awareness of exactly what you're playing. Check it out right here...

Have fun and stay non glamorous! God Bless,

Stephen

P.S. - If you think this would be a good topic for a video on the channel, let me know. A lot of times a lesson topic will start out in email format, then I’ll make a video if the written lesson helps you guys.