TDJ-Issue-Three

Left: Dom’s
bestselling book
‘It’s your move’
The Drummer’s Journal: It’s Your Move was the first book I was ever given. It’s different
to many other instructional books as its focus is on how you’re playing, not necessarily
what you’re playing. Can you explain the title?
Dom Famularo: It’s Your Move is about sharing an idea with a student. So when I give an idea
to a student, whether it’s a technique or a pattern, I then tell them, “it’s your move to take it
to the next level.” It’s like a game of chess; you begin the game and you turn to your opponent
and say, “it’s your move.” Your opponent reacts, then you react to their reaction.
The book’s subtitle “Motions and Emotions” is quite cryptic too…
Motions and Emotions was the title of a great recording by Oscar Peterson, a great jazz piano
player. It had Ed Thigpen on drums. It came out in the early 70s and I loved the fact that
Thigpen could play this burning fast tempo with brushes. It was intense. Their performances
were all about movement and expression.
What was the motivation for writing it?
Back in the 1990s, I studied with these great teachers such as Joe Morello and Jim Chapin.
Neither of them had notated any of their actual playing techniques in their books. So we
were having dinner one day and I asked why this was the case. Their response was the same:
“Everyone already knows that stuff.” I said, “well, I’ve gotta tell you something here guys, I
really disagree. I travel around the world talking about playing techniques and when you guys
pass away, we’re going to lose this stuff if it’s not getting passed on properly.” So they said, “Ok
Dom, you write the book.”
So that’s why the first half of It’s Your Move is solely about technique. I wanted to focus on
and capture movement. And I still see many drummers grabbing the stick tight, fighting so
hard to achieve motion, but they’re actually only fighting against themselves! I get guys all
the time with tendonitis or carpal tunnel or tennis elbow. Motions and Emotions was about
understanding movement so you can better express what you’re feeling.
So the emotive aspect of it, you feel the drum set is an emotive instrument in itself – it
expresses emotion?
Absolutely. It has such great drama in expression. When you hear Steve Gadd play, he’s got
this feel that makes you feel so good. When you hear players like Billy Cobham, and the
excitement and the energy he puts into his performance, that’s very emotive. So emotion is
very important because art is about expression. That’s the bottom line of art. If someone’s
playing an instrument and they’re not expressive, they’re going against what music is all about.