TDJ-Issue-Three

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“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.”
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Above: Jim
Chapin’s Advanced
Techniques for
the Modern
Drummer Vol. II
If I had to narrow art down in one word, it’s expression. Whether it’s
dance, theatre, or music, everything we do is about trying to find that
level of expression.
Stick Control came out in 1935 and it’s still regarded as one of the
best ever written. Why has it endured so?
That book has maintained its need for people to want to go through
it because it’s a callisthenic workout book.
Although music has changed, that book has
remained constant. The same with Jim Chapin’s
book. Do you know who Jim Marshall is?
Jim Marshall? As in Marshall Amplifiers?
The very same. I knew Jim very well. A lot of
people don’t know he was actually a drummer;
a very good one. Back in the 50s he was playing
in a band with a guitar player who had a tube
amp where two of the tubes had burnt out.
The only tube that worked was the tube that
projected the mid sound. The guitar player
hated the sound and wanted to throw it out
because he couldn’t fix it. So Jim said, “can I
have that amplifier?” And he took it. Jim liked
the sound, and this was at a time when music
was changing. This was before The Beatles hit,
before Jimi Hendrix. So Jim reproduced this
sound and used his own name, Marshall, to
name it. His first endorsee was Jimi Hendrix.
Anyway, Jim was also a drum teacher, and
three of his students were John Bonham, Mitch Mitchell and Keith
Moon. When I met Jim I asked, “what books did you take these
great drummers through?” He said, “Stick Control and Jim Chapin’s
Advanced Techniques.” I think that says a lot.
I find the context in which they were written interesting. Stick
Control was written pre World War Two. The way people learn and