On Musicial Identity and the Fall Back Position

I went to a show this week with a drummer who's playing I respect a great deal. She's one of those people who has played all of her life in all kinds of situations. Things seem easy for her and she goes beyond the basics.

I really watched her at this show though, and I was surprised by what I noticed. She has a definite style. In other words...she has a fall back position.

I definitely have a fall back position...the things that I play when I'm going on pure instinct and not trying to copy anything in particular. My pattern. It's the kind of thing that I try to break out of as much as possible.

So her fall back position was to open the hi hat on "3"...and to play "+4" on the bass drum...or maybe it was "a 4" on the bass drum. The first song that she did this I was really impressed. I thought...I can't do that...she's so good. And then I noticed she did it on another song...and another...and another. And suddenly I realized...that's not skill...that's just a fall back pattern that differs from my own.

Don't get me wrong, I still think she's a great drummer. But I'm less impressed and less intimidated now for having noticed this quirk.

What this also tells me is that, while it is good to break out of set patterns...it is those fall back positions that give us our identities as musicians. They define who we are...our natural tendancies. And in a strange way it is kind of nice that I have a tendancy...because it means that I am finding a voice as a drummer.

And there's probably people for whom my fall back position seems hard...simply because theirs is different from mine.