In sports, cross-training is defined as a method by which athletes spend time training in many areas outside of their normal activity in order to improve performance in their own sport. For example, professional football players may practice Pilates and ballet to improve core strength and balance while running along the sidelines. Or basketball players may study martial arts to improve the quickness of their hand-eye coordination while rebounding. These and many other examples are a given in the competitive world of professional sports; Playing your own game simply isn’t good enough to compete anymore.
 The same applies in the music world, and in the case of this article, the drumming and percussion world. It is simply career-suicide to approach a life in music by insisting on working in only one style of music, or by refusing to play others. Rarely will you see anyone in any field be successful by taking such a closed-minded approach to their development, but in music, it makes even less sense.
 Consider the inter-relationships of different cultures and styles of music on the earth today. Already three or four generations into the “Jet Age”, one cannot go to Japan and hear Taiko drumming that has not been influenced by Western culture, or vice versa (listen to any action movie soundtrack for the ubiquitous pounding drum sounds that provide the excitement for certain climactic scenes). Everyone borrows from everyone else; it is that simple. The problem however is when they do so unknowingly, as many musicians who have not studied the roots of their art are apt to do.


 Ignorance is unacceptable in any context, but especially when it comes to condescending and xenophobic attitudes towards other cultures. What very few people, musicians included, realize is the great impact on all the world’s cultures (thus music) that the continent of Africa has had. Specifically focusing on the region known as West Africa, we see evidence of musical and cultural influences all over the world, often times well outside of what people would consider the “Diaspora.” A quick example would be country-western music of the United States; although most lay people and even many performing musicians don’t realize it, any ethnomusicologist will explain quickly the origins of this type of music, citing scholarly evidence and historical anecdotes. All scholarly work aside, just listen to some West African folk singing, perhaps some recording of griots (storytellers) from Senegal and other places. Then listen to some early African-American songs. Then check out the blues and early R&B and its transition to country music of today. No one with ears can deny the connection- the chronological musical lineage is obvious.


 So a drummer-percussionist wants to embrace the concept that it is helpful to study and practice all styles, no matter which style he or she may perform. What next? Let’s start cross training!
 An alternate title for this article could have been “The Well-rounded Drummer/Percussionist,” because by applying these concepts, that is what the percussionist will become. So to start we simply find an area outside of a particular player’s expertise and start to develop it. Of course, there are a thousand different areas of percussion throughout the worlds many cultures, so this is going to be a lifelong process. Don’t be discouraged! The journey itself is your reward. Below I will list a few examples of the “cross training” concept and how to implement it so as to improve your main area of performance. The key is to begin applying concepts from different styles to each other almost immediately.


 First, we will take a hypothetical percussionist. Raised in a public school system that encourages the student to perform well on one instrument, the player is a great snare drummer in both rudimental and orchestral styles. The player was brought up to sight-read music very well and eventually began playing keyboard percussion instruments such as xylophone and glockenspiel in the orchestra. However, this player never sat down behind a drum set as a young percussionist, and when asked to play even the simplest styles on drums, tenses up and fails. If the player is very good and very lucky, they may have a successful career without ever having to address the drum set issue of their playing. But why would they skirt the issue when training on the drum set can help them with their main area of orchestral percussion!? First, the player can begin by playing some simple rhythmic patterns with his/her feet; at first this could mean simple quarter notes and half notes played by the hi-hat and bass drum (right and left feet). Then, they can progress to playing a basic stylistic ostinato between their two feet, such as the classic samba pattern. Immediately they can begin applying this area of percussion to theirs by playing very simple technical exercises for the snare drum, be it orchestral or rudimental style, with their hands while keeping the foot ostinato happening steadily. The outcome of this may not always even sound cool- remember it is a cross training exercise- but then again, some very hip beats and patterns may also develop by accident. And besides, think of how easy it will seem to stand still and play a very challenging snare drum passage on a snare drum in orchestra after having pushed oneself to do so while playing a rhythmic ostinato with their feet.


 The next example will be almost the exact opposite of the hypothetical musician talked about above. This player grew up playing drum set by ear. He or she may have started out by listening to one particular style, such as rock or heavy metal, and then branched out into other styles once they really got into drumming itself. But they never learned how to read music, and they never approached any of the other instruments in the percussion family, such as the keyboard percussion instruments mentioned above or even rudimental snare drumming. With this player, they should begin by playing the most basic of snare drum exercises by sight reading them, and then they should begin to learn to sight read on keyboard instruments. Almost immediately, they can begin to play the new snare exercises they learned while playing the samba foot patter mentioned above to give them some new drum set ideas to work on. Additionally, they can begin to learn the melodies and harmonic progressions of the songs and tunes that they play drums to in their main area of musical life. By knowing how to read (and think logistically about) written music, and by knowing the melodic and harmonic structure of music, they will become better drummers, guaranteed.


 Lastly, let us take someone who may be considered quite well-rounded. This person plays both “classical” western percussion instruments and drum set. They have quite a grasp on rhythmic organization in music, can sight read very well, can even improvise a drum solo. But for some reason, they refuse to play hand drums. Maybe they think that once they play hand drums for a while, they will no longer be able to hold sticks properly anymore. There are a number of people with amazing resumes I could list here to dispute this theory but I will name only one person in this space: Alex Acuna. Rather than looking for his resume, you can simply observe the Grammy Awards that rest on his mantle. The topic of hand drumming is a broad one and is usually a percussionist’s first visit into the realm of so-called “world music”, or simply put, music from another culture. As mentioned earlier in the article, West Africa has had an incredible influence on the music and culture of the world at large, and it is a great place to start experimenting with hand drumming (and stick drumming, singing, dancing, etc… in order to really experience the culture). So an orchestral player may try playing snare drum excerpts from famous orchestra music with his or her hands on a djembe, or a drum set player may try to play a rock beat using his or her feet, and instead of using sticks and the normal drums, use hands with a djembe added to the set. Of course there are so many different cultures to explore. A drum set player can study and learn the three individual hand drum parts to a folkloric Afro-Cuban rhythm such as a rumba (Yambu/Colombia/Guaguanco) and then try and play all three at once on the drum set. Or a classical percussionist can learn some Middle Eastern finger techniques for traditional frame drums of that region and then use the techniques to play some unique contemporary music on any instrument he or she may choose to use. The possibilities are endless. The point is there is no reason not to try these things.


 An important point to make here is that the percussionist should try as much as possible to truly devote themselves to gaining at least a basic knowledge of the culture or musical style he or she chooses to study. Because we are dealing with the sensitive topic of culture, it would be disrespectful to do otherwise. Simply, one should have enough respect for a culture to realize that they can only try to learn from it and apply some of its principles and techniques to their own playing. In other words, respect the culture first, and the technical playing aspects will come later.
 Finally, when studying any music, be prepared to spend hours, days, weeks, months, and even years learning it, and you will never become discouraged. Chung Ang University has devoted itself to training its percussion students in many different cultural areas. Professor Choi Jong Sil, Dean Choi Tae Hyun, and of course President Park Bum Hoon have all shown their willingness to gather percussion instruments and drums from all over the world. They have been able to bring in various experts as well to teach the students, and with dedication the students will become well-rounded percussionists in their own field and many others.

NOTE: For musical score example or recordings of some of the above concepts put into action, please contact the author at mtramsey@gmail.com.

 

By Mike Ramsey,

Assistant Professor of Percussion/World Music

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