NEW EPISODE - Chick Corea's "cheap but good advice for playing music in a group" PART TWO

What is uppppp?

Ben here.

On this week’s episode of Drummers on Drumming, we’re back with part two of our conversation on Chick Corea’s Cheap But Good Advice for Playing Music in a Band.

Once again, I’m joined by Rafa Vidal (Almost Monday) and my co-host Eric Urrea (Marina City, La Armada).

Rafa has been building something really special in LA with Touch Grooves, a live music series built around presence, community, and actual connection. Phones away. People in the room. Music that exists in that moment.

This episode picks up with Chick’s advice from numbers 7 through 16, which means we got into the stuff that sounds simple until you actually try to live by it.

Balancing the kit.
Playing with intention.
Leaving space.
Making the band sound good.
Letting the music breathe.
Not filling every quiet moment just because silence makes you nervous.

We also got into tempo, feel, and what happens when someone else plays your parts exactly right, but the song still feels different because the push and pull is missing.

I recently watched someone sub for me at an Eve 6 rehearsal, since I’ll be missing a few shows because of upcoming dates with LP. He played the parts well, but it made me realize how much of that gig lives in the spaces between the parts. Pulling back before a bridge. Letting a chorus lean forward. Listening to the guitar instead of just “playing the chart.”

That’s the stuff you don’t always notice until you hear the band without you.

There’s also a great stretch in this episode about relaxed playing, The Inner Game of Tennis, chewing gum on stage, playing with rings, and why your body usually knows how to adjust if your brain will get out of the way.

At the center of the whole conversation is this idea:

A good drummer is not just someone who plays the right thing. A good drummer makes everyone else feel safe enough to play better.

That might be my favorite takeaway from the episode.

Not safe in a boring way. Safe in the sense that the band can trust you. The singer can lean back. The guitar player can stretch out. The music can go somewhere because you are not trying to drag it into your own little drum world.

You are listening.
You are choosing.
You are leaving room.

And sometimes, that is the whole gig.

Listen to the full episode HERE

P.S.

Why haven’t you read The Inner Game of Tennis yet? :)

The Drum Panel is a recurring series on the podcast Drummers on Drumming, powered by Big Fat Snare Drum

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