Adam Silverman : Nashville Session and Touring Drummer

Another really concept I’ve learned recently came from an amazing drummed named John Riley. He’s a monster Jazz drummer and a true hero of mine. He talked about this in a video, so I thought I’d share it with anyone who’s bored enough to be reading this :)

The concept of headroom applies to many things, but can really be compared best to an automobile. Why are BMWs so cool? Well I think their engines are so amazing because they were created to run at 150mph on roads with no speed limits in Germany and other places in Europe. So when they are running at 70mph on our roads here in the states, they have a ton of headroom left in the engine. So they are running at a low capacity compared to what they can run at if you push them.

Musicians really need to work to be the same way. Why do I spend 2 hours a day working on just coordination? Because ,though I won’t really play the Jazz exercises or ostinado patterns that I work on, they create a lot of coordination which really becomes headroom in my playing. So when I am doing a show with 33Miles, or working in the studio, I am running only at like 40% of what I am capable of doing. That’s how guys play amazing things and make it look so dang easy, because they are well rehearsed, and they are only running at less than half of what they are capable of doing.

The moral… the more headroom you have in a playing situation the better. The closer you get to running at 100% in a gig, the more practice you need to do to keep up and push ahead of the curve. Having that room really comes in handy because you can focus on the show, the songs, or the performance and not worry about the limbs that are carrying out the musicality.

Hope this helps someone. I love this concept and I am working really hard to gain more headroom in the Jazz world. If you’re working on something you don’t think you’ll ever use, you’re heading down the right path in my book.

This is something I’ve been pondering for the past few weeks. I read in a new drum book that I just bought that Albert Einstein said “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”. That quote has really been resounding to true to me. I’ll be honest and tell you that I didn’t burst forth from the womb and onto a set of drums. My parents are not expert musicians, though my Dad has become quite a sax player in the last few years. I didn’t really even get serious about my playing snare drum until sometime late in middle school, and didn’t have a drum kit that I could play until 8th grade or so. 20 years later I am an avid student of the drum kit, I play professionally in Nashville as a touring and a session musician. So what happened you ask? About 10,000 hours of practice :)

Seriously. I absolutely believe that God gave me a gift. I have always heard music for more than it is on a surface level. I started picking songs apart and learning to play CD’s when I was just a kid. I remember listening to Smooth Criminal for hours on a toy record player in my room when I was a kid. I also showed really early signs of great hand eye coordination. So yeah, I was definitely given gifts, but I’d argue the the best gift I ever got was the ability to learn. I’ve simply applied the skill to the drums and it’s taken me a really long way. I have the ability to learn and retain a great deal of drumming information in a given practice session. I also drive myself working 3-5 hours a day still on my musicianship. But the actual gift of drumming, I am not sure that exists, or if it does, you can look at me and know you can do anything you put your mind to.

From a Christian perspective, I’ve read many articles on talent. I’ve come to the conclusion that talent is about 10% a gift you were given, 70% work, and 20% drive and perseverance. You don’t honor God with the gift itself, you honor him by what you do with that gift. Robert Shuller is quoted as saying “what you are is Gods gift to you, what you do with it is your gift to God.”  I know many musicians that don’t practice, and many non practicing drummers that I can definitely learn a lot from, but in the end, I think I was given a set of gifts, and the way I honor God through that is to work on them until I feel accomplished. So basically, I’ll be working on them as long as I have breath.

Work hard. Practice hard. Play hard. Do it all with a joyous heart and many amazing things will happen for you. But it’s up to you to grab the reins and do the work because nobody is going to do it for you. There is nothing that can replace a solid practice routine if you really want to become a professional at any skill.