How To Get Through: Developing Coordination Practice and Solo Improvisation on the Drum Set

Abstract

This autoethnographic practice-led research offers new ways of developing coordination and solo improvisation on the drum set through self-regulated practice and research. My coordination practice is focused explicitly on developing rhythmic phrases that are composed of even eighth-notes adapted from select exercises appearing in Ted Reed’s ‘Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer’(1958). The practice is informed by my study of the Korean traditional rhythmic cycle Hwimori (translated as “Hard Drive” hasten, stormy rhythm; 휘모리) and Hwimori’s three distinctive musical elements which are: onomatopoeia training (Yip-changdan; 입장단), physical training (Hohup; 호흡), and compositional devices.

During this period, I not only embodied new physical coordination but also recognised ‘mistakes’ that interrupted the flow of practice. I reclaimed these mistakes with the ‘Indicator System’, a systematic tool that allows for the documentation and analysis of mistakes (‘indicators’) that prompt new musical decisions. I further expand the utilisation of the Indicator System to recognise, document and remember original ideas that emerged in various environments. The collection of these indicators suggests a minimalist compositional structure – a graphic score - for my solo drum set improvisation album ‘How To Get Through’ (2021). The album utilises embodied coordination that was newly gained over the research period in a free and independent manner: I openly follow the compositional structure, that emerged from the Indicator System, and respond to creative prompts in a highly improvised manner (as trained through the Indicator System).