Jack DeJohnette: I Never Studied with a Teacher

Scott K Fish

Silver Member
Jack DeJohnette: I Never Studied with a Teacher

SKF NOTE: One night in February 1980 I went to J.B. Scott's nightclub in Albany, NY to hear Jack DeJohnette's New Directions quartet with John Abercrombie (guitar), Eddie Gomez (bass) and Lester Bowie (trumpet). I had a few published Modern Drummer interviews to my name and I was able to interview Jack before the show started. My hope was to continue the interview sometime after the show and offer it to MD. But Jack and I never reconnected.

I still have a 15-page typewritten never published manuscript of that interview. This part of the conversation has Jack DeJohnette, 36-years ago, telling me about his evolving practice routine and how he learned to play the drumset.

dejohnette_new_directions.jpg


Scott K Fish: What kind of things do you practice? I hear tales of you practicing eight hours a day.

Jack DeJohnette: I use to do that. I don't do it anymore. I just sit down and play.

SKF: How long did you do that for?

JD: I don't know, man. I use to do it on the road. Do it 'til you get to a certain point technically where you don't do it.

Now I can practice half mentally. I can play as fast as I want or whatever. Do it mentally. As long as I sit down at the instrument one or twice a week. You just get to a point where mentally you see yourself at the instrument -- and it's a cybernetic thing.

[New York drum teacher] Charlie Perry pointed that out. When you see yourself doing the act and your brainwaves send out a signal to that part of your body. You don't actually follow through with it, but the message is sent there already. So it's already programmed. So when you actually sit down at the instrument you'll find that you can play it -- once you develop a certain amount of dexterity and proficiency on the instrument.

SKF: There are certain drummers who practice using a book approach....

JD: I never did that shit because I never studied with a teacher. 'Cause I play piano. I just went into a drum shop one day, got the 26 rudiments -- got the sheet -- and learned all [of] them.

I looked at a few drum books. Charles Stone's Accents and Rebounds. Uh, that didn't interest me to do. I knew what I wanted to do. I learned alot of what I did in my own head and listening to cats, watching them, talking with them, listening to records. And actually on-the-scene experience. On the job experience.

There's a whole bunch of different ways you can get it.

SKF: How about the different experiences with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis...?

JD: Oh, they were definitely rewarding and enlightening and opened things. It opened me up! But I was allowed.... People like Miles and Charles respected me and what I was doing enough to leave me alot of room to develop. To experiment. They never restricted me.

SKF: Would they make suggestions?

JD: Yeah. They'd make suggestions because they trusted my imagination and my ability to follow enough to make a suggestion -- and know that I could carry it out and embellish it. And that's the kind of players I like to hire. You don't have to say alot. You just say a few words. They know what you're talking about.

Scott K Fish Blog: Life Beyond the Cymbals
 
Nice.Just proves that there are many ways to get to where you want to be with the drums.

Before you use this article as a reason not to study read this from Jacks site:

"Born in Chicago in 1942, DeJohnette grew up in a family where music and music appreciation was a high priority. Beginning at age four, he studied classical piano privately and later at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. He added the drums to his repertoire when he joined his high school concert band at age 14."

Not exactly "self-taught"
 
I never understand how guys will say "I'm entirely self taught, except for that time I went to music college"


Jack's not the first one to make such dubious claim.
 
Jack's studies as a piano player surely made his transition to drumset smoother than someone starting drum lessons without knowing song forms, musical note values, how to accompany other musicians in bands.

If Jack, as he says he did, learned the 26 drum rudiments and interacted "on the job" with other professional musicians -- that's a great way to learn. Maybe it is more accurate for players who learned as Jack did to say, "I never had formal drum lessons with a drum teacher."

Best,
skf
 
Jack's studies as a piano player surely made his transition to drumset smoother than someone starting drum lessons without knowing song forms, musical note values, how to accompany other musicians in bands.

If Jack, as he says he did, learned the 26 drum rudiments and interacted "on the job" with other professional musicians -- that's a great way to learn. Maybe it is more accurate for players who learned as Jack did to say, "I never had formal drum lessons with a drum teacher."

Best,
skf

Indeed, one of the greatest roles of a educator is to teach students 'how to learn' on their own. One of the most important things that I learned from my current teacher is: "If you can't play it slow and to a grid, you can't play it fast and in a song. Even if you think it sounds right, you're just mimicking a sound and not actually playing the part"

When I learned guitar there was a similar parallel. "If you can't play it clean, you can't play it distorted", which is a dig at guitarists that use distortion/reverb/delay/flanger to cover over the fact that they cannot actually play a part.
 
Before you use this article as a reason not to study read this from Jacks site:

"Born in Chicago in 1942, DeJohnette grew up in a family where music and music appreciation was a high priority. Beginning at age four, he studied classical piano privately and later at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. He added the drums to his repertoire when he joined his high school concert band at age 14."

Not exactly "self-taught"

Didn't say anything about "a reason not to study". Makes no difference to me, each to there own. If you like formal lessons, great, If you dont who cares? Surely the guys who do take lessons will be delighted as there will be one less "good" drummer to worry about.
 
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