Bruford - Borstlap - Peacock Strut (Bruford - Borstlap - In Concert In Holland, 2004)

The best that can be said for the camera work here is that it is at least democratic. You get pianist Michiel Borstlap for the first half, and a too-close-up of me for the second. But there are some sparks in the music that make the video worth inclusion on the channel, despite the poor production values. The ‘bending-up sounds’ are small Chinese peacock gongs laid out on the toms, as I remember. Hence the title of the piece. If I were a beginner drummer, I’d have some questions. Now that I can play a paradiddle, what do I do with it? When and where do I use it? Are these answers always the same or are they ever-changing depending on the musical context? Can I make up my own answers? I have no intention of trying to answer these difficult questions, but they do point to a hole in the way we teach drums: a pedagogical lacuna, as the academics might say. Part of the problem is that most instruction books tell you what a paradiddle is, and how to play it, and then stop there. The beginner practice