PERCUSSIVE NOTES 22 OCTOBER 2003

Chapin, Morello anfJ KnudtsonBY JIM COFFIN

No, the title of this article doesn'trefer to a baseball team's infield,but to a PASIC Master Class

trifecta. Trifecta is a horse-race bettingterm (which is appropriate for the up-coming PASIC in Louisville, home of theKentucky Derby), and if you attendthese three master classes, you will defi-nitely come out a winner.Jim Chapin is no stranger to PASIC, a

familiar figure with practice pad andsticks at the ready to instruct players onhow to get through his seminal 1948 in-struction book, Advanced Techniques forthe Modern Drummer, without jumpingoff a cliff. In the early 1940s he wasplaying with the famed jazz saxophonistFlip Phillips at New York's HickoryHouse jazz club when Uncle Sam toldChapin "I Want You," and he was off toWorld War II. Mter Jim got out of thearmy he continued playing jazz gigs,toured with the Casa Lorna orchestra forawhile, and finally put together the JimChapin Sextet in the mid-'50s.Chapin didn't begin playing the

drums until he was 18 years old, andseveral people, including Gene Krupa,suggested that he study with SanfordMoeller. The main thrust of his PASICmaster class will be explaining and dem-onstrating the Moeller system of stick-ing. In a 1981 Modern Drummer article,Chapin said, "Moeller made you playthings with a continuous motion. Themotion was the message. You made themotion and the stick played it. After awhile, it almost played itself."Moeller analyzed everything and

stressed taking everything apart. If youplayed a paradiddle, you would learnwhat each hand did by itself. So fromthe time that Moeller showed me that, Iwas able to think in terms of doing onething with one hand and one thing withthe other. That was the reason I got intothings that later developed into mybook."Chapin watched other musicians and

came to the conclusion that if pianistsand organists can playa line with onehand and a counter-line with the other,why do drummers have to play every-

thing hand to hand? Show up at hismaster class and get the answer.The second PASIC 2003 master class

installment of sticking techniques willbe presented by Joe Morello, who be-came a household name during his 12-year stint with the Dave BrubeckQuartet and has not only amazed thedrumming world with his technicalskills but with his musicality. On thequartet's recording of "Take Five" heperformed one of the most famous drumsolos in jazz. Commenting on that soloin a Modern Drummer interview, Mo-rello told writer Rick Mattingly, "Whenpeople use the word 'technique' theyusually mean 'speed.' But the 'Ta.ke Five'solo had very little speed involved. Itwas more about space and playing. overthe barline. It was conspicuous by beingso different."Although Morello appeared with the

Boston Symphony Orchestra at the ageof nine as a soloist performing theMendelssohn Violin Concerto, heswitched to drums at age 15. His study-ing with the legendary George LawrenceStone and later with Radio City Hallpercussionist Billy Gladstone gave Mo-rello a very secure technical foundation.Recalling Stone, Morello said, "I'd workout of his book Stick Control, and after Icould play the sticking patterns I'd startthrowing in accents in various places."Impressed with Morello's ideas, Stoneincorporated them into his next book,Accents and Rebounds."The secret to technique is relax-

ation," says Morello. "It's a matter ofnatural body movement. When yourhand is relaxed, your thumb isn'tsqueezing against your first finger andyour wrist isn't at some funny angle.The stick just rests in the hand in a verynatural position. When you strike apractice pad, you should be able to hearthe ring of the wood stick. The averageperson chokes the stick and that comesthrough on the drum. The whole thing isrelaxation and letting the sticks do mostof the work." .Morello has written several drum

methods, including Master Studies, and

made an instructional video. "Techniqueis only a means to an end," he stresses."The more control you have of the in-strument, the more confidence you willget and the more you'll be able to ex-press your ideas. But technique is onlygood if you can use it musically."The third PASIC 2003 master class on

sticking is the result of a 12-year questby Gordy Knudtson, a Minneapolis-based drummer who tours with theSteve Miller Band, is head of the Percus-sion Department at Musictech College,is heavily involved recording jingles andindustrial film scores, and has backedsuch luminaries Ernie Watts, DianeSchurr, Bobby Shew, Phil Woods, andmany others. As a result of a studentasking Gordy why he couldn't conqueran old multi-stroke technique, Knudtsonultimately developed what he calls theOpen/Close Technique-a revolutionarynew take on an old drumming techniquethat, until now, drummers have onlyused in one hand at a time.

"Over time I began to understand thatthis technique wasn't just a method toproduce a fast stream of notes,"Knudtson says, "but rather could beused to create a new way to approach,explain, and understand the mechanicsof drumming."In April 1999, Knudtson's article "A

New Approach to the Single StrokeRoll," was published in Percussive Notes,and at PASIC 2000 he presented a mas-ter class on the same subject with addi-tional information on short rolls. "Atthis presentation," Knudtson recalls, "Idefined and named the fundamentalcomponents of the Open/Closed tech-nique. Along with demonstrating the ba-sic hand movements and basic strokes, Ialso showed some simple ways to syn-chronize these strokes to create varioustypes of long and short single strokerolls."The publication of The Open / Close

Technique Books 1 and 2 in 2001 wasfollowed by an instructional video in

2002 by GK-MUSIC.com that EdShaughnessy endorsed by saying, "Youhave developed a historically importantform of technique that ranks with theMoeller System." In his 2003 PASICMaster Class presentation, Knudtsonwill review and explain the fundamen-tals ofthe technique as well as demon-strate some of the interestingpossibilities it creates. (For further in-formation, see "A Physiologic Analysis ofthe Open/Close Technique" by MichaelCroy in the August 2003 issue ofPercus-sive Notes.)These three master classes present a

rare opportunity to learn about thosespecial sticking techniques that the pro-fessionals make look so easy. Plan on at-tending and keep your eyes and earsopen. PN

BRUCE KLAUBERDRUMSET PRESENTATION

FRIDAY 9:00 A.M. ROOM 201

PERCUSSIVE NOTES 23 OCTOBER 2003