Roger Hudson(r), with percussionist Rich Adams.Human beings love drumming. Most babies are banging on something by the time they can barely crawl. I have a video of my daughter at age 4 ecstatically beating on a child-size drum set. The video also includes singing as early evidence of the unbridled passion for music that eventually led to her taking up the violin.
When I joined the 6th grade school orchestra, the instrument that I had my heart set on was the drums. I was given a French horn after the band director was faced with an onslaught of a half dozen classmates who also had their hearts set on playing the "skins". I don't remember a mad rush for the French horn, or for that matter the euphonium, which my buddy Glen was conscripted to play. While neither he nor I even knew what a euphonium was before the 6th grade, we both knew what drums were!
These were the post-Woodstock days, the era of the ten-minute drum solo! I have never performed this experiment, but I would be willing to bet that if 10 children were put in a room with a set of drums, a piano, an electric guitar, and assorted non-percussion instruments, 9 of the children would head for the drums first. Music educators are no doubt well-aware of such phenomena as evidenced by the use of percussion-based Orff instruments in early childhood music education.
Do these observations somehow suggest that drumming is some sort of child's-play? Is drumming and "beating" merely a banal pseudo-art-form that can scarcely be considered music at all? Is drumming for dummies? Hardly. Rather, I think that drumming and more broadly "percussion" appeals to our basic instincts and can be cathartic; that is, our response to exhilarating rhythmic drumming can help clear out our emotional cob-webs.
Although I make music primarily as a solo acoustic guitarist, I have never lost my love for percussion. Lately, I have rekindled my affinity for rhythm and percussion by including a percussionist in many of my performances. What I have discovered is that the inclusion of a good hand drummer, particularly on dumbek, darbukkah or djembe, has given many of my compositions a refreshing makeover and has inspired me to compose guitar music with drum accompaniment in mind.
The nuances of solo guitar playing can be a bit of an acquired taste for all but the most ardent guitar enthusiasts. Sometimes, it's nice to be able to present the sound and techniques of classic and fingerstyle guitar playing in a different context. The use of percussion can complement and even draw attention to the acoustic guitar. A well-balanced combination of percussion and acoustic guitar may attract listeners who would likely have easily ignored a lone guitarist.
My revitalized interest in playing with a percussionist can be in part attributed to my learning to play the oud. The oud is the predecessor to the European lute. Like the lute, the oud is an ancient instrument. Unlike the lute, it has no frets, is played with a long quill-like plectrum, and is used in classical and contemporary Middle Eastern music. It may be used as a solo instrument but is often accompanied by hand percussion.
Similarly, in India the sitar is often paired with hand drums known commonly as tabla- so I am hardly breaking new historical ground by playing my acoustic guitar with a hand drummer. In fact, considering various traditions throughout the world, the pairing of plucked strings with percussion is very common.
Well then, why do most classical and fingerstyle players tend to play without percussion? I would say it is due to one or more of the following reasons:
- Most un-amplified guitars are pretty easily drowned out by almost any hand drum.
- Classically-trained guitarists sometimes feel the time-keeping of drummers to be too rigid or unsympathetic to variations in tempo and dynamics that are commonly used in the interpretation of classical music.
- The repertoire they have chosen was not intended to be played with percussion accompaniment.
- The prospect of playing with another musician often requires extra preparation time. Sometimes it's easier to just do the gig alone.
- Finally, guitarists may not want to share the stage (or money) with someone else!
There are undoubtedly other possible reasons for not performing with a percussionist. I suspect the main reason that acoustic guitarists and percussionists do not share a long tradition together is the inherent volume imbalance dilemma. I have discovered that my oud works well with a hand percussionist simply due to the fact that it is quite loud, even without an amplifier. The hand drums really balance pretty well with the oud.
Even a loud guitar, however, has to be pushed to the limit to be heard over a hand drum being played at a moderate volume. Consequently, when I play a gig with a percussionist where I switch from oud to guitar, the oud will likely not be amplified whereas the guitar requires amplification. Towards that end, I have been using an AKG stick-on transducer microphone on the guitar, playing through a Fishman Performer amp.
There are other issues besides volume to consider when acoustic guitar and percussion are combined. An experienced and artistic hand percussionist probably will not be content with merely keeping a back beat for the guitarist. Indeed, there would be little reason to have a percussionist who was satisfied with simply being a glorified metronome. Likewise, it would make little sense to ask him/her to, "Just lay down the groove" as a drum machine could do that.
So let's assume that you have decided to collaborate with a good percussionist. Perhaps you intend to perform some of the pieces that you normally play unaccompanied. The interaction you will have with the percussionist will require some adjustments. Solo guitar players have the luxury of either being simply lazy or very expressive concerning tempo - depending on the character of the execution. I remember listening to recordings by Andres Segovia and wondering whether he was slowing down or speeding up a passage for the sake of expressivity or sheer laziness. If laziness was an issue, which I doubt, Segovia certainly was capable of shrouding it in a veil of interpretive liberty. Nevertheless, I often wonder how he would have faired with a percussionist accompanying him on certain pieces.
From my experiences in performing with a percussionist, I have learned that the basic tempo of a piece really needs to be specific. The work of a classical or fingerstyle player tends to be labor intensive. Given the counterpoint that is commonly used in classical and fingerstyle compositions and arrangements, a point of technical collapse can easily be reached if the tempo is too fast.
I've also noticed that good hand percussionists, particularly those trained in Indian tabla, enjoy pushing the tempo to the limit. It seems that reaching warp speed is part of the thrill of playing hand percussion! Unless you are Paco de Lucía, Al DiMeola or John McLaughlin, it is doubtful that you will be able to keep up with a percussionist in hyper-drive mode. For most of my compositions the "pedal to the metal" approach really is not what I prefer anyway. I try to set reasonable tempos with my percussionist so that the entire compositional idea can be conveyed clearly.
Instead of a flashy, sort of macho approach, I prefer a more multi-dimensional one. In my opinion, the composition should be at the core of the performance. No doubt, this attitude comes from my classical training. From the composition über alles perspective, the percussionist can truly play a distinctive role. Rather than merely keeping the groove and throwing in some fills in the obvious places, a composition-centered experience can lead the percussionist's imagination into new territory. A thoughtful and creative percussionist will be inspired to come up with new ideas when the mood and character of the composition is specific.
With the composition as the focal point, the percussionist is free to abandon preset conventions of style in favor of ideas that are custom-made for the particular piece. As new ideas are formulated and integrated into the composition, the guitarist and percussionist can shape the performance in the same way a solo artist can. With this approach, there is no reason that a performance featuring acoustic guitar and hand drums should sound any less expressive than any other instrumental combination. In fact, as the percussionist becomes familiar with what the guitarist is doing in the composition, the accents, articulations and dynamics in the piece may become even more exaggerated and defined.
It's apparent to me that the use of percussion in my performances has been highly attractive to audiences. I can't think of an occasion when the applause was diminished because I opted to play with a percussionist rather than as a soloist. I remember playing a gig some years ago, where Phil Keaggy, Muriel Anderson, Michael Chapdelaine and I were all going to play separate sets. I showed up at the sound check with tabla player Kyle Jones whom I'd been rehearsing with at the time.
One by one, the other guitarists approached Kyle and asked him to also play with them during the show! Obviously, the other guitarists knew the audience would enjoy the drums. Far from a distraction, these experienced guitarists realized as I did that the drums would not draw attention away from their performance, but rather make the audience even more aware of the acoustic guitarist- and that is a beautiful thing!
I'll see you down the road, drums at my side-
Roger Hudson
About Roger Hudson, Guitarist and Composer
As both an exceptional performer and a gifted composer, Roger Hudson offers the music world a rare and prized combination. The classic guitar and Turkish oud are Hudson's instruments of choice, and he employs them to express a variety of moods, styles, and techniques.
20th Century Guitar Magazine wrote that Roger's most recent recording Guitar Peace "...tastefully combines a wide range of instrumental guitar art forms." Of his solo CD Guitarchitecture, Soundboard magazine's John Schneider said that Hudson "…has created some strong themes and many gorgeous moments within fetching rhythm figurations." Great Britain's often acerbic Classical Guitar magazine calls Roger's music "sparkling" and "wonderful".
Roger's musical interests and experience are wide-ranging and dynamic. He began playing the electric guitar by ear at age 12 and eventually earned a Master of Music degree from Georgia State University. Since 2002, his compositional, instructional, guitaristic and journalistic abilities have been uniquely combined in his "Fingerstyle Basics" column, which appears regularly in Fingerstyle Guitar magazine.
Roger Hudson's compositions are available in print and online from Mel Bay Publications. His recorded work is available through iTunes and CDbaby. He lives and performs in Nashville, Tennessee.
To learn more about Roger and his music please visit www.rogerhudson.com.
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