Never Mind About Finding Yourself, Create Yourself!

Style is a way that a composer organizes their conceptions and speaks the language of their craft. As an example, Baby Dodds and Gene Krupa are - (should be) - are known to you. Certainly, you notice how they are related. When Buddy Rich was developing his style, he studied players both prior and current - especially Baby Dodds and Gene Krupa. Those of us who are familiar with the language of that period can relate to how to distinguish them. (In his early years, Buddy Rich emulated Baby Dodds, Gene Krupa, as well as other drummers, and then developed his own style. )

" I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way." - Buddy Rich, Musician magazine.

All art presupposes a work of selection. Usually, when I set out to create something new - like a drum solo - it is not definite. If I were asked what I wanted at a stage of my creative process, I would be hard-pressed to answer. But I will always give an exact answer when asked what I did not want.

We can notice, going back to the example of Buddy Rich, that he benefited from the same culture, drew on the same sources, and borrowed from others' discoveries. Then he transformed those influences into something uniquely his own. The same can be said of Joe Morello, Tony Williams, and so many others!

JOE MORELLO:

Interview at Drum Clinic regarding drummers Davey Tough and Jo Jones

"One of my favorite drummers was Davey Tough, because he could keep a nice rhythm with a band and keep good time. He didn't hardly do anyting with his left hand. He was just straight ahead on that big cymbal, but he got it cookin' real good."

"And another was Joe Jones. Boy, that guy taught me a lot, because I played opposite him for about six or seven weeks at the Embers. He was working with Tyree Glenn and Hank Jones. He used to play his bass drum open. He had a little 20-inch bass drum, a snare drum, a floor tom cymbal and a hi hat. And he'd get up there on drums with brushes, and he'd get the bass drum going. No felt strips or muffling, and he would get a great sound.

I'd get up there, and the bass drum would go BOOM BOOM BOOM! The only way I could play it - I found out - was pressing the beater into the head."

The masters transcended the conventions of their contemporaries and projected their influence far beyond their own era.

Yet this transformation did not occur through imitation alone. It required selection. Rich absorbed countless influences, but he did not keep everything. He retained certain elements, discarded others, and gradually formed a voice that was recognizably his own.

Creative work is often guided less by a positive vision than by a series of negations. The artist may not know what the finished work will be, but can recognize what does not belong. By progressively excluding unsuitable possibilities - Like a gambler narrowing possibilities by ruling out cards that cannot be in play, the artist advances by eliminating options that do not belong.

Practical steps to apply selection-by-elimination in creative work:

Selection by Elimination

1. Generate many possibilities.

2. Define what must be excluded.

3. Eliminate before optimizing.

4. Use binary tests to quickly reject.

5. Apply different filters at different stages.

6. Time-box decisions.

7. Record reasons for rejection.

8. Prototype survivors and discover new exclusions.

9. Invite others to identify what should be cut.

10. Treat constraints as guides, not obstacles.

Creative clarity often emerges not from knowing what to choose, but from repeatedly discovering what to remove.