Event Review
Mike Mangini is definitely one of the most prolific and influential drummers in the scene today. His musicianship, impressive achievement and devotion to the instructional aspect of drumming made him the perfect caliber to be featured in Discovery Channel’s Time Warp, a documentary series produced with high-speed camera to demystify never-be-seen wonders that human body can process.
Instead of greeting his fans traditionally, Mike delivered a 30-minute long, non-stop drum solo. It was a performance that no one wants to walk out of - for it is a parade of all tricks and skills that every drum enthusiast loves to watch live. Mike’s faster-than-ever drum rolls; chops that required 4-limb independence and odd time signature alternations were executed to perfection. His endurance, power, sonic consistency and unlimited ideas were the qualities that make this paragraph musically attractive to the ears. He was intensely serious throughout the solo, except the ending. While some prefer wrapping up solos with ornaments, clashes and rolls that are visually sound, Mike chose to end the solo in a more humorous way -by stopping his busy hands, sticking his head out between the tom-toms and disclosing the smiling face buried underneath his sweat-immersed hair. Filling the air with a house of laughter, Mike’s twisted solo ending reminded us that music is all about fun and excitement.
The confidence and self-assurance that shone through Mike’s playing were apparent. So is Mike’s solo pre-written, or improvised on site? In response to enquiries made by audience in the Q&A section, Mike mentioned, "I don’t practice anymore, ever since nine years ago. I improvise in clinics and workshops. I don’t mind making mistakes because I know I learn so much from it."
In the evening, a good amount of time was spent on sharing Mike’s own bag of tricks and giving advice to the audience. The science advocate also took time to introduce his personalized hardware set up and the story behind his Pearl signature snare drum, as well as bringing updates on his latest projects. In his previous Hong Kong clinic, Mike demonstrated with a selection of songs he worked with Steve Vai. This time, he showed the audience an unreleased metal tune by his new band. Mike revealed that he has been working on this project since seven years ago, but he could only work on it only on a part-time basis due to his packed schedule. "We have not come up with a name for it yet, but I’ve been calling it 'Chicks and Sticks', because the rest of the band’s members are ladies who play great rock and metal rock. It’s finally coming together now!" said excitedly Mike.
An Excerpt from Interview
1) For audience who is new to your drumming, could you please briefly summarize Rhythm Knowledge?
Absolutely. Rhythm knowledge is a system that breaks everything you can play down to four systems. So my playing based on this is part science, part artistic. The science part is timing, maths, rhythm and limb combinations; on the human side of science it’s called co-ordination and speed, and on the artistic side it’s expression, so that I don’t feel so limited. I have more freedom with my limbs, my freedom with my patterns, more freedom with different styles of music.
Let me say two things that are important to me about this. Many people saw negatively about me because I play stylistically on Modern Drummer Festival DVD 2006. But I was trying to share – Modern Drummer asked me to do this. So I did play no drum solo, I didn’t play crazy, I played Bossa Nova, then Samba. It makes people upset about me – I don’t understand this. It’s very difficult to play Samba the right way. And many people on YouTube accused me didn’t play Latin right, but I did play it right, authentic. I have great master teachers and they showed me the right way. These people in You-tube don’t know, most. (Does Horacio know about that?) Yes, Horacio knows I did the right thing because he showed me. Even famous drummers and peers, even people I know speak negatively about this – it upsets me, because they try to compare speed and drumming, art and music - they shouldn’t do this because they’re all different things. Speed is a math thing, a rate of change in time. It has nothing to do with music. So why do they have to say negative things about my World’s Fastest Drummer record? Because they say “Music should be an art”. It’s not a good discussion, not a quality discussion. I’m very disappointed that they can’t make a good argument. Speed is not art, drumming is not necessarily speed; speed is a very small part of it.
2) So as a clinician, what do you find most enjoyable about drumming?
I find self-expression most fun. I find what’s enjoyable now is I learn to lower my expectations, so I don’t go for as many crazy physical things that I may not be able to play because I don’t practice much now. And I find it enjoyable to be a better manager. I find it enjoyable that there are other drummers in the world that help promote more playing like me so that I could share. In other words, if Virgil Donati goes crazy in the clinic, if Marco Minnemann uses his skills to play extra, then it’d be help to me, because they promote some more patterns. If Jeff Hamilton does a jazz clinic and play just melody, maybe I can learn some from this and play just melody too. And then, I can make a mix between Virgil, Marco and Jeff. If Eric Singer, or Chad Smith, they do a clinic, they play really solid, really heavy, then maybe I could play very solid and heavy, and a little of something else too. I think we all help each other. I find it more enjoyable that more people can play great. So as Mike Portnoy. Mike Portnoy has a very solid and consistent sound. Mike Portnoy is promoting his progressive style and I need Mike Portnoy to be my Portnoy. I need Virgil to be Virgil. I need these players to be themselves, so it allows me to be me. And maybe I’m not so much the same player what everybody else can play, but maybe I can play a little mix and make my own way.
3) What are the most common bad habits of students?
Sometimes students are trained too much with one style. It’s very hard for them to learn all styles. The reason this is bad is because most teachers in the world do not understand how difficult it is for a person to change habits. Asking a rock drummer to learn swing in four semesters is ludicrous, because it’s like asking a person to quit smoking. It’s a habit. They hit hard, and they hit hard. They would have to practice, five to six hours a day to learn jazz properly. So the teachers need to lower their expectations, and students will have to see how difficult it is and learn harder. It’s two-way. The students must respect, and the teachers should respect science and nature. It’s not artistic. The worse thing in the world is when a teacher needs a student to be talented. What about when a student is not talented, but hard working? There are teachers who don’t know how to teach concrete science. They say, “this person doesn’t want to do it, he doesn’t have what it takes to get there”. These teachers should be fired. Teachers should know how to teach anybody anything. But the student is also responsible. If the student doesn’t do his homework, he should quit and he should not blame the teacher. I hope they way I say this is objective, because I don’t mean to blame anyone. I mean to blame a bad philosophy.
4) How has your kit’s set up evolved over the years?
My kit has evolved as a musician. First I was trained as a classical drummer, and then a jazz drummer. But I always play Rock and Roll on the side, always. I then joined Extreme for a very short time. I wanted to follow Nuno’s guitar lines so I set the drums symmetrically. And it works for Steve Vai too. Now I can combine playing as a musician, for these great artists, and functions for myself into one kit. If I play a verse of a song with the left side of my body, and I play the chorus of the song with the right side, they don’t interfere with each other and it will make a difference in the sound. I will show this with my new band. I engineer myself, and mix myself. No one is going to touch my drums.
5) How important is comfort to you? Does comfort weigh more than functionality?
It’s both the same if the drum is set up to the human body. The biggest mistake can be made is to change the human body for the drums. But thankfully, the pro hardware can be positioned anywhere. So I set it to my body, it’s functional and comfortable.
- Francis Fu -
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