Body Language, Drumming, & The Brain with Mark Bowden | LTR Chris Lesso podcast

[Music] Christmas oh here how you doing welcome to the ltr' podcast this is life through rhythm we are drumming we are having fun and we're feeling the energy the passion and the lessons we learn with this through going forward on the path focus energy patience humility strength the grit that it takes to play drums and and the expression that happens it's just awesome there's always something new there's always a new mountain to climb with this you're never gonna arrive at learning everything it's so cool so welcome to the podcast please sign up for the podcast you can subscribe and leave a review so other people can find this information because we want to serve as many people as possible and feel free to share this with somebody that you think would benefit so today we have a real connection to life through rhythm we're gonna welcome mr. Mark Bowden to the podcast and I'm really lucky to teach mark son Lex drumming and he's so talented such a great guy and it's so cool seeing him developing in the level that he's going out with his drumming and through Lex I got to meet mark and find out that he's one of the world top world-renowned experts on the brain and body language than how they're connected and this is a real example of life through rhythm because you might say like Mark's not a drummer what does the brain and body language have to do with drumming it has like everything to do with it this is how we deal with the stress of drumming you know being in a situation like it's almost like public speaking like if you're in front of a lot of people in a band and an audience situation or just dealing with you know all the different personalities that are that have to do with music and even how we process this information ourselves and body language because drumming is a movement and that's one thing I love about drumming and the process of it is it's really the study of motion so I always say how you move is how you groove so our motion creates our sound so our body language is very connected to how we play drums and how we express ourselves because drumming is communication drumming is a language and since Mark Bowden is one of the world's talk top experts in communicating through the body there is a huge connection with drumming and what you can learn from mark and one of the best ways to improve what you do and this is really what the LTR attitude is is like steal from mediums that are not your own so as drummers we can learn from athletes we can learn from chefs we can learn from people like Mark so you're gonna love this one this is amazing at the end of the podcast we went into analyzing some of my favorite drummers body language so I just threw these drummers at Mark like Stewart Copeland Carter Beauford Tony Williams and he really got inside what their body language was saying and a little bit about what was going on in their minds and it was amazing to hear marks insights on this you'll just notice me through the whole podcast just getting my mind blown being a complete student of what Mark had to say so I learned so much through talking with him I'm honored to get to know mark and to be friends with him as much of an expert as Mark is you're able to have a laugh with them and not feel like he's you know intimidated by all the knowledge that he knows such a great guy we have to keep a sense of humor on this journey and one thing with Mark have as I've gotten to know him we have fun through the learning so you're gonna really enjoy this please welcome to the LTR podcast mr. Mark Bowden and increase what you have to say through your body language on to the drums and into life let's have fun let's do this thanks for doing this my pleasure we're here give your own podcast no I don't know I'm on lots of other people's you're on ma yeah I maybe do like sometimes like three a week so why have your own no you don't you just be on a biggest it's like the cottage theory yes that's exactly not just like people with expensive cottages need you to turn up and to verify that they actually live like that people who have podcast need you to turn up to verify that they don't you have a you're making my power imagine your podcast credible yeah she's showing up you on your own yeah which is okay that's a ramble is you talking to you yeah yeah so thanks for goodness man huh um drumming is a language and I am honored to teach yourself laksa and you've kind of seen this whole crazy drumming the thing yeah and I'm fascinated by like Miles Davis used to say I can tell how someone's gonna play by the way they carry themselves you know they walk and I love to teach this concept like you are the instrument you know if you how you move is how you groove like if you were to play in the air and just put something in front of you it's gonna the sound is an extension yeah it's gonna and there's a story about John Bonham and he his kid was going to a birthday party and they were in this house and the other kid had like a kids drum set and Bonham kind of went the basement and was like just playing this kids set but everybody upstairs was like that's that Zeppelin like it sounds like Led Zeppelin how does he how is he making that kids drum set we are the sounds oh oh really so it's like the engine the instrument is not as important as the player exactly a player can play any yeah terrible instrument you said in five words that's why you ain't has on your yeah so yeah just everything I've learned from you and your boxer and your videos in body language and the brain I think it's so important in drumming in just life so I guess we could start with like when you sit to play drums yeah and you're expressing yourself are there any parallels that you've kind of thought of with like how you carry yourself now you read in Lobster last night yeah yeah I don't know George and Peterson er I have taken us yeah turns out yeah and in other words your body language affects your physiology absolutely yeah or your mental state yeah so I would say what interests me most around how body language might affect drumming is you're often saying tension is the enemy mm-hmm yeah and so we all have tension and so and for me there's no bad body language there's just results that you wanted or didn't want there is no bad tension there's just a result that you want it or didn't want and I think in body language I think about tension states so literally your muscles have tension in them like I can tense up my fists here or I can relax it so the moment I the tension in my hand I would call that's like asleep this is like the tension have if you were actually said I can do it in my whole body yeah I can then put more tension in it and I'll have the tension a while called cool which is there's a there's a little bit of tension enough that I'm not sleep a little bit so I'm thinking you know if I was playing right now if I was playing drums how would it be useful to be in cool might be my behavior yeah I don't know even get to the to the cymbal on time yeah but but but psychologically in that tension stay it wouldn't actually matter I never do I hide mister you're just like yeah so after after cool then there would be let's call it let's call it you know put it you put a little more tension in it and now I'm slightly more alert but there's no sense of urgency I could get stuff done so now as I'm talking to you now I'm gonna call this manager yeah cuz now I'm just managing like stuff would be on time but it wouldn't be urgent yeah it would be there yeah and if I put even more tension into me now I'm in a state that I'd now call is there a bomb in the room ah red right it's like it's not that there is but like is that so so with this panel bring kind of its curious now this tension is like curious yeah Harriet now I'm going to go to a tension State which I would call there is a bomb in the room okay now look what's happened to my body and my what this tension be useful man I'm even scared of like even hitting something yeah yeah so now now I'm gonna go to the tension of total tension which is the bombs exploded while there's even one level of yeah yeah that's right so you're gonna imagine me trying to play a kit like like this now but it might have something it might have something to it you know might have something to it of those I'm thinking about some kind of rhythms where you might want to go oh I don't want to play there right and that kind of tension could be really interesting for I think you for rhythm so that's the first place I would start with body language behavior and and playing an instrument especially one that's so attached that's why I wanted to have yeah I want to talk today yeah so how many levels are there so so I would say there's there's sleep yes yeah it's just one yeah then I would say there's cool yeah yeah then I would say another one in now called neutral alright which is there's a sense of absolutely no urgency and absolutely it's not cool and it's not urgent it's just there then there's manager whereas now I want to get everything accurate so there's a little bit of urgency again I'm Andre these are just triggers these words just triggers to trigger my body into a certain tension state mm-hmm level so after manager I'd say is there a bomb in the room so now it's it's more curious it's more forward and then after that I would say it's there is a bomb in the room and and so there's more backing that sense of the tension wants to back your way from so and after that ease on it it's just gone off but when you get really good with these tensions you can go from one to the other I can go from there is a bomb in there in - cool so you talk about awareness yeah it's awareness also sitting at a kitai what I imagine is I'd be able to sit at a kit and go hang on where am i around the bar there's a little bit of sense of mmm the bombs gone off in my my yeah and now is that good for me and and can I go - just can I just be a manager right now many lads used for every wannabe then curious yeah that's so cool I never thought of it that way I did as your son has played in many student concerts yeah there's one student concert where one of the students was walking her to the stage you know awesome drummer prep right what was her first time performing yeah that was why and I didn't expect this reaction I'm walking her to the staging and she just almost started to cry right tears in her eyes it and so it's the bomb either yeah the bombs went off bombs gone off and she she was just sitting down and I was like I can't crack a joke to kind of release some of them but I think as drummers I want to talk to you about like stress but yeah sometimes I say to people like I would talk about tension drummin drummin stressful he isn't both both hands both arms right and of course in life like unless you're in your basement in a you know in a ball you're gonna be hitting some stress yeah and stress is good yeah because it's gonna push this to another level especially music you know but you get the bass player and he's like instructions in your time you grow did you try to play here trying to I'm just trying to play drums yeah and I understand your language at the same at the same time maybe you drink just spilled right and now your pedals wet and maybe and the lights are on and the audience is there and it's like it's it's it's it's fun right it's it's a stressful situation a little guitar and light a string would break well you're in the middle of something of strength yeah it's like okay what I'm gonna do now cuz you be going that's a really important string this is in the key of this songs in the key of D and that's that's a critical string but just wait for the bass yeah I'd rather work out what am I gonna do about this yeah so sometimes like before no no I know I experienced this is like before you even play you're in a stage and you don't want to be in yeah like one of the higher stage yeah yeah yeah so so I would like I would put that in the in the realm of fight and flight but yeah as part of that is the freeze response so fighting flying often people go oh it's fine flight it's a much bigger response than that the first thing when you get into fear is freeze yeah and that's instinctual because that's the most economical way of surviving is to do nothing stand perfectly still and stiff so the predator just walks on by yeah yeah like do nothing and you see that a lot with with stage performances you steep it when you go okay they've gone into freeze yeah now I imagine you know how do you you can't really produce my first you blade drum when your whole body has gone into the bombs gone off yeah like isn't it's you watch planet earth either one or two on Netflix you ever seen that is that that's the one with that's the nature yeah yes I'm you know on planet earth to to is next level right probably the cameras are like yeah they're just getting this stuff on film there's what animal was it it's like a scorpions walking by or something in the end yeah the animals and just yeah yeah I think wasn't so the next response that if the scorpion keeps coming towards you yeah yeah and it's not going away so you're freezing hasn't worked then it's been in retreat yeah yeah then it's the so it's it's flight before fight because again it's the most economical thing if you get into a fight and you get damaged even if you win the fight you might still die because you were damaged enough right so it's most economical to try and run away I see now sit at it and an instrument that means you're now backing off from them literally you'll see the person back off yeah they're gonna get that chin here and their head will turtle into their shoulders don't minimize the size of their body yeah yeah and then they're now they're they're backing away from the horse's nose out or slow down yeah yeah yeah because again it's they're in a retreat response shut down shut down now now the next now if the predator doesn't go away and for a stage performance the predator is the audience you looking at audience and your brainstem your instinct has this form of counting it goes one two three four Lots it can't do five just goes the moment it seemed more than four people is just on wow that's a lot and then it goes how will I predict their behavior if they're for me or against me and it just goes I can't let too many people yeah so then it defaults to a negative just goes let's do the worst possible scenario they're going to kill me yeah defaults no negative yeah yeah so now you're in fight and flight very very quickly and it's the not knowing it's the brain going I don't know I can't predict this mm-hmm let's predict it's gonna be bad you can do all kinds of psychological stuff like well but I did a gig last week and they loved me it doesn't hair it just goes it just goes yeah that was last week you don't understand now and that's prefrontal cortex absolutely it's trying to it's trying to get in there and and convince her and go yeah but you know look here okay you're okay there's no no no it's seen more than five people in Dominic and it can't predict the behavior see now you're getting this physiological response oh yeah freeze flight the audience are going nowhere so now you're in to fight which might mean you're starting to get aggressive with the music with the other band members with your instrument but too aggressive too aggressive I mean there might be a degree of less let's I mean you know again there's no bad behavior this just results that you want anymore and and the and the aggression could be useful I have known some really good aggressive musicians and then some that then flip into an aggression whereby they literally start destroying the music and it's like oh yeah they're there they've got they've they've done now they're there they're being there beating off music yeah and it's like somebody being with with a social disorder in the same band as you it's just like oh we're gonna have to let them hmm get through that mm-hmm because that that's especially if they're the lead right through that cuz cuz you can't go you know what comp that's gonna be okay no why I remember one time I was trying to get as much experience as I could yeah like earlier days I guess and I got asked to sub for a big band yeah okay it was only rehearsal like a jazz speak back yeah yeah I just know what yeah yes yeah and and they rehearse those bands because there's just so many people in the song so there's what does a gig or not it's like right every Tuesday night and somebody could make it they ask me and I'm like I've never done this and I'll probably never get you know they're hardly are any big bands so I'm gonna do this as cool you get the experience and I can I can read and I don't know I kind of know but I got there just like 30 people or whatever and the directors like alright buddy gets your chart uh you know satin doll uh and he's like alright I want and I'm like whoa I have enough I'm like okay and I'm trying to okay and he's like I want let's head I'm like okay and there's some and big men were that somebody the sound traveling actually affects the drummer's experience yes what's it like your off time that you you have you have to learn to push through it yeah yeah because they need that driving the best role I didn't know that's just so I'm trying to read and I'm like whoa this is the directors you know and then the bass player starts doing that so he's sitting you know across Romania he he starts stomping his foot like he's and I'm like what does he do I don't even know that he's it's just kind of looking at me and doing that so I'm like does he have him like it some problem with his legs like what's is he stomping out a bug or something and he was telling me I was dragging right so what happened was I was going into the I guess flea fun it was just so much right at hand right right right I just started going and just I was like not you know I just didn't here's a foreign world control foreign world and be just being thrown in a friend friend of mine old friend of mine Charlie round turner who now plays keyboards with mature and Ultravox he I remember in we used to live in the same house and he came back from one rehearsal and he was playing with the Count Basie big bad no sea cow bass it's not around anymore but the world basically big band was still going that's a big deal it's a big deal he's he's a pianist yes for he's doing the Calabasas stuff it's a good player plays really good player but he's never played with the Count Basie big band kind of being Count Basie so so and there's the band leader so he turns up the rehearsal literally on each song the band leader would go three four wouldn't even do one two three four but if we go three more and the whole back they were used to playing with each other the whole band would you imagine become basically big bands making a big loud noise and truck is like what like literally this thing is it's a runaway train yeah and he's gonna he's got to do this blink well now on stage or her SIA this was a rehearsal but I remember it kind of coming back from this rehearsal with this slightly traumatized let happen nobody's going yeah the guy just goes goes you know three four and we're in 343 North yeah I got the one two three you gotta work this out these guys like to go people and the whole thing's ever to pop the hell's going on yeah from this story was was the advice that the band leader would give him after each each song was mainly just yet it's a it's a it's a kick it's a hit it's just like man it's just a kick in the head just like his kicks it's a swing okay that's my that's my note for it I know what everything was a was it's a kick hits a hit it's a it's a swing okay that kind of gets a swing it's just I'm not swinging with the river so yeah well that's the highest level man static yeah so to finish off this this thing about fight and flight the last part of that is the play dead response if you're not if you haven't beaten young beaten the the enemy through fight and that's so you're getting beaten up the next thing is play dead where the body go that the blood drains from you that's your Henry's no free starts freeze my fight faint the faint response which is the idea is is you play dead for the predator because if they think that the predator thinks you're ill or already dead and he was diseased in some way it knows it shouldn't eat you hmm so there's some there's some reptile some lizards that if you if you bother them enough then they go into their fight and flight routine they'll flip over and there's some blood will trickle out there now what they make themselves spit blood and go home so basically you go hi Daddy was it was I didn't even touch it and yes we must have some kind of virus and I shouldn't eat that yeah so that's kind of like I I can't do this I kind just I just yeah I just want to yeah I mean you could still keep on playing like I've done it would be like the Living Dead yeah it would be like zombie player I've seen that I'm sure you've seen it yeah kind of experience they're not there so you'll have all you've you often like you often get this association which is you you float off somewhere else what's complete overwhelm right totally over there yeah yeah complete overwhelmed to the extent that you might even feel like you're watching yourself playing cuz you you don't want to be there right now too painful it's tapping out yeah to painful for you too big I mean you're still playing you know you aren't there anymore now it doesn't mean you might not be doing playing drums okay yeah like you're not a big gig anymore your mind has gone somewhere more pleasant huh which is not there right now well sometimes it can be like like I heard Taylor Taylor or Hopkins from Foo Fighters yeah and I heard this story and he would he would like come yeah come offstage and just head in his hands like man I think Dave was like what's up man I'm in a band with the greatest drummer in the world like blank drums yeah and Taylor just be like terrible you know it's like no it was it was good and yeah I think sometimes I guess we have those you're playing and you're like I just don't want to be here it's right and but meanwhile it's like meanwhile you got your liter song you got a complete a song and you might actually be doing better than you think you might well be doing better yeah because that part of that might be imposter syndrome I don't know whether you've ever had a lot of top performers have impostor syndrome which I might don't deserve the name of course they will for I'm sure you've done it you've sat down with a group and you've got although they're about to find out they'll find out that icon like drums or Who am I to you am I to be with ya yeah and I'll get caught at some point you know that they the singer or the guitarist who's gonna the lead concerns me ago man I'm fine you can't play drums Kenny horrific yammering again all that talk of ya bite was great last week you can tell yourself that doesn't work mm-hmm that doesn't work but you know one way one way to countermeasure all of this is to think about what's the tensions in my body how does my body feel and what are the tensions and how does it feel when I'm performing well when I've when I play drums really well my what how am I sitting how am I just record those things and can you put on the body language of that so you're almost it's not worth isn't Amy Cuddy well it's like body body physiology before still absolutely so you can trigger the state through through the environment play environments trigger states all the time yeah yeah so one of the best indicators of your performance will be the environment that you're in like I know I could probably put you in environments where you wouldn't behave like this he might be more self-conscious or less self-conscious you might be louder you might be quieter you know I guess an example might be if I put you in a church I bet you get quieter mm-hmm you know I bet you start talking like this to me yeah it's like well where's Chris gone yeah yeah Chris is still here I just it's like nothing happened it was the environment that triggered that in you so now we are the environment for our brain and we can tell our body what to do I can tell myself look I just told myself to have less tension in my body I can tell myself now to be in the tension state of curiosity right you know is there a bomb in the room I can tell myself to go to cool interesting so you know if I if I'm if I'm playing well one of the things I might want to do as I'm playing is going how am i holding myself this is going well I'm enjoying this how am i holding myself right now rather than go how am I thinking right now hmm and then go when I sit down at the drums can I instantly reproduce and try and reproduce that that body from them yeah from from the last time yeah you know rather than going can I have the mind but for my body to the mind the body to the mind rather than no it's not that you can't do from the mind to the body yeah just in my experience it's not the best in Tamera yeah it's not the most an economical and quickest the quickest is body first well unlike you said the limbic brain overrides that anyway yeah yeah for sure yeah you trying to do a countermeasure to that crap primitive yeah yeah the neocortex doesn't get hurt by that yeah a primitive brain the primitive brain is supplying its oxygen so it's like there's a hierarchy there yeah so that so the neocortex is going no you were great it's okay you were great last week and the primitive brain is going no sorry we're going to fight and flight you don't count anymore actually I'm gonna cut off your blood supply supply yeah because you're not being helpful right now well there's some sad stories about you know buildings that have burned down and just people trying to call it of the wall right when they're you know literally trying to go through a wall with the exit sign was you know if you it's because of the blood supply being for sure completely cut off yeah fine I think fine flight you won't think critically yeah you'll go back to instinct why as it's trying to save your life right now yeah and and it's got 500 million years of that working yeah otherwise you know I think we'll say in here like it's the fight flight system is working across a huge range of organisms yeah for the last 500 million years or so yeah so it totally works yeah but it doesn't necessarily work in in situations where you could think your way no out of it it just cuts off that the blood supply to that thinking which is why things like short-term memory goes when you're under stress you like I knew they saw Cystic from that lights like like a border guard it's kind of like where were you know stress let's go this country but no anymore massive it's alright not much literally we have forgotten I can't remember the name I went yes you know well is it I mean what yeah yeah cuz it's like I can't even remember my own name yeah anymore so she yeah stress dress comes up won't do extraordinary things I think the main thing is is that in my experience thinking your way out of it doesn't help and makes it worse I agree deciding on the body that will most likely countermeasure the stress hmm and deciding to have that but and deciding well before the stress happy yeah no it's no good you got to think you got to think you're going to create the body way before the house in muscle memory yeah me which is absolutely yeah yeah so before walking onstage and you as you know I do a lot of stage work I'm I'm on stage a lot talking to audiences I've already started the body language of confidence oh cool yeah how early do you start it pretty much when I wake up in the morning yeah yeah when I wake up in the morning I'm like okay I'm doing a speech at 10:00 like game day I'm now starting the body language of confidence oh that's cool and there's me and there's and also have kind of rituals of what I wear and again because I don't want to I know I'm dealing with stress and I don't need to add extra stress of like what do I wear so there's a uniform I've got a uniform that I what are some of the rituals they have I always wear red socks guys only have red sauce you only have red socks sometimes if I'm not feeling like I'm in a performance situation I won't wear socks and that's kind of my signal to myself of like you're alike yeah yeah if somebody notices you on the street right you don't you you know you don't have to perform for them but you don't the red sox indicate to me okay you you you need to be on you know you're in the public eye you need to be on you're in performance Wow yeah your triggers are yeah so they've put the external triggers yeah rather than them I got a I got a think they myself in I'm not saying you shouldn't do that yeah I just don't see it working as well and I think sternal triggers I agree yeah wow that's fascinating I was I played there's a drunk duet thing and I've dunk with the great drummer Aubrey kale okay drum neighs iam drum set together make all the noise awesome yeah we played breakfast television intro okay so it's like get there at 4:30 a and a kind of thing right soundcheck and this was when I think they were trying they had a new studio yeah it was new and that everything was new so they we got their setup and then they you know it's like 5:00 a.m. or something in there at 5:15 and they're like you just run through your thing we're gonna like check some levels and like in this bright still once your setup feels amazing to play him down sure as you know yeah yeah Lex gets out yeah this morning lesson yeah and so we're in the studio the Lighting's cool I'm looking over at Aubrey like an awesome jammin you know it's and we got our coffee and it's it's and run it through and we're like this is on this is awesome like relax what generally doesn't really cool yeah all right guys you ready yeah 60 seconds yeah like I do 5 TV yeah and then they don't think I can do it again no and they're like oh my god and then the announcer turn of that you know it's big teeny cameras and they say alright Toronto here we are we're gonna wake up with some drums you know grab your coffee but uh drum knees in take it away and they go like that and big cameras go like that and then like why did we do the song and I remember feeling like it did not feel good right yeah it's right it's like we got through it but it's just I'm like we just played this like eight minutes ago right and it was like a completely different experience right because that fight-or-flight thing kind of yeah like it gets me every time as well alight yeah it's like you sit down with the interview like oh we're about to go life and we can't I can't go I can't go ash yes I kind of said that wrong yeah yeah I go back and rerecord yeah yeah there's none of there's none of that which means so for me what I have to do is go I I've just given away any chance of this being perfect this is not about perfection right this is about yeah this is about getting to the end my waist I do when I'm training other speakers they like what about what should I focus on it like getting to the end finishing focus on the finish don't the Vexin is a bad idea focusing on that right like right because a lot of people are lying I you know be in the moment I'm like no get move on that moment will have gone the moment you think you're it's like it's it's yeah Dorling happened you know finish yeah yeah you know get to the get to the end head for the end of this that's what we did and I've been lucky like I was self-taught in drums and I think it's an advantage to my teaching now of having done everything like right like you said there's no wrong or right there's only consequences right and it's like okay try squeezing a stick and getting blisters and try playing for two hours and see how that works yeah yeah that's not a good consequence yeah and how good are you playing the next day a couple yeah you know playing playing bad and used to play bass a lot but I play it down again yeah and yeah just how wrecked my fingers would be it's like I would you know if I had to play the next day that would really hurt yeah I'm gonna find a different way it must be a different way yeah or I need to do this more often there's a story I think you might have heard me tell that's like this is drummer and Bruce Springsteen Max Max Weinberg okay and is in the eighties you know none of my young students they're like okay you know fine but imagine how huge that was yeah 1900 or whatever that's the biggest thing the biggest thing ever probably Michael Michael Jackson level right and Max had this gig in the band and but he I guess he was self-taught squeezing the sticks and Bruce plays these like for our shows three four which he still does to this day and Max just got cramps and he had to get his tech - electrical tape let's stick to his hand just be like get to the end and he ended up going to this incredible teacher Jim Chapin yeah who I was lucky to also spend a bit of time with and he's like how am I gonna lose his gig like I need you know I need help with techie and he taught him like the molar strode yeah which is using momentum letting the stick balance yeah and happy ending max still still plays with bruising out right you know and and just and now you watch the YouTube videos it's just like flawless technique right so would you say you know watching I mean you've seen me teach so we technique is how you move study on movement yeah and as we say tension is the enemy you know so it's training even though my limbic system-- brain once like sure whoa what's going to find fly yeah fight or flight you know but I through the hours of repetition right the boring mundane training you know I always say like sternum oh yeah you know and and head out yeah breathing all right let's talk about breathing - yeah and so therefore when the stress comes at you which it will right right it's not a drumming it's gonna be your physiology saves you right so much so well so people could do all kinds of stuff around trying to breathe better you know and concentrate on their breathing I would say concentrate on the on the body and the breathing will work itself like you think when you go into stress and pressure you're gonna you're most likely gonna minimize you're gonna minimize this nice thing you take up because you want the you don't want the predator to see you oh god no never slouch like country tight cut especially protect these areas feared these are these are delicate areas on the body crunching at the stomach yeah and so now yes do this now you know your drumming we can see you something yeah try that's now you're kind of drumming like like this you know again it won't necessarily be terrible try this Lex crunching crunching and something kind of I don't know might there might be something good about it yeah you know I'm ducking and diving try now you know but you know what happens when you maximize a little bit more well notice how your chest cavity has already opened up so your breathing is automatically going to be different mm-hmm so I would never say to you hey let's work on your breathing hmm I would go let's work on you maximizing in that space of the kit rather than minimize well then the body knows it's safe right and then it breathes accordingly it's gonna it's gonna start breathing like something that's safe rather than something that is it's not safe yeah yeah is at risk so it's about risk yeah we look how we go okay that world is risky and in a risky world we should minimize and if that doesn't work I'll get really aggressive or is different from that's different from maximizing the space it's like now yeah okay let's see relax see that see they're too much the totally aggressive drama okay so like the wrists guess like yeah yeah aggressive yeah if I put a lot of tension in there I can't do that a lot if I meant if I made it look like that's that could go all day yeah yes yeah so I think there's there's maximizing minimizing and then there's all of those techniques that you're talking about I think which are about the economy of the movement knowing that the stick can do some of the work fun exciting it doesn't have you yeah like you know just let it drop it'll bounce a bunch of times yeah yeah yeah that's like knowing that that that's you don't have the bouncer physics will do well that's trust right right yes like yeah trusting in the preparation and right yeah yeah so I see what you mean like having breathing training but if you're in there well you're really yeah we can we can stand up and do lots of breathing tracking with yeah and then you get on the stress of pressure it's like why are the two are breathing - I forgot about it and she's now being short-term memory yeah so you'll forget what and that's what happens with stage performance people forget all the stuff that they've trained in because it's in their head it's not embodied so as it is is that where the over preparation would come in well it would be the an experiment in intellectualization of the of the training so it's an idea that I have in my head rather than something that I physically done so you'll forget the intellectual idea yeah more likely than then you will forget the thing that's now in embodied like if you yeah practice being more open that's what's great about you teaching okay yes that's already closed me off you know what I read already constricted in my I should have thought of that like that is now helping my breathing like that's a better breathing position than that hmm yeah because you're well because you can talk did you check it can't you can't take a deep the kinky like that depending yeah yeah you've already protected yourself like yeah it's a shield to shield win-win but that position is from military drumming yes sir so you know you it came from yeah the idea of I need this over here because I think I've got the weapon would be on the other side so it's like it's all about yeah weaponry and we don't well we knives now as a drummer have to yeah knife and you go no and they go you'll need this one take my chicken wire chicken wire yeah separate podcast but it's a but yeah having Einstein said you can't stall you can't solve new challenges with old solution right so that's a big proponent of like let's let's be an ally of your body language right check out the open-handed even if it's right I'm the App Center I never I never made that connection yeah I did just technically seems a much better way of I mean I'm part of it the part of the reason why you're teaching that is is the economy of movement as well definitely yeah it's like you ready yeah be around them rescue the kids freedom right yeah right yeah I never thought about it as a way of I'm protecting my vital organs right I'm ver cisterna mountain and have you been in a situation where your your training kind of saves you like really like was a high-pressure situation every time different than I ain't a boy is mine every time so I had I prepped yeah here's what I do is every time I'm and you know I go on speak along for a large audience is you know you walk out in there's 7,000 people there yeah that's that can be worrying yeah they can be worrying and and all I do is go trust your technique trust your technique and just go back to technique yes yeah just go back to technically find the know the fundamentals go back to those go back to those don't you don't need to do anything smart or clever yes just need to go back to fundamental technique and trust that now what you know and you got it you got to say that the moment you you you walk in front of that audiences go okay Riz trust technique because your brain will go we've got to do something clever is that the assessment asset is that the the the aggressive part coming out I could get aggressive oh I've got I'm gonna show I'm gonna show them I'll show win yeah so there's a lot of him there's a lot of so I don't know whether it's the same in in music for you at the moment but certainly in the speaking world there's a lot of vocabulary used which is aggressive vocabulary around performing and old they they they killed it they crush they crushed it they killed it very aggressive I don't like that vocab reason that I never joined in on that I hear they're out there killing or I'm gonna go and kill it once I wide there the audience why do you want to kill them it's like now I can in music in in other arts I in certain styles of it I can totally see the idea of of killing the audience crushing the audience and at times mmm-hmm because there's some really aggressive musical art forms out there yeah that the audience are enjoying their that fight yeah yeah that battle yeah but that's not every yeah you know if you if you're doing a ballad you never know yeah but the long smell of your rock you have you could do with some crushing are you yeah are you uh are you very meticulous with your language of self talk because I think this young a big panda doesn't performing like like a lot better I better get this right or you know I'm big into like yes yeah so I don't know whether you've come across growth mindset yeah yeah so that's there's some great stuff around that that I constantly try and use around the idea of yet yeah so you know I'm not a great answer yet yeah I can't do this yet yeah so just I think that's one of the most powerful words is the yet another word yeah I haven't got this rhythm yet yeah not in you know the band I want to be yet well cuz words can trigger those earlier states that we talked about absolutely I better play good I'm better yeah today yeah you're in fight-or-flight absolutely so so yes a it's an important one for me the other word is is is so is you know again locks things lock locks things down this is a drum kit okay well maybe yeah yeah maybe yeah but it could be some other stuff as well what if we made it what if we made it the guitar yeah yeah what if what if you take the guitar from the guitarist and that's the drum kit yeah so the work the idea of is tends to to limit stuff oh now it's important words because you know we won't be able to walk walk wake up in the morning if we didn't use is quite a lot you know it is it is 10 o'clock I need to leave so it's minute it's limiting and it's an extent is fast and and limits are good in some situations and not good in others and in some areas of creativity is is not very helpful well you reminded me of um I forget his name the drummer in Bela Fleck and the Flecktones future man I said do you know I don't know so he plays a guitar yeah but it's it's a drum set the drumsticks here is be playing loud [Applause] [Music] he's thinking what if what if he's looked at ok yeah and he said huh hmm yeah I can do all this and that's what he kind of get even less yes burn less calories less calories well he just he just said never like this and you know yeah when where's Neil Pierce got the yeah yeah he's got a it's you know you gotta lug that stuff around right you need you need help yeah you're awesome man this is so much fun I want to be we go all day but let me see if I missed anything Oh any any um actually I wrote something about practicing because I'm really fascinated with our daily practice yeah and you mentioned rituals yeah and getting yourself in a state as I've done with LEC's many times it's like we talked about getting yourself used to uncomfortable situations right yes making sure your state is good yeah I guess you're not dependent on the environment yeah I think that's all for all kinds of things yeah I think like you could speak in any old you know as a rainstorm or like I'm sure you can do this yeah so there's lots of when you when you go into tricky situations they're tricky because you don't know what's going to happen that's why most people don't you know most people are not public speakers why cuz they just don't know what's going to happen what I'm trying to do is is is limit the amounts of don't knows so that when they're not knowing comes across I'm ready to be adaptable yeah see you and go okay we don't know what's happening here let's watch really carefully let's be adaptable now in order to do that I need to know some stuff for sure like I need to know exactly what I'm wearing hmm and don't want to have my mind going or I don't know if I wore the right thing so I that's what I wore that's all I'm gonna wear so eliminate so now I've eliminated the not knowing if I think I'm dressed correctly the I like put the stuff on and go that's the best it's gonna be I mean out of the about that many more [Music] don't waste thought and focus right don't waste focus on stuff that you could sort out yeah yeah can just be done with make a decision yeah make a decision on that and then be done with it mm-hmm and keep to that decision mm-hm because otherwise the mind is gonna be overwhelmed I mean that's gotta be stuff like you know making sure your kids in good order like you know how many times have you not had your kid in good order and it's starting to fall to bits and you're like this is like I'm trying to play the music yeah my heart is falling to two bits you'd rather not have that for sure I either the military they get you you know take apart your gun right with a wife all right it's like sure so do you know your gear right and is it yeah do you know you hear and and is it in good was it in good order eliminate eliminate that that you're onstage going with what if my symbol stand falls to bits you know you're gonna want to go I know it won't if it does yeah it's an anomaly and I'll be able to adapt to that yeah yeah it's most likely that won't be the thing that I'm trying to deal with yeah you know cuz you know in you know what acoustic environments are like you move from one acoustic environment to another and it's now like I now come here the guy you I know you're unable this completely yeah now you may be trying to manage that yeah yeah and the difference between soundcheck and then getting the audio simple it's like ah yeah we sound checked without having this why even do it nobody bother but you should just anyone is gonna go okay first thing you're gonna say that this is a soundcheck cuz we're just trying to work out now how this acoustic works with you guys in here that happened to me on a gig and it was I was not experienced right I might have told you guys this story and it was so yeah soundcheck was cool like yeah it's gonna be awesome and then we did the gig and it was just like and I was like where we got lost and then it was literally a train wreck this was the gig where a cat had peed in the bass drum oh yeah yeah yeah of the house kids there was that - there was a yeah an anomaly the cat urine smell okay you know along with this so yeah I wasn't able to adapt and I wasn't yeah I was dependent too much oh yeah well there's some interesting kind of sonic stuff can happen when those sounds kind of mash up I know if I go to gigs where I don't know the music yeah I sometimes can't pick out the gym yeah because because Mike made this so much resonance yeah happening is that my brain doesn't know where the room notice no it doesn't know what what what notes the Pickers being that the tune or the harmony you are yes massive yeah my brain just goes are you can't you can't listen to this sometimes have to just shut off yeah there's guys because there is no tune yeah yeah I mean there is one it's just I don't know what it is yeah I know what you mean yeah that's that's that's amazing man I heard something with like when your public speaking saying or your ear musician in an audience yeah and and very few people get away from being in public okay sure could be at work and you got to talk to coworkers it's communication is whether it's through drums or through anything so having eyes look at you yeah and like you said past four sets of eyes right at the brain and there's something like you know those cartoons with like eyes and the bushes and you know is there some is does that trigger the limbic brain like say you're in an audience all those eyes are looking at you does your limbic brain you'll get credit yeah because you're the target yeah the eyes are used to target retarget thing like loud eye contact is about target yeah so if I'm looking at you I'm suggesting to you that you are the target of this you'll now look at the rest of my body language and go as much targeted me in a pleasant way or numbers way am I going to be the victim here yeah going to be given something you know valuable yeah so you're looking at the rest of the but but when you look out at an audience all you see is their eyes looking at you and you can't see the rest of their body right so you go I I don't know whether they love me or hate me I know let's go what they hate me revert to negative life I would rather be inaccurate today and safe rather than because tomorrow I can be accurate yeah they've gone and it's another bunch so you just you just get into the same yeah the same pattern cool so you know again one of the things you have to do is Cal to measure this yeah by by going when I see those eyes on me I'm gonna do open body language hmm I know whether I feel whether I feel I'm just gonna I'm gonna on purpose go this could be really risky opening myself but I'm gonna do it on purpose again it has to be that a conscious decision you are using your conscious mind but it's a really simple decision yes open or closed open yes I'm going open or me it's barely conscious these values it's a simple thing yeah you're not gonna get confused about open or closed yeah yeah they're as you will get confused about I know tell myself not I was really good at the gig a month ago yeah so I can't even remember that one month ago like what did they out like yeah that's too complex yeah opening is really easy to do it uses big muscle groups as well yeah you don't want to do anything with smaller muscle groups like I know you know go on and smile because you can't there's fifty muscles in the face you'll never control that under stress your arms you totally can yeah yeah yeah so so you know when you see that audience and those other band members think about the the open body language and just see you know you can see when you instantly do it you Dan this X natural like you takin the oxygen when you close off I bet you exhale so that's an interesting one for breathing is inspired and expired hmm so at the moment I'm I'm on an in-breath of the moments I'm talking to you yeah I mean snow doesn't mean that I'm talking while I'm breathing it's just I'm my lungs are expanding when I go onto a an L breath now and remain on that out-breath as I'm talking to you you probably see that there's kind of a light that's going from my my eyes yes again I'm doing this on on purpose now I'm gonna go on to the in-breath again and stay on that me not see I'm breathing in and I also die but just that so this is inspired and therefore will be inspiring and I want a mirror you by the way right so you yeah you start to mirror because I'm being really clear I'm not that and then this and like you'll stop mirroring that quickly cuz you're just that's just confusing huh so I'm leading your body language by being really clear with mine yeah and it has a very important effect on the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in my bloodstream yeah so this will feel more inspiring and this will feel expired dead this is awesome thank you so much yeah we stumbled like like owning the song and my teachers all said to me like relaxed intensity and that's what we've been talking about yeah yeah if you could write before you go yeah I want you to look at body language of a drummer oh yeah okay just tell me what what do you I don't know what's your impression from this so let's go let's go Stewart Copeland oh yeah [Applause] and is going like this my bucket celebration my victory parties yeah stop talking you know he's enjoying he's enjoying that as well but yeah what's comes across most to me about that is that confident victory pose ah yeah beforehand yeah but then that what's interesting is this flicking thing they imagine he's like he's he's throwing paint yeah like yeah yes not stabbing maybe but yeah almost like I've seen was it Ringo who keeps imago no windshield on a windshield wives just like I had just yeah flicking some water around and then ahead yeah that's great you look at some drummers and you can see this there's some some metaphors in terms of what their body is doing oh yeah he's like splashing okay everywhere Ringo is just kind of whitening yeah having a great day wiping stuff yeah oh man so this is quite well first take my keys man okay what I get from him is like big zoos enjoy exercise yeah Carter me just like exudes he sends off a very joyful vibe right and I notice many non drummers you know that like Dave Matthews Band just [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] lot of apollomon like this very loose in the body but it's not really news an open-handed [Music] yes all in chaos because emotions can be if they're not contained in some way yeah can get utterly chaotic and very dangerous to be around whether it's sadness or joy or event of somebody joyful hmm and cannot contain it in any way all over the place there's nothing wrong with that it's just kind of like slugs actually stop the train you know you'll hurt yourself you'll trip well I'm excited yeah Buell tripped over and hurt yourself yeah yeah yeah so I'm worried sometimes I worry is like I don't think I can manage this level of emotion being expressed because what if I started to mirror it and do it I tear the place up that's a big part of drumming then right right I'm in yeah grass 'iv sad whatever soft but if I go too far it'll I'll lose the control on it right we won't be a band anymore yeah yeah which could be ready it could be really good back home but you have to you got to contain and channel it for the for the for the music and for the audience mm-hmm mm-hmm yeah that's a big part of it man I thought well speaking of which Niel peered yeah no story about him his mom asked him once you don't look like you're enjoy playing drunk right and he said mom this is the only face I can make because I'm playing to the absolute edge of my ability like right if I'm it's almost gonna fall right athletic it's it's athletic athletic yeah and he would never swell he smiles at the end of surgery it's surgery now you just said your right hand stays even though the surgeon did have fun I mean absolutely accurate this is brain surgery yes give me okay here's my take on it if it feels very crafty tonight craft I'm not sure for me where the artist is not sure like looking at him I'm going I know I try to go I think somebody else could probably play that as well mmm well I I think of him as a person and I know he's he's tried to in his career let that improvisational through spirit not want to study jazz right not just definitely a surgeon in fashion later these so himself my fears if you did tomorrow yeah yeah it's time to go he knows yeah yeah good well and he's he's kind of known for like when drummers are in the audience watching him right they they famously yeah and and they're literally he will not change the parts so you get all the drummers in the audience like right so isn't that so I stopped I know I'm not a fan of the the Bandit or I don't know anything about him but how easy is it to put me to accurately go I bet it's the same my worry is it's the same every day yeah I'm right well that's you trying to make you safer correct yeah yeah now it's like that you know in terms of music that's like there's something you like what you don't like that to your taste or not to you went to your taste mhm mhm but certainly is not so much to my yeah to my taste yeah yeah just feel a bit like watching a surgeon well Stewart would be try airing something to his right and even John Bonham Tillich when you hear the live Zeppelin stuff it's like okay yeah Keith Moon try he doesn't I'm absolutely sure he has had no idea what was going on I didn't even know either no that's the great the great joy of is my last guy doesn't know what's gonna happen yeah well speaking it I mean this is Tony Williams and he this is probably my favorite drummer at all times he definitely you'd see him make an angry face right because he just pushed himself to the edge of his ability and not gonna know what's gonna happen and sometimes he not plays something as well as it thought he wouldn't he just scoured himself right Tony [Music] [Music] [Music] yeah yeah my teacher Dom used to watch drummers so you only play another [Music] angry see what happens when you choose the difference you know your favorite drummers body yeah that's a little trick that I use I'm almost like an I'll reference certain drummers right in here so it isn't just a set of rhythms it's an attitude yes and you know playing playing drums like Stewart Copeland isn't just the things he chooses to yeah play it see that tired in the morning yeah yeah which means that's awesome that you can play with somebody's attitude and body but not necessarily play their their grim ah that's better to me yeah cuz you what you might come up with something better than that yes it's quite likely you'll probably so what's interesting is is if you do that you're quite likely to surprise yourself a bit more I mean you must have done that when he mhm I've certainly done that went up in recording music and recording of play we played it back and I've gone yeah I couldn't do that again yeah you basically go I don't know how I managed to do that yeah you that's that's a great moment when you actually yourself yeah and you can probably surprise yourself more if you're choosing other people's bodies yeah sparks yes something yeah yeah I know it to me oh that's awesome cool man thank you mark my pleasure you helped me and and other drummers and people listening to this and life is about communication drumming is about communication and the whole LTR would like to rhythm as young as we are as people that goes into our drums and as we are as drummers that carries into our life too so that's exactly what we're doing so thanks for let me bid Thomas awesome thank you Mark you got the new book yeah yeah truth and lies was realized I've read it it's awesome yeah I was thinking a drummer lens turret the whole thing and there was so much I got out of it and yeah thanks for doing what you do awesome [Music]

Channel: Chris Lesso LTR DRUMMING

Views: 2,749

Keywords: Motivation, Inspiration, Education, Sonor, Sabian, Evans, D'addario, Vic Firth, Prologix Pads, Remo, Drumming, Best Drum Lessons Online, Drumming Technique, Drumming Mindset, Drum Solo, How To Drum, Mental Training, Mental Toughness, Unbeatable Mindset, Open Handed Drumming, Dom Famularo, Ted Talks, Open Handed Mindset, Flow States, Drumming and Flow States, Drumming and the Brain, Music and the Brain, Drumming and Health, Music and Health, Mark Bowden and body language

Id: 6RIKYVJeZs4

Length: 76min 7sec (4567 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 25 2019