10/02 - Know your roots.

History is probably not your favorite subject. It certainly wasn't mine. To me, it was too much memorization and spitting out facts and learning about places and specific people I didn't really care about. But it was the central ideas that counted: the beginning of humanism, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution; and what these events meant, how they changed the world.

If you take the time to learn about the people who lived and the events that occurred before you, you won't have to waste time exploring on your own things that are already common knowledge for the rest of the world. Imagine if you worked for twenty years to establish a common twelve-tone scale that really worked, and the next day found out that everyone had already been using it for hundreds of  years! That's a lot of wasted time that could've been put to use focusing on truly unexplored territory.

Whatever you want to be, learn about the people who did what you want to do first. In my case, learn about the difference between concert and rudimental snare drumming, different mallet techniques, theory 101, and great composers from centuries ago. Listen to how Elvin Jones, "Philly Jo", Buddy Rich, Max Roach, and Art Blakey got precisely the right sound out of their drumsets; how Ella, Billie, Louis and Mel Torme improved the vocal jazz scene; how Buster Bailey and Al Payson rocked the orchestral scene, and Sanford Moeller made drumming all around a little less tense. And there's a lot more out there for me to know.

If you're a chef, learn the difference between a dice and a chop and a julienne, how to blanche and cure and poach and broil, and how to do it all beautifully. If you're a mechanic, learn all about engines and carburetors and intake valves and fan belts and that stuff. If you're an astrophysicist, I pray for your sanity. And your bank account after all that school.

The people who lived before you are just as important as the people living today. They are the only reason you can make the progress you're bound to make. Appreciate them, study them, and take everything they lived to give. You'll thank yourself later.

M