Where's My Voice?

We spend years practicing to the soundtracks of other people’s lives, researching, listening, and playing along to try to catch a glimpse of something special.  I love listening to others’ music for inspiration but never to recreate. I spent far too many years trying to sound like someone else while playing. I know the purpose is to be the greatest we can be, but why not instead focus on making the greatest sound that is uniquely your own?

Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t go out of your way to listen to every kind of music for as much influence as possible, what I’m getting at is instead of going into a playing situation trying to sound like Dave Grohl, Stewart Copland, Saul Goodman, or Alan Abel; try instead to take those influences and roll them into your playing. To a certain extent this happens regardless because, let’s face it we are no Stewart Copland. But many spend hours; even years working to sound like that of others.

My point is that I don’t want to be the next Stewart Copland or Dave Grohl, I only want to be the first Clay Barnum! So to those drummers and percussionists out there that are sitting comfortably on their thrones doing just enough not to get noticed, but not too much to stand out, I’m coming!

I’m not a fan of stealing gigs, but if you’re not doing all that you can possibly do to be happy, productive, and improving yourself while doing what you love; then I’ll be there to show those around you what they’re missing. Power, passion, and persistence are my tools. I’m fighting for my life, complacency is your biggest weakness because you’ll never see me coming.