Looping Larnell Lewis

The fourth newsletter is (mainly) about specialists

After spending a few newsletter editions on my upcoming course (and mentioning it again here…), it feels like it’s time for something entirely different.

My intention is to use this newsletter as a playground to take a stab at things (as announced in the first edition). A place where everything is allowed and experiment is encouraged.

A generalist loving specialists

For a long time I’ve been jealous of specialists. People who knew from kindergarten what they were going to be when they grew up. And then proceeded to actually become that (and be happy doing that one thing).

I am, and always have been, a generalist. I’m very broadly interested and curious about a lot of things. Always asking questions leads me from one thing to the next unintentionally.

I’m deeply interested in how the world works and how fields interconnect. So every time I move to a fresh subject, I learn to see the world in a new way. Refining the resolution of my big picture.

It always starts with a passionate fire of inquisitive interest that eventually burns out when some other amber is kindled.

I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up but I’m no longer jealous of specialists. 

I love them though, specialists. People who are so good at what they do that you have to pay attention. They stop you in your tracks. You stare. You can’t not watch them. I love people who’ve worked at their craft for years and still try to emulate them (working on the craft of writing as we speak).

Looping for writing

Writing (and especially editing) needs focus, attention, and care. It needs my full brain capacity. I need to be awake, fresh, and concentrated.

I need to be in ‘flow’.

Instead of having 30 tabs open at the same time, thinking about what I’m doing later, or wasting the morning on youtube, I need to be in a cocoon of attention. The page in front of me is all there is.

I’m not an expert on flow states and I’m not getting into the science here but I do want to share a technique that helps me get into the writing flow quickly and easily.

I loop one song over and over.

That’s it.

I often have a fling-type relationship with new songs. I discover a track I fancy and dive into a sort of honeymoon for a couple of weeks (sometimes months but never years) where I’m in bed with it non-stop. Playing it over and over, seemingly unable to get enough.

This fits nicely with my ‘looping for writing’ habit. After a while, when the initial flame dies out, I move on to something younger… I mean new.

Enter Larnell

To give this point of ‘loving specialists’ some context, I’ll share a recent rabbit hole I went down.

Currently (literally, while writing this), the song that’s looping on my headphones is this one (it’s an 11-minute track, but if you’ll indulge me, see you in 11 minutes). Oh, and one more thing: Although this song is performed by a group of highly skilled musicians all around, I ask you to focus, if you’re not doing so already, on the drummer of this ensemble. You’ll discover why in a minute, or actually 11 minutes.

You’re back? Alright I’ll move on.

Why I became fascinated by the drummer, Larnell Lewis, is not just that he’s an extremely skilled drummer and I’m enamored with the tune, but that I discovered a story behind this recording.

First of all, it’s a live recording. After hearing the track, you would be right to assume that this is a complicated tune to rehearse, or get to know by heart. Even for a trained musician. On top of that this is only one of eight tracks that were recorded back-to-back (full album here for those ready to dive in).

Obviously this group of musicians and especially the drummer would need to rehearse extensively ahead of time to pull this off and perform this piece live.

But guess what; Larnell Lewis, the drummer, was flown in only hours before the recording and ‘learned’ the whole set (apart from two songs) on the plane. What?!

This was what started the dive into the rabbit hole for me. How? I mean, I’m not a professional musician but that’s an excellent job, no?

If you’re curious to learn more, here’s a short snippet with some background interviews about what went down.

If you’re hooked too and would like to learn about how Larnell is able to do this, the youtube channel ‘Drumeo’ asked Larnell (twice) to replicate and explain his process. Both of which you can watch here, and here. Spoiler alert, it’s about active listening…

Larnell is an extraordinary drummer. Not just because of skill, technique, and musicality (although also that). He has another ability that is rare even amongst musicians. He’s extremely good at learning unfamiliar material by heart in record time.

Though this is a very specific skill, I’m not a drummer, and I have no business learning about this stuff, I can’t stop diving in deeper.

He’s inspiring me to keep looping, and writing.