From one thing know ten thousand things

In my drum lessons the ancient proverb “from one thing, know ten thousand things” seems to pop up often. It’s a mantra I try to encourange my students to use to help them unlock their creativity. It pops up so often that it is certainly worth sharing it here in the Elephant Drums blog.

At Elephant Drums, we encourage students to go beyond the mechanics of learning drums and to explore the depths/details behind what they’re learning.

Permutations and combinations

The “from one thing…” snippet of wisdom is extremely relevant to us drummers, as so much of what we do is based upon repetition and the exploration of thousands of permutations of grooves, rhythms, sounds, dynamics, and all the other elements which combine to make up drumming.

Every single concept we learn, whether practical or theoretical, can be ‘mutated’ in many ways. Things can be combined, things can be ‘borrowed’ from other things, sometimes completely opposing things can be fused together to create a completely new ‘thing’!

By fully understanding and internalising the most basic principles, all the complexities that involve a multitude of things can be understood too.

Practical application

With the Elephant drums approach to drumming, students learn all the underlying principles and are given the ‘keys’ to unlock their creativity by fully understanding the options for variation and permutation. Literally – from one thing, they get to know ten thousand things.

Watch out for other articles in the Elephant Drums blog where the philosophy of “From one thing know ten thousand things” can help in practical ways to develop new grooves, fills and techniques.