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Nic Marcy
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Drumming Over 50 Years!
Nic Marcy - drum set artist/educator
Nic Marcy is a drum set instructor and performer from Round Rock, Texas. He has recently published two educational drum set books. He's been drumming since the age of four and has since studied at the Berklee College of Music, toured with numerous bands, and is currently working on drum set notation software!!
You can also check out some of the new book for free! Nic shares and discusses an exercise from the book in our Lessons and Education area.
You can also download this page as a .pdf file HERE
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Nic: In his own words
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I am Nic Marcy, drum-set educator in Round Rock, TX an
Austin TX suburb. I’ve been teaching approximately 14 years a
good number of my students are between 20 - 30 years old
and perform weekends.
I’ve been playing drum-set over fifty years. I began playing at
four years old, learning from my uncle Joe who kept his
drums at our house in Queens, New York. At seven, learned
more from Frank Gigante a big band drummer and took
more formal lessons at age eleven with Tony Monforte in
Binghamton, New York. Tony was a great educator that
taught me to read drum-set notation and appreciate Jazz
music. I studied with Charlie Persip for a bit , later I went to
Berklee College of Music and studied with Alan Dawson.
I Played in a Jazz trio at eleven, went on the road my first
time at fourteen, traveled with numerous bands more than I
have time to mention, ran a recording studio in the mid
seventies and continued to do session work into the eighties.
I have written two drum-set books dealing with mobility. I’ve
focused on interdependence and the drum-set as a musical
instrument. I see interdependence as a “hitch in the git-along”
when creating musical rhythm that interprets music accurately
on drum-set.
Recently I’ve dabbled in creating drum-set notation software,
a sample version can be downloaded free at:
www.drumsetwriter.com
I don’t see the drum-set as much of a musical instrument as
say... Terry Bozzio where each instrument is tuned to a specific
note or Ari Hoenig a drum-set musician that uses a pressure
technique on the heads bending specific notes out of the
drums.
I’m going for more of a countermelody that has it’s
limitations by the amount of notes available in your kit set -
up. I might start with a swamp groove between the kick and
snare and possibly extend, morph, add rhythm and melody in
the toms as my ears dictate.
My books don’t really go where I go when I play..... they give
me the facility to play what I hear in the moment. I think this
facility is a key ingredient to being an equal participant in Jazz
or a Jam band situation. Being fluid and liquid in
orchestration on the drum-set is vital to change or contour
your environment while keeping the shape intact.
I think limitations by players style consciousness have
impacted the creativity curve and more often than I would
like, the music they play just isn’t doing anything new. I hear
young artist’s make statements like,” everything has been
done “. I think that’s because they’re not looking hard
enough. I think there is a vast universe of ideas that haven’t
been used, tried or thought about. I think teaching music has
become to much of a science, we’re getting to far away from
explaining music as an art form.
The books I’ve written manipulate ideas by math and
demonstrate ways to embellish, orchestrate and ornament
what came to your mind the first time you played along with
some new music. I think what comes out is essentially
something I refer to as a “rac-beat”. This is the rhythm that
most players know and fall into along with some bass part
they recognize. This rac-beat has merit as a great starting
point, the problem is this is to often as far as the drum-set
musician is inclined to take it. What I’m hoping is that the
practice material will stimulate growth processes that may
encourage notating the rac-beat idea and manipulating it by
some simple systems that may ultimately make a better fit.
Encourage a look at the melody, combine elements that
weren’t just a groove you’ve learned but an interpretation of
the song. If this happens maybe someday the drum-part will
be recognized as a musical entity and we can get the writing
credits we deserve.
So in the long and short of the books I think the scope will
exceed your first look at the material. First look thoughts...
are that I know some of this and I hope you do..but the
review doesn’t last very long it’s just a starting point to “back
check” what you think you know.
The exercises range from very simple to very complex ideas ..
I have a page in my book Exotic Interdependence, called
“rocking rides”.. it breaks up the basic pop groove in ways that
many drummers never try. Some of it might be too much for
some music but things like short and long eighth notes can
enhance a groove to fit more rhythmically and musically.
My favorite non-drum-set musician of all time was Miles
Davis he could play ballads beautifully and didn’t because he
could.... he chose the “pain of gain” he stayed on the cutting
edge and felt sorry for those that didn’t explore.
I hear lots of creativity in the country music today and even
though the old players bitch about the young ones getting
away from the style. The cash cow of our industry is now the
country music business. It might just be the most creative and
productive part of the music industry today. I think the
bottom line is country music is taking a few risks and bringing
more people to that style of music because it‘s interesting.
Recently heavy weight drum-set musicians like Vinnie
Colaiuta and Keith Carloch have stepped into the popcountry
genre. A couple of Thanks giving’s ago my wife and I
watched a Faith Hill special on TV... The Drum-set musician
was Vinnie Colaiuta. The music style ..... Pop-country .
How creative can he be....... (I had to ask myself) ? It was an
amazing lesson Vinnie never for an instant played anything
mundane or any “rac-beat”. He consistently drove forth with
creative musical drumming statements that never sounded
repetitive or cliche.
This epitomizes my focus and mission for teaching, finding a
groove that works beautifully with some song that’s just a
song...
Not a complex show of chops but a complimentary groove
that is connected to the form of the tune. This creative
environment is the ingredient that moves a listener’s soul.
“runs in two” is an exercise from my book Exotic
Interdependence
View the online lesson
More about Nic:
NicksDrumStudio.com
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