Over this past week I have been in contact with several musicians that have told me, “Jason, man, I just can’t do it any more! Something happened and took my desire away.” I want to just take a moment to offer some words of encouragement…

In my experience, the music business has always been very cut- throat where the most talented person does not always get chosen for the job. I can remember being in school and competing with my music teachers for gigs… which made for some tense situations being as I have never been one to not say what was on my mind. I have known for my whole life that I was called to be something more than average. I had parents that instilled in me that if you want to achieve great things then you are going to have to work damn hard.

As I became older and experienced life and all the things life throws at you I learned that sometimes wanting something bad just isn’t enough. I can recall a story that Eric Thomas told about a young man that wanted to have lots of money, so he went and visited a guru. The young man told the guru that he wanted to be on the same level as him. Hearing this, guru said, “if you truly want to be on the same level as me I’ll meet you on the beach tomorrow at 4am“. The young man looked at the guru and questioned, “The beach?? I want to make money, not swim“! The guru smiled and said, “I’ll see you on the beach at 4am.” At 4am the next morning the young man gets to the beach dressed to the nines in his suit. The guru takes him by the hand and asks, “how badly do you want to be successful?”  The young man says,  “really badly“. The guru instructs him to walk out in to the water, so he walks out waist deep and stops. The young man, now thinking this old guy is crazy mumbles to himself, “I want to make money and he has me out here swimming“. The guru tells the young man to come on out out a little further… so he walks out neck deep. The guru tells him to come on out just a little bit further. The young man, now standing in water mouth deep decides he is going to go back in. The guru looks at him and asks, “I thought you said you wanted to be successful”? The young man replies “I do“. The guru tells him to walk out a little further.  When the young man came a little further the guru grabbed him and held his head under the water. The young man started fighting trying to get free but the guru just held him there. Just before the young man passed out, the guru let him go and said, “I have a question, what was the one thing you wanted to do when you were under water??” The young man exclaimed, “I wanted to breathe“! The guru smiled and wisely said, “only when you have reached the point where you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe will you be successful“.

I don’t know about any of you, but if you have ever had an asthma attack or been short of breath the only thing you want to do in that moment is breathe. You don’t care about what’s on TV, who’s calling on the phone, what movie is playing you just want to breathe. Most people say they want to be successful but aren’t willing to put in the work. That means sometimes only getting one hour of sleep or maybe not getting any sleep because you may miss an opportunity. The rapper 50 cent once did an interview about a movie that he starred in and also did the soundtrack for. He said when he wasn’t on the set he was in the studio and when not in the studio he was on the set. The interviewer asked him when he sleeps and he replied “I DON’T,  sleep is for those people who are broke…I have an opportunity to make a dream become a reality!”

 How BAD do you want to breathe???

Good day friends. I just wanted to take a moment to discuss drum rudiments. Over the last few years I have had a lot of young players come to me and ask, “how do you put your fills together?” My response is always: “it is based off the corresponding rudiment name”.

There are 40 international rudiments; the first 13 coming from the National Association of Rudimental Drummers and the second list of 13 rudiments were added later. Some time later the Percussive Arts Society, recognizing the first 26 rudiments, added 14 giving us a grand total of 40 international rudiments. The rudiments can be further broken down into four main rudimental drumming cultures: Swiss Basler Trommeln, Scottish Pipe Drumming, American Ancient Drumming, and American Modern Drumming.

“Rudiment” is defined as: A fundamental element, principle, or skill, as of a field of learning…often used in the plural. In the percussion world we define rudiments as one of the basic patterns used in rudimental drumming. When combined in different combinations, these rudiments become music. In the time since the creation of the Internet, (where one can learn anything from the click of a button) players have taken to the self-taught method and a lot of times missed the boat on the basics.  More and more we see players with improper technique and a lack of understanding of not only rudiments, but also rhythm, time, and playing the rest as well. Opting for the more flashy (chops) style –not saying there is anything wrong with that– it has its time and place. The bottom line is that if you don’t know the basics, you don’t know your instrument! If you don’t know your instrument, you are replaceable! Rudiments are the language of we few, we true, we percussionists.

Good question!

I’m not sure why I started playing music,  however,  I can’t remember ever not being obsessed with music and instruments. I can remember when I was young I had a toy guitar that I took everywhere with me wouldn’t leave home without it. I also remember studying the drummers I would see in the parades, in church, and on TV as a child.

My mother was a plant supervisor when I was growing up, and I would spend time with family. My uncle Brazz was my favorite person to go visit because he was a serious musician. He had pianos, a Wurlitzer, Fender Rhodes, guitars, basses, a reel-to-reel, and a red sparkle Rogers drum set (with shiny silver stands and gold circle things that sounded cool). As you can tell, I gravitated towards the drums. I don’t ever remember asking my uncle to teach me to play, but I do remember him giving me lessons.

“Boy, that ain’t how I showed you to play it!” -Uncle Brazz

Also, I remember quitting quite frequently after my mom retired (every other day when I didn’t get it the first try). When I got to junior high school a friend kept pestering me about starting a band when he found out that I played drums. After much talk we started a band called Jupiter Shots (I don’t know that we ever had a show). We would have huge jam sessions at my house with 15 or 20 kids with their guitars,  5 bassists, and I was always the only drummer simply because I had a kit (by “kit” I mean a pieced-together-with-duct-tape-and-camcorder-stands-kit… but it was still a kit!!). Later that year our school held a talent show where some of the teachers wanted to jam with a student and I was asked to jam with them (we played “Wipe Out“). The reaction of the student body dancing and the congratulations that was shown was like a drug; I was hooked and couldn’t get enough playing live!

A few weeks later, my uncle, the church drummer, was absent during church and I told my friends at church that I was going to walk up and play with the choir. They told me, “No you won’t”,  and so of course I had to seeing as I’m never one to back down from a dare. The song was “Children, Go Where I Send Thee“.  That afternoon my uncle stopped by the house to tell me that I was the new church drummer along with him. For the next few years he would watch my every stroke and kick me off the kit if I wasn’t playing up to his standards. He never gave me a formal lesson but taught me everything I needed to know and why, often saying, “boy, I’m trying to teach you something no one will ever be able to take away from you!”. In the years since, I have had the honor and privilege of playing and recording with some music legends.

I still can’t tell you why I started playing music, but what I can tell you is why I haven’t stopped. I haven’t stopped because there is no feeling like playing a fast song and watching the stress from the day and all the problems melt away from a person right before your very eyes. Or how about when you play a slow song and watch the couples get lost in the moment that you created. On a personal note, when I sit down behind that kit I feel like I am complete, like I know what I was put here to do!!

My main kit consists of 8×7, 10×10, 12×10, 14×14 toms, and a 22×17 bass drum. I run Evans G2 heads clear for 6 months and coated for 6 months. The reason for 6 moths clear and 6 months coated is that it makes my approach to playing differently. When playing a clear head I tend to play “outside the box” more, and I have noticed with coated heads that I play more refined. On my bass drum I run the Evans eq3 system. I love the deep tone that I get out of this head and the fact that I can still get play off of the head. I literally put the head on and take the wrinkles out. I don’t tune my bass drum head on both batter and resonant heads .

On my main snare drum I use Evans genera dry snare drum head on the batter and the factor resonant head on the bottom. I use two different techniques to tuning my snare. First method is to crank the head one turn at a time in the conventional method of going around until the wood makes a creaking noise. The second method is I tune the head moderately tight and back the beads off of the head until I get an airy sound to my snare when it is stricken. I use a mixture of Yamaha and DW hardware (cymbal stands and DW pedals and hi-hats). I use Sabian B8-pro high hats (they are not expensive but work for me). I use 17” aax-crash, 17” hhx evolution crash, 21 “ b8 pro ride over my hihats , 21” zildjian earth ride unfinished on right side, 10” splash 12”aax splash, and 18” woohan china (again not expensive but works for me … I don’t use it a lot in my playing). I use DW 5000 series hi-hat and double pedals.

Today I will attempt to answer that age old question: “Who is your favorite drummer?”

In my humble opinion, my favorite drummers are as follows ( notice I said drummers with an “S”!… that means more than one!) My two top Davis household drummers are Poogie Bell and Dennis Chambers, in that order. I know some of you won’t agree with me on this but that is the great part about America; I have a right to my own opinion! With that said, Poogie is my favorite because of how deep his pocket is, and as a drummer, pocket/groove is everything. I don’t care how many chops you have and how flashy you are if you lose the groove then you probably won’t get called back  if every time you do a fill the groove changes. I also like the fact that Poogie is very down to Earth. We met several years ago in Morgantown,WV of all places and he and his band were playing a show there. At the end of the show he was talking with some of the fans and I asked him if he was playing Istanbul cymbals…we’ve been friends ever since. For those that say he isn’t flashy enough you are forgetting that he has played for almost everyone in the business.

Dennis Chambers is a heck of a drummer also having played with Parliament and Funkadelic,  John Schofield, and a list of others. In addition to the groups and artists he has played with, he is also completely self taught. This I can relate to seeing as my reading didn’t catch up to my playing until I was already playing shows with music educators. I had to memorize everything by ear which can be very tough to do.

Now that I have listed my favorite household name drummers, I would like to mention Chuck Ferrell from Loral, Maryland. Chuck is a music educator and one hell of a drummer who hosts a camp every year for students in Howard County, MD. Check out is site Chuckferrelldrums.com

Hello all this is me Jason! I just wanted to let you all know about some of the projects that I am currently working on.

I recently played several tracks on an acoustic album by David Zinn (1998 GIT graduate and professional guitar educator).  My main band the Marshall Lowry Band and I are currently recording our first self-titled album which is a mixture of bluegrass, southern rock, jazz , and jam band inspired tracks. The Marshall Lowry band has been burning up the East Coast for the last five (5) years playing college towns, bars, festivals, and night clubs. The Marshall Lowry Band was the 2011 Texaco country music showdown local champs. I also am recording my debut solo project (the Jason Davis Experiment) that will feature a wide array of music from hard rock to Latin, jazz, and gospel. In the summer of 2012 I plan on hosting the first ever Jason Davis Drum Camp and starting the Brazz Evans Jr Memorial Scholarship to help underprivileged youth to continue their music education. I have also been asked to play on several other albums this year. I will also be making several appearances at seminars and clinics so be on the lookout and I hope to see you in a city or town near you…