one of the best ways to learn something fast is to set Stakes everybody I want you to give it up for Mr Tim Ferris over there so here it goes you could feel the power rising up in your loins 5 days this is like the first time I looked at Chinese characters zero experience you're in you're in trouble okay and the world's best teachers yeah baby is four or 5 days really enough time I have my doubts I'm Tim Ferris everything going up best-selling author and human guinea pig I'll show you how to make the impossible possible by bending the RO I'll find the world's best teachers and push myself to the edge to deconstruct decode and demystify some of the world's toughest challenges in record time if I can do it so can you this week's experiment is drumming the challenge to perform live in Los Angeles with an internationally renowned rock band growing up my favorite Muppet was animal naturally despite that I've always had a very contentious relationship with music and I have not been able to crack the code over the next 5 days I will break down drumming I'll find the critical 20% of material that gives me 80% of what I need to reach my goal I'll put the pieces I've selected in the most effective order and the risk of embarrassing the hell out of myself on stage will keep me motivated I have found an incredible teacher to help me with this the Yoda of Yodas Stuart Copeland founding member of the police widely considered one of the top 10 drummers of all time Tim I presume it is such a pleasure to finally meet you hey how are you doing in welcome to the sacred grove this is where I do my cool stuff where my fancy friends come to play St of Copeland a bit like Christopher Lloyd and back of the future very enthusiastic and gets you really fired up I got a secondary percussion unit here why is that so I imagine I'll be spending a lot of the next week in front of something like this very close to this yeah this pretty standard right away I notice a lot this drum kid is extremely elaborate this symbol here plays a short note while this one resonates more I can see he's holding the sticks differently in each hand also his feet are doing two things at once look how relaxed his grip is the sticks look like they're going to fall out of his hands but of course they don't and one more thing not a single piece of written music in sight I don't even know where to start the rhythm is broken into three components the kick which is on the floor that's what everyone dances to to create interest its contrasting Rhythm is a snare drum and it's this cross talk that gives you your cool Rhythm glued together that's the connected TI stuff it's a connect exactly that is all you need to know off to the razor your turn come on come on I'll try harder that was very nice of you to start off real quiet like that very delicate very delicate take a deep breath let's get a starting point here there you go okay now you got that you're going to spend a lot of time doing that right now you're doing it but you're tense yeah and that's just because your your brain is telling and controlling consciously every action and what you're going to do by just playing is to get outside of your body great ah you're getting power mad oh you could feel the power rising up in your loins you're a primate an alpha male the great silver back making a great noise cuz you've got your crash and your kick landing hard power power loins power loins going to be my stage name all right so what is a Phil you mentioned a Phil okay once you're playing along and everybody's happy singer singing a song now the drummer is getting bored crash and he hopes the rest of the band didn't notice CU they my circuits are totally overloaded with just the basics and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to figure out the drum fills hang on a second can't stop him now raking me out of my shell and almost immediately throwing me into a jam session with him was very smart nothing's going to stop this man he's taking me directly to the enjoyment of drumming alongside other people that's fun it's the dumb right now I know the anatomy of a drum kit the anatomy of a song is still very very difficult to me would you suggest having some type of sheet music for drumming to follow along with do you understand what the dots mean okay well that's kind of a hurdle okay my weakness is no big surprise reading music figuring out how to think of Music in terms of vocabulary like measures and notes which is not a way that I typically deconstruct what I hear I'm effectively having an anxiety attack well this is no joke man you're going to be playing a real gig with us and you don't have much time great for session Stuart is amazing knows how to get you in the mood for music I do on the other hand need to learn how to read sheet music or somehow practice the song that I'll be playing in addition to that I need to develop some type of protocol for practicing hey what's up man going on man how are you good good to see you I'm hoping Adam can help me deconstruct the learning process for drumming this is the School of Rock the School of Rock today we're going to be in here we're going to be behind these two kits oh awesome okay so we play side by side I like this idea that school is going to be awesome for you this week cuz uh we teach through music which accelerates the learning process I know you don't know how to read music I don't but I charted out drum parts for you I mean right now you're probably looking at it's foreign language yeah this is like the first time I looked at Chinese characters yeah this is the this is on the floor tom you're doing eighth notes so one and two and three and four and and then there's a Phil so I wrote the biggest problem that I have is looking at music hearing it dissecting it as notes on a sheet of paper I've never done that before first four bars of the song okay oh my God I should learn the counting just I mean I'm going to have to get there so you're going one and two and three and four right now I'm throwing a T of stuff against the wall to see what sticks maybe it'll be reading music maybe it'll be counting the beats in my head I don't know what'll work why am I that up it's so early in the process it's very difficult to say I know exactly what my game plan is I need to figure out the minimum effective dose for learning this song that is the smallest piece I can focus on to pull this off and nothing extra Bravo sir I don't know which portions I'm going to have the most trouble with which will then dictate how I schedule my training time and what I focus on which stresses me out a bit here we are it's about 3: in the morning and you can see I am not resting very well I'm effectively having an anxiety attack if you're trying to learn something very very quickly in a compressed time frame you will experience extreme frustration at predictable points and sometimes completely freaking out the question remains of course is four or 5 days really enough time for me to adapt and learn what I need to learn I have my doubts oh here's this must be our guy I'm here to meet these guys members of the legendary band Foreigner like the time yeah I'm Chris Chris we will be talking yes of course that was just warming up right oh yeah yeah that was just limbering up my tendons and my ligaments but that's uh probably not far from all I have at the moment well this is no joke man you're going to be playing a real gig with us yeah playing a real song yeah I know and you don't have much time been struggling a bit I'm not going to lie uh it's it's my first time really tackling music so just trying to keep the timing in my head it's been challenging to figure out what to practice because I'm not sure how much do I focus on Phils versus let's say grooves for the verse and the intro and then I've don't know how to read music this this is the first time I've looked at anything like this you're overthinking this just a little bit well that's what I'm so I need your help to avoid it you're in you're in trouble okay you got your work cut out for you but you also picked one of the hardest songs too because it has a rock feel in it but it has a a touch of R&B and touch a swing to it would you practice this chronologically or exactly linearly or you would okay I wouldn't I wouldn't just I just wouldn't worry too much I I just think Play the song don't play the drums okay all right let's good advice Chris's advice to learn the song and not the drums might sound like a fortune cookie but it's really important it means put simply that I should learn the drums through Hot Blooded not learn the drums then try to play Hot Blooded what we have to say to you is good luck thank you sir the goal is to learn Hot Blooded now I just have to figure out the minimum effective dose the keys to unlock the song I kind of actually today I wanted to maybe put that aside yeah yeah just sh that paper notes words who needs it Adam's right trying to learn to read music is not working for me there has to be a more effective way the question is what is it what I wanted to do is actually just break it up and just get the main grooves of the song Finally the light bulb is going off until now I was getting totally overwhelmed trying to simultaneously learn to read music count in my head all while adding in the fills or embellishments now I realize that none of these elements are part of the critical 20% that I need to learn 80% or more of the song There are three grooves that make up the song Hot Blooded the verse the chorus and the pre chorus that is my 20% and that's what I'm going to focus on to get me prepared for game day and the Big Show playing Hot Blooded ad nauseum over and over again rinse and repeat does wonders for your confidence holy I have to play that tomorrow I can omit the crash symbols I can omit the fancy bass drum work I can omit any of the flourishes and as long as I can keep the heartbeat going I'm in great shape hey yeah baby on one hand I was seriously worried that I was going to screw up my muscle memory by playing on a fake drum kit but I was actually smiling and having a good time which wasn't the case earlier this week that was awesome this is what guitarists do which is really annoying get right in your face yeah you're right that is Prett annoying I'm a little bit high you're a little bit sh hey hey man to see you again how you doing I'm doing well this is where I've been spending my solitary confinement oh cool I think what I should do is just kind of see how far you've come and where you're at as Chris was watching me for the very first time I totally immediately flued it and then settled in and played the rest of the song well before he timed out and made some very good suggestions so you did a fill where you you played with your left hand and the thing about it is since you're right-handed I'm I'm assuming you're right-handed it's going to be easier for you to to lead your fills with your right hand the big decision is do I go for the fills and try to get fancy and risk blowing the whole thing or do I focus on and doing that until my brains melt of boredom uh we shall see you got to get some of this going man you know just smile at the audience you know and point at the girls that you want backstage you you I like this rockar thing already definitely starting to feel the electricity the spider sense of a live performance never felt it before just going straight through that way all right well I can see why this would become a addictive drug for people to play rock and roll ad absolutely it's unlike anything else wild having a spinal tap moment I was exhausted up until walking into this place and actually getting a feeling for the space are you ready for the pre-show forigner ritual that we all do toss the carrot yes two one 2 three 4 what's happening hey it's getting getting settled as ready as I'm going to be if you can catch that break with us though that'd be really great yeah you know I wasn't sure exactly I like doing things like this as odd as it seems getting this uncomfortable because it just takes that sort of sphere of comfort within which you can act and get good results and it just goeser I don't know what a serer is I don't know what spiking it means either and the more you do that the more you inoculate yourself against making mistakes when you're afraid you're still afraid I'm not trying anything new today except for oh my God I love it yeah baby what's up now David ler Ross come on in hey hey hey that sounded like a drummer knock look at you and your snake skin all right how are you man good how was yesterday yesterday was great yesterday was great I had to make some decisions about what fills to cut and which ones to keep I had all kinds of great advice as soon as you walked out the door all kinds of Pearls of Wisdom occur to me but I won't hit you with any of them now because I'll just you up yeah I appreciate that I can't stand it one pearl of wisdom and then that's it okay all right I knew I saw something eating at you yeah yeah yeah is to keep plowing through whatever you do the drum fill yeah is just play play throw yourself off the clip but keep your mind on the meter Mind Over meter yeah we were approached by a young man named Tim Ferris he he said to himself I want to play drums with a famous rock band and we said you're great crazy everybody I want you to give it up for Mr Tim Ferris over there here we go one 2 one 2 3 well checking Tre got a f on3 I'm high I'm high get don't have to read my mind to know what I have in mind are you will you be ready when I call your love my time you got to get away from my you know what you making me sing with me baby you know I'm going to go yeah you turn me on came here with a blank slate and a fantasy and was able to not get completely laughed off stage and I've come away from this feeling like if that was possible what other Impossibles do I have in my life that I should really question give it up for Tim Ferris everybody on the drums never did it before hey guys Tim Ferris here one of the things that kills me about TV is that you have to take all of this amazing footage in our case we had 5 to six days of of 12 to 16 hours typically per day and you have to chop it down to 21 or 22 minutes which is a 30-minute show with the ads removed it just makes me want to stab myself in the eyeballs with bicycle spokes it's so agonizing the good news is we have all that footage and so we've taken huge extended scenes we've taken interviews we've taken tutorials everything imaginable that we could get our hands on that we thought was really world class that we wanted to put in and you can find it at 4hourworkweek docva and we really feel like we could have made the best 2hour documentary imaginable on the subject that you just saw or had five different shows of equal quality all different with the footage that we captured so please check it out there's some amazing stuff and you can also check out the podcast where I do very long in some cases two to three hour interviews with a lot of the experts in this show and that's the Tim Ferris show which was nominated one of the best of iTunes which I'm very very happy about and you can check out both so find everything at 4work week.com sltv and if you think that's an oxymoron by the way you're right if you want a 4-Hour Work Week do not work in television thank you for watching
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