“How is the drum you play any different from the programmed drum a machine plays?”
“Excuse me...?”
I flinched at the question that seemed to catch me completely off guard.
At the same time, doubts raced through my mind.
Since I started taking lessons from Kanno-san, I felt like I was getting better every day.
I was becoming able to do things I couldn't do before, and I felt like I was getting closer to ‘perfection’ step by step.
It was exhilarating, and it felt truly great.
But if the ultimate form of that, the final destination, was the same as a machine.
“If it’s something a machine can do, there’s no need for you to play, right?”
...Kanno-san was right.
“No, but, then, why did I do all that practice...”
Before my left brain could argue that such a thing was for me to figure out myself, a pathetic question escaped my lips.
Even so, she seemed to sense that we were short on time.
“Listen, the reason you were drumming to a metronome wasn’t so you could play exactly to the tempo.”
Kanno-san placed a hand on my shoulder with a serious expression.
“It was so you could produce the sound at the exact timing you want to play it.”
“...!”
Even I could understand that those two things, which sounded the same, were actually different.
It wasn’t ‘being able to play like a machine,’ but ‘being able to produce the sound at the timing I desire.’
“Hey, Takuto. I think your drumming is awesome. When I listen to it, I can tell it’s emotional, and that you’re actually a really passionate guy deep down.”
“Thank you... very much?”
I stared back, wanting to know the true intent of my master who had suddenly started praising me.
“Is the only thing making your drumming emotional... making it ‘emo,’ just the volume?”
“That’s...!”
There are terms like ‘behind the beat’ and ‘ahead of the beat.’ There’s also the word ‘groove.’
This often refers to creating a heavy, laid-back feel or, conversely, a sense of rushing by producing sounds at a timing shifted by 0.something milliseconds from the metronome. The debate over ‘What is groove?’ is an eternal theme with no definitive answer...
However, being able to control that timing yourself means that I can intentionally create the ‘emo-ness’ that was previously born by chance.
“Hey, Takuto. There’s something I realized while teaching you the drums,”
Saying that much, Kanno-san gently curled the corners of her mouth upward.
“...For some reason, you understand the importance of 0.something-millisecond differences very well, and you’re quite good at noticing them.”
“...Thank you very much.”
...Had two minutes already passed?
I immediately returned to the studio to convey the plan.
Originally, we were supposed to be practicing recording separately because we couldn't do this, but a firm confidence had been born within me that I could do it now.
“...Sako, would you play together with me?”