Josh Freese practicing to Frank Zappa’s “Night School”

“Pre show warm up/ritual that I do every single night. Stick my phone into my shirt and do this meditative sticking thing to Zappa’s ‘Night School’ for 5 mins. I don’t normally count out loud but for those wondering what the hell I’m doing here...and why. Fun because it is constantly shifting over the bar line of the song. Good for warming up the hands and focusing 🐩”
Netherlands
-July 7 2018
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Video uploaded for Motivation, Inspiration and Study

[@jz8179]

I'm not even a drummer but damn do I admire this guy on drums no matter where he goes or who he tours with.

[@rqneo5361]

One of the best drummers in the world

[@drvkqs]

LOL

[@lifesoldier]

​@@drvkqs?

[@ev446]

my fav drummer for live NIN

[@paulflipse3353]

Josh Freese is the Mother. Fucking. Man.

[@jasonpoland5507]

Mad respect For him practicing to Zappa

[@oh_look_bananas]

One of the best ever. Top 3 even.

[@brianmcguire5175]

to offer aid if anyone should want it explained in this thread. The sequence is the first thing you need to decipher. Zappa clearly wrote this very involved odd time part with a motif, repeated musical phrase, in mind. The magic number is 3 here. The first toggle of 16th note drum stick patterns is as such:1. Fours played alternating on both hands ie r r r r, l l l l. 2. Now threes are played and at same speed or subdivision value as the former fours looking like this: r r r, l l l. 3.Now there is a return to the fours again: r r r r, l l l l. This is when the groupings, fours to three back to fours again, are switched to five, six and back to five again. Notice the toggle between the alternating subdivisions are sequenced in threes and not a resolving four structure. To finalise I will crudely type the sticking of the complete pattern up until it's repeated. R r r r , L l l l, R r r, L l l, R r r r, L l l l and then R r r r r, L l l l l, R r r r r r, L l l l l l , Rr r r r, L l l l l. This is then when the sequence repeats. The capital letters represent the accented strokes. The counts are: 4, 4, 3, 3, 4, 4 then 5, 5, 6 ,6, 5, 5. Hopefully helpful to someone out there but if not please don't hate on my trying so haha, love drumming and other drummers

[@jarrahdrum]

I appreciate your help, thank you

[@brianmcguire5175]

@@jarrahdrum thanks bro

[@jarrahdrum]

@@brianmcguire5175 I’ve been curious about this for a long time because I love Night School I almost wrote to Mr Freese. No need to now :)

[@brianmcguire5175]

@@jarrahdrum awesome , thanks

[@rickneal4967]

You totally made all that shit up

[@garytitone853]

Sweet. Thinking back to your time with DZ. Keep Rocking

[@bobsondugnutt7526]

love this!!!

[@psul42]

Night School is an amazing melody. Interesting exercise.

[@nouseforafap]

The best punk rock drummer

[@Poulet39]

Certainement une des plus belles pièces de Zappa. Ideal pour jouer avec goût :p

[@urielzamarripa3063]

Excellent!

[@MikeInVentura]

now I finally understand the genius of you....

[@charliearavena3030]

J Freese...Real Master !!!

[@steveSticksE]

Wow that’s dedication to practicing single strokes left and right hand in groups !!! And counting each hand as it comes !! Years and years of practicing this to get it up to tempo !! 🎶🎶🎶🥁🥁🥁🥁 absolutely a drummer that’s been asked to record many different bands for the perfection track !! All I can say is, steve, get the practice pad and sticks and drum books out and start the beginning again!! Wow that really inspired me!! Thanks Josh

[@williamperri3437]

Yes, been doing it for years but I typically go down to doubles and singles and work my way back up! And sometimes I’ll just go between doubles and three taps.

[@user-ng9qq2yh2b]

This is so good - trying it out and it's damn hard!! But I like the challenge - makes you think while playing, and he's counting it out at the same time - very cool.

[@misfit2022]

This is how you become one of the greatest punk rock drummers in the world.

[@WhyTheHorseface]

Don’t confine that man to being a “punk rock drummer”.

[@lincthomas7178]

no, just a drummer!!

[@ianvergini8834]

He is one of the greatest drummers in the world IMHO - genres aside!!! 👏👏👏

[@Dave-lr2wo]

Me rating "South Side Moms" pageant contestants.

[@prospectnyc]

woah

[@StasBurkin]

Весьма неплохо, сударь!

[@buickmonte]

Jazz from Hell !!!!!

[@Boognish_]

[@Monsterdrumma]

Is the drum pad floating in the air? How is mounted?

[@ivantuohy]

🤔....glass.....table....top!!!

[@MACWILLIAM]

there's a bar under the pad that connects to a seat he is sitting on i think. does look like its floating lol

[@Monsterdrumma]

@@MACWILLIAM That was my guess as well I just don’t see anything going back under him. Maybe a new hovering drum pad we haven’t heard about yet lol!

[@HarryJoiner]

That is so hard to do

[@nomoreblitz]

How about some accents (e.g., Morello)?

[@BrandonOrlosky]

can you hold the government please?

[@Boognish_]

Anarchy 🍔!

[@drewlsy]

How much does he charge for an hour session in the recording studio? Almost afraid to ask, yikes? To afford him, means your demo is pretty much being backed by studio execs.

[@tylerroland1115]

I once got him to play on a 3.5-minute Logic file I made. Paid $750 for the duties, which hopefully is a good idea of where he’s at

[@mollieandtomato6533]

The song is in four. Are the stickings just arbitrarily made up differently each time?

[@davideleouet]

I try to understand … even with the explanation above ⬆️… is the sticking related to the melody ?? 🤔

[@mollieandtomato6533]

@@davideleouet yeah, if it's related to the music I'd love to play along. Looks like fun 🙂

[@mollieandtomato6533]

Oh, I wasn't paying attention. He's just playing along with the sixteenth note subdivision: six beats in each hand, then five, then four, then three, then four, then five, then six, then five...down, up, down, up...

[@davideleouet]

@@mollieandtomato6533 thanks 😊

[@joshuapearson2217]

Is this an exercise ? If so, can I find it somewhere?

[@MojavePete]

It's the song "Night School" by Frank Zappa. It's an electronic song and as you can see switches rhythms constantly. It was never intended to be played by a human- this is very impressive!

[@TopDrumCorps]

He just does 4-5-6-5-4 notes over and over again. You don’t need sheet music for this lol

[@JayKayEllEmm]

I hate that I was introduced to him as “the new drummer for Foo Fighters”. Taylor Hawkins is literally the reason I got into drumming, so the thought of his successor was always gonna be a tough pill to swallow (especially given the terrible circumstances). Yeah, he’s great, but it’s an apples to lemons comparison. He’s a different kind of drummer from Taylor and that’ll take some getting used to.

[@Neil-pv8pw]

the best drummer intheworld then surely he shud the richest! but no probably its roger taylor or ringo, but why? cos people buy their songs and dont waste time on zappa songs