Awesome Improvisation

Borrowing a page from Drumeo’s book, the YouTube channel Pianote invites keyboardists to create their interpretations of popular songs they’ve never heard. In this video, Snarky Puppy’s Justin Stanton takes on Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now, imparting the dance-pop hit with a smooth blend of jazz and funk after only hearing the drums and vocals.

Say you find yourself on top of a building without a ladder. How can you get down without jumping to the ground? This industrious worker shows how he descended from a roof with two tall poles and a shovel, creating the world’s cheapest elevator in the process. Definitely file this one under “Don’t try this at home.”

(PG-13: Language) Drumeo frequently invites percussionists to improvise rhythms to songs they’ve never heard or played before. In this session, they asked Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith to take on the Thirty Seconds to Mars song The Kill (Bury Me), and he totally nailed it despite his lack of familiarity with the track.

Dirk Verbeuren has been banging the drums since the 1990s, and is the current drummer for thrash metal band Megadeth. Unlike most of us, he had never heard The Killers’ 2004 hit Mr. Brightside before stopping by Drumeo’s studio. After giving a drumless version a listen, he broke it down, chopped it up, and performed his own take on the track’s rhythms.

Richard Rey aka Office Drummer, has a unique skill. He accepts song requests, then live streams an improvised drum beat regardless of whether or not he’s played it before. His performances include Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic, Outkast’s Hey Ya!, Green Day’s Brain Stew/Jaded, and MGMT’s Electric Feel.

Percussionist Dennis Chambers has performed with acts including Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, George Duke, and CAB. Drumeo challenged the legendary jazz-funk musician to listen to Tool’s Schism for the first time ever, after which he improvised a killer new drum track.

Artist Edson Aurélio Hudson shows off his improvisational abilities by tossing some random hardware soaked in ink onto a sheet of paper, then incorporating those blobs of ink as the foundation for an imaginative illustration. See more of his improvised images in this compilation video.

Vlogger Tom Scott teamed up with musician and producer Beardyman to create a track in real time. Fans provided the lyrics, Tom recorded the vocals, and Beardy used a variety of digital techniques to transform it all into an energetic electronic hyperpop tune.

Crazy as it sounds, Snarky Puppy drummer Larnell Lewis says he never heard the Metallica track Enter Sandman before now. But it didn’t take much time for him to pick up the rhythm, which he proved with a flawless performance right after his first listen in this video from Drumeo.

The Collective Cadenza is working on a series of videos that are conceived of, rehearsed, and performed in less than one hour with songs currently hot in pop culture. We especially enjoy the festive horn section and Pharrell substitute.