What makes 'The Black Page' so difficult?
Frank Zappa's "Black Page #1" is known for being difficult to play. But is it? If so, why? I decided to learn it to find out. Here I document the process of learning "The Black Page" on the drums, from start to finish. I spent one week learning this piece before recording the final performance at the end of the video. The drums are unedited and the MIDI backing track is 100% quantized. It's not easy to line everything up, but with practice, you can do it! PS - For those interested in learning these types of rhythms, I highly recommend Mike Mangini's "Rhythm Knowledge" books. Volume 2, in particular, has a plethora of exercises pertaining to tuplets and counting that have helped me out tremendously over the years.

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Drum Challenge: Can you play this impossible piece?

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Chad Wackerman Shares Zappa Stories & "The Black Page" Secrets

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Classical Composer Reacts to Inca Roads (Frank Zappa) | The Daily Doug (Episode 199)

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1984: BILL BRUFORD on the SIMMONS ELECTRONIC DRUM KIT | Micro Live | Retro Tech | BBC Archive

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The Black Page #1 - Frank Zappa/Pauline Roberts

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How Vinnie Got The Zappa Gig - Vinnie Colaiuta

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How to Play Nested Tuplets (polyriddim explained)

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What’s It Like Drumming For Frank Zappa? | Chad Wackerman

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Something is jamming GPS over Europe. Here's what we found

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The Real Reason Why Todays Music Is Starting To Sound The Same

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The Insane Genius of a Formula 1 Gearbox

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Frank Zappa Drummer Hears The Mars Volta For The First Time

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Frank Zappa: Black Page #1 & #2 (with embedded score) REACTION | The Daily Doug (Episode 366)

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5 Subtle Ways Pros Can Tell if a Drummer's "Legit"

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Fender Lied, it’s all about PRS

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How to play 21 against 22

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Quintuplet swing.

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A Song That Actually Uses Locrian

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Dweezil Zappa Teaches Frank Zappa's Improvisation Techniques | Reverb Interview

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