I am one of approximately 236 living humans who can dance adequately to The Black Page. We meet annually in the sewers of Prague. It gets crazy.

I for one would love to see dancing about architecture.

I listened to Zappa as a teenager for his funny lyrics, but the older I get, the more I appreciate the absolute genius level of the compositions and performances. He was the mastermind pushing the limits of rock and jazz music like no one before. His genius lives on in guys like Steve Vai.

Reporter: you have long hair to you are a woman Frank Zappa: you have a wooden leg so you are a chair.

Frank Zappa was the only person who could say "not quite my tempo".

"What makes The Black Page so difficult?" (hears The Black Page) "Oh, I see."

Don't all those awe inspiring tuplets sprinkled over a regular 4/4 pulse distract you from the fact that he consistantly kept the hi hat going every tick through out the piece. absolute mastermind.

Frank Zappa: I want you to try this Everyone: shut up and play your guitar

Frank Zappa walks into the tuplet store Clerk: not again

"Talking about music is like dancing to architecture," is a famous quote that is attributed to many other artist, including comedian Steve Martin. However; there is a recording of bassist Roger Waters of Pink Floyd telling a reporter this in 1967, and is the earliest instance of the quote sourced. When you also consider that Roger was a former architecture student who didn't like giving interviews (unlike Zappa), it's not hard to believe the quote originated from him.

3:40 ”Yo dawg, I heard you like tuplets” Thank you for this great video! I knew it was a difficult piece to play, but I never knew it was this HARD.

I remember listening to 'Baby Snakes' on a constant loop back in college. Black Page #2 was one of those pieces that, even as a casual listener, changed your perception of reality. But, not in the way you'd think. The more you listened to it, the more things made sense.

You and Adam are going to duet this right?

Your sight reading skills are just wow 🤦🏿‍♂️. Absolute goals

'Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny' -FZ. Shawn, thank you for making this video! You have huge balls, and great ambition and passion for even trying to play this. You are clearly knowledgeable and skilled to come close to playing this difficult piece. I remember Frank was known to give this to auditioning drummers to test how good they were. He had some renown drummers over the years... Terry Bozzio, Vinny Colaiuta, Chad Wackerman, and Chester Thompson. Colaiuta probably enjoyed it, as he was such a freak of musicianship! Keep up the good work bro. I enjoyed the video!

I was always mindblown at how beautiful the phrasing is for such a discombobulated rhythm

Frank was trolling the band, obviously.

I would love to see a video of Ruth Underwood breaking this down- she was always the essential "spice" that made Zappa's music special. Plus she was just a stunning virtuoso

Not being facetious - i love your dry, down-to-business approach to discussing this. No pedantry, no apparent appetite for attention; just focus and passion. LOVE it. Thank you.

I had heard about Zappa's compositions being difficult...and when top-level session guys call something "difficult", we normal humans translate that as "f*%#ing impossible". Steve Vai supposedly got his start with Zappa by transcribing "Sinister Footwear" onto paper from hearing it, and sent Zappa a copy. Zappa was so impressed, he auditioned him and hired him.

Frank always said he was a composer that just happened to played guitar. He was a needed genius.

I’m not even a drummer, but I already gave up

When Bozio auditioned for The Mothers, Frank told me he'd only been playing at home. He screwed up horribly and left the building, demoralized.The amazing thing was, he turned around and went back to ask if he could try again. Frank gave him a do-over, and he crushed it. Bozio is a brilliant drummer, and with The Mothers came completely out of his shell, turning into a wild performer...adding vocals and the best scream this side of Steven Tyler. Frank's densepacked sheet music was even a challenge for the LA Philharmonic. This is a terrific video. It's lovely to see those black pages again...💕🎶

Sixteen years after his death and his compositions are still challenging & baffling gifted musicians. Great video. Most enjoyable.

Ill never understand it. Its like someone transcribed what you hear walking through guitar center or something.

dance of eternity crying in the corner

I was heavily into Prog-Rock in the seventies, but when you listened to Frank, it was actually Dimensional Rock -- it was dimensionally beyond anything anyone has ever really heard in that era.

During my percussion study in Amsterdam I’ve been lucky enough to perform this twice on cowbells and marimba. I studied it soooo bloody much that I still do a karaoke version :D Masterpiece!

I just watched an arrogant, dogshit video about how a professional drummer tells if a drummer has got..."It". Then I saw this video and my faith was immediately restored; you're playing a piece, and you're having fun learning it. Turns out enthusiasm is better than arrogance.

As a drummer, I've had the rhythms down for a long time. My main difficulty is keeping the left foot consistent while incorporating the right foot into all those odd groupings. I think the thing to do is to practice repeated 5's, 7's, etc with several right foot-involved permutations against the quarter note left foot. Excellent job.

It says "Drink more Ovaltine" when you decode it lol

That cheeky smile over the 11-tuplets right near the end was such a delight.

One time i was helping a buddy move. We accidentally dropped his drum set down a flight of stairs. It sounded spot on.

I've read the quote (in a FZ interview in Guitar Player magazine) as "Writing about music is like eating tennis".

This is such a monstrously excellent piece of music it saddens me every time it finishes. This, and his “Revised Music...” from Studio Tan are the greatest epitaphs any composer could wish for.

And Terry Bozzio had it nailed in 2 weeks doing 20 minutes a day.

Ah, so nested tuplets are just as much of a headache in music as in programming.

Frank Zappa the only man in history that can make a 2minute song seem like an eternity

This is a beautifully conceived and executed video, and I really appreciate it. It’s the first time I’ve really made the effort to listen to an out-there Zappa piece, but in actual fact it was you who made the effort for me ;)

This was a hilarious piece of One/upmanship by Zappa. He Always had musicians good enough to play these things, but most musicians would look at this or “Inca Roads” and just leave, and go back to playing top 40 stuff. Steve Vai allegedly transcribed this at 17-18, and showed up for his audition with Zappa and gave him the transcription. According to Zappa, that meant he already had the job, but he let him go ahead with it and Vai played with him for a few years.

Wow that's a GIANT hi hat!

Gotta love Zappa music... Listening to it of course, playing it must be a nightmare but extremely rewarding if you can nail it

Zappa's contribution to music might not be fully recognized for many years to come.

That was incredible. That’s some goal to set. A crazy crazy achievement. Very inspiring. Thank you.

That performance was the music equivalent of watching a subtitled kung-fu movie

"...and the way you develop that [internal timing] is through the voice." Billy Rimer of Dillinger Escape Plan said that he remembers the insane drum phrases in their music by equating them to a vocal phrase of a certain number of syllables. Interesting.

Love the way you expose yourself, it's good to see your progress and the flaws, it shows that with hard work anyone can to it. Thanks a lot for the lesson Shawn!!

amazing. A documentary on an advanced musicians journey to learn a piece. So awesome, so human and ultimately so educational. You did the hard work and passed on your knowledge to the rest of us. You are awesome!

It is so rare to get testimony of people actually learning the music. So helpful. Thank you.

I have no idea how to play the drums but I'm watching this anyway

Very impressive in many ways. Your playing, your presentation, your editing and your philosophy. to name a few. Thank you for the great video.

I can almost count the damn thing. I was thrilled watching you find the joy in playing it. BRAVO!

When learning anything you will be better the next day. The reason for that is, your brain goes over new information while you sleep, reorganizing itself to better deal with what you learned. This allows it to perform better when in the same situation again, allowing you to perform better when trying to play it again. Anytime you hit a brick wall, call it a day and sleep on it, and you’ll likely get beyond it the next day.

… Wow. The black page 1 sounds like a troll on musicians.

Master drummer, excellent explanation. The kind of musician we need to teach music to us common people.

Dude, I have watched like a gazillion versions of The Black Page and yours has to be my favorite. Such a beautiful interpretation!

Love the smile at 14:15! I'd smile too if I could play this nightmare!!

Zappa was way ahead of his time! Sure do miss his live performances!

Great work in figuring this all out. Nice playing over the tune as well. That Zappa, man, what a guy!

Hats of to you Shawn, this is a tall order and you did a great job!

I'm not even a musician, but thanks, it's pretty inspiring. Keep up the good work!

I performed it from my degree recital years ago. One of my biggest and proudest accomplishments Took me ages to learn the solo and to find a band that could play part 2 alongside me. Regardless, it happened and I'm so pleased it did. It's super fun too, once you know it well enough.

Really appreciate this and to understand the technical difficulties over just the sheet volume of notes

Much as I admired Zappa..there comes a point in this video when you think...why...???. Thank you for your patience and (immense) knowledge Shawn.

Wonder if we'll be seeing a Sungazer black page-like composition in the future now!

Shawn: Can't sightread quintuplets nested within triplets Also Shawn: I give myself a D minus. Just goes to show how amazing this guy is. I can hardly imagine me ever getting to a point of proficiency where I would fail to sightread nested tuplets and consider that "not that great". Huge props for doing as well as you did on the first try, and for learning this monstrosity of a piece!

Respect that you got along as far as this!!! Wow!

A heroic endeavour! And your comments on having a good work ethic are spot on. I hardly ever post comments but this was exceptional. RIP Frank.

I know that feeling of just being unable to get satisfactory results on a certain day but coming back the next day and getting a sudden performance boost all too well... it's a weirdly universal thing that happens to a lot of people I know. My little theory is that the night's sleep you get after a whole day of practice lets your brain internalize and process everything it learned during the day so that it becomes more subconscious and natural the next day.

Shawn, thank you so much for explaining this the way you did with all the parameters of learning and being excited about music. Frank was, IS a force to be reckoned with and you helped me out a lot.

Shawn, I was so impressed with your explanation of this piece that I subscribed to your page. I studied polyrhythms with Gary Chafee in Boston while I was going to Berklee long ago. And I really like how you explained it I even think some non-musicians could understand what you’re talking about. Very good.

I'm not even a drummer, but this video's message is applicable to just about anything in regards to succeeding at life. Great job. Great message.

Anytime I hear the word subdivisions I always sing the Rush song "Subdivisuons". Solid work my friend

Thank you for this detailed analysis of this piece Shawn. I have been 'reinspired' to get back to that piece with much more rigor!

Man I love your technicality while explaining ❤❤

Man, this is so good on so many levels! The honesty, the message and the PLAYING!!!

Legend has it this piece of music drove Bill Burr into comedy...

This is probably one of the only vids on here that I really enjoyed. You’re conceptually looking at everything. I’ve been a pro player since I was 16, playing since 4…but instead of a kit degree I got an orchestral scholarship in college. THAT made looking at the in between and the whole much easier on a piece like this. Really nice presentation.

Nice work! I saw the one handed part in the finale. Splendid!

Steve Vai transcibed it by ear. Go figure...

this was so interesting, You've improved so much with just a few vids, keep it up!

Awesome video Shawn. Super nicely done!

Enjoyed it immensely. Learned so much. Person at work told me to check out The Black Page. So glad I did. That is how I came to your KZfaq video. Drumming ain't easy!

Very interesting video, i didn't know about this piece until now. You explained it very well, thanks!

Appreciate this. Amazed that I came across it so soon after it was uploaded. Saw Bozzio play back in 2006 or 2007 on the Zappa Plays Zappa tour. Amazing talent.

excellent!!! work and Thank You! for putting all the time and effort into this one Shawn

Thanks for introducing us the piece/ composition...

Awesome work. I can't even begin to comprehend this piece. Didn't realise that you are in Sungazer until the outro. I love it.

14:12 that smile...

Great video. Thanks for talking about your process........... that's huge and often overlooked.

total respect for you my friend..great job

First off, I want to say respect. I think you did a pretty amazing job of it. I find reading it next to impossible when it comes to those tuple tuples. But why all the insults (in some of the replies and comments), I really don't get that? You don't like it? Fine, but why slag off someone who does? The same goes the other way around. I guess Frank Zappa still polarises opinion. I went to see him in 84, I think, some time between Joe's Garage Part 2 and Ship Arriving Too Late..., when Chad Wackerman was his drummer (with a name like that, what else could you be?) and it was probably the best gig I ever went to. It was mind blowing. So you can guess that I'm a fan and Chad was my favourite of his drummers. Personally, I do like the piece, both versions, but I wouldn't even try to learn it. My strengths lie much more in the feel and groove areas and that's what I also enjoy playing most: locking in with the rest of the rhythm section. If I had to learn it I'd do by playing along, or by programming it into a sequencer, by ear. I don't do a lot of reading anyway, and actually learned to read playing flute and piano, before I took up drums. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate this kind of stuff either, though. I did also see Terry Bozzio (who played the original on Live in New York) once, but not with Zappa (with UK, after Bill Bruford, probably my favourite drummer of all, had left. UK had another Zappa musician, Eddie Jobson, on violin and keyboards, who first teamed up with Bill Bruford in King Crimson). As for the piece itself, I wouldn't say Zappa was trolling his musicians. He knew they secretly called his sheet music black pages because they were so dense, and he did write it in an “I'll show you black page” attitude, but one thing that's always struck me about his bands is that after all the hardship, the long, difficult, and disciplined rehearsing, they knew the material inside out and were totally confident and at ease playing it. By the time it came to touring they were really enjoying themselves and having fun with it and that always came across to the audience. You could see them smiling and laughing. A lot of the really difficult stuff was actually something most people wouldn't realise, like segueing into a song in a different key and hitting a five part vocal harmony spot on. And one final observation: while I also have a lot of respect for Terry Bozzio for learning such a difficult piece, the person that I most admire is Ruth Underwood, who not only played the same difficult rhythm, but the melody as well (she was his percussionist for a long time and an amazing musician. Unfortunately I didn't ever get to see her. I got into Zappa about six months after the Sheik Yerbouti album, which was recorded in London and was the last album she did with him). To finish I'd just like to leave you with something a Jazz pianist friend of mine once said: there are really only two types of music: good music and bad music. That isn't the same thing as music you like and music you don't.

If he did it in D minor, we would weep instantly, and constantly.

Either you love it or you hate it , Zappa was a musician from the future! I recommend cheking the wiki and looking for the list of musicians that played with him. Its insane , more than 300 artists. Some actually really good , like Jean Luc Ponty or Steve Vai , or George Duke , or goddamit you get the idea.

Damn dude, that was an amazing doc on the tune and your adventure getting to a point where you performed it. Loved this man 🤘🏼

Thanks for your efforts and your take on the "Black Page". I loved this piece the first time I heard it, back in 76' or 77.

Fascinating. I actually enjoyed that more for having seen it broken down and then put back together. Really enjoyed. Thanks.

Fantastic job all around !!!

I'm very impressed at how well you did! I definitely appreciate the hard work you put in.🥁❤

Good !! Congratulations ! I appreciated the smile at 14:15, so thank U !