Perry Garfinkel: Writing to the Beat

Drumming has benefited my writing, but it has also helped keep me sane as a writer. It balances opposing sides of my brain, the physical/visceral and the mental/logical.

Playing drums takes me out of my thinking head and into my feeling body, forcing my overactive mind to go on vacation.

When I’m performing onstage with other musicians, there is no time to edit, revise or even stop to think.

You have to always move forward, instantly rewarded and inspired by listeners’ bobbing heads and tapping feet.

You feel the beat or you’re “out of time.”

On the other hand, writing, like painting, is an art that happens alone — if not always literally, always alone in one’s head.

— Perry Garfinkel, Draft, NYT Writing to the Beat