Jazz Drumming Prodigy Reacts To Whiplash (Greyson Nekrutman)

Fletcher isn't actually noticing that Nieman is off tempo. He's criticizing him to see if Nieman is confident enough in his own skill to call Fletcher out. The scene comes right after Fletcher kicked out one of the trombone players for being out of tune when they actually weren't out of tune. They weren't confident enough in their own playing skill to defend themselves from the accusation.

You're correct that this isn't normal behavior for a band leader, but that's why the movie exists. That's the story. It's about abusive people like Fletcher, not about drumming. The director actually wrote this based on his own experience with an abusive instructor.

To be fair, during the audition part: they’d been playing for HOURS on that intensity, so I think the picturing of the musicians being drenched and on the verge of fainting was pretty accurate.

The point of the 'not quite my tempo' scene wasn't that Fletcher had a superhuman ability to hear tempo so fast, he was deliberately trying to unnerve and abuse Andrew. He even went out of hsi way to be nice to him before class so the experience would be all the more jarring.

I remember people that were not muscicians always told me to see this movie. When I saw it, I thought this isn't about music, is about toxic relations, and toxic habits to prove someone who doesn't care about you. I think the message could be taken to any art/area and still be the same movie, music and drummers where just what they choose.

That caravan groove is so ridiculously hard to keep. And to riff through it like whoever played the drums in that does is truly breathtaking

The end where the father's face goes from surprise to fear is one of the most subtly amazing parts of this movie. The director has said that this movie's ending isn't one of overcoming adversity, but a dark tale of Fletcher finding another prodigy to exploit. This hits home extremely hard because the last prodigy Fletcher found and absorbed killed themselves because of it. The final moment in the movie where the father's face becomes fearful and he eventually walks away is when he knows he has truly lost his son after trying so hard to prevent just that, knowing that his future is doomed.

The ending is chilling.... Andrews father watches in horror as his son frantically performs only to please Fletchers needs. Even the final draw back of fletchers arm as he apparently points to Andrew is meant to symbolize him whipping Andrew into final submission. There are many films about mental abuse, but the fact that Whiplash focused on drumming made for an incredibly creative and unique take on the subject.

I had a guitar teacher who threw footstools and music stands, which is why I didn't play guitar for 25+ years. I had a demanding but greatly encouraging band director in Jr high which is why I stuck with bass and drums for almost 30 years. Learning music, especially complex music, is difficult enough without a psycho instructor who may or may not have murdered someone

I feel like the point of the movie is kind of missed here. The ending is not a happy ending where Andrew beats Fletcher with an epic solo, proving him wrong. Fletcher wins, by proving that his toxic training technic worked. The dad is looking at his son so terrified because he can see how Fletcher consumed his son. The goal does not justify the means and we should never disregard the toxic training methods that has led a person to succeed Edit: it's true that this comment also missed the point of the video above, but maybe it's because of my choice of words, that it sounds like I'm reacting to the review, but I rather just want to draw some attention to the meaning of the movie because I feel like lot of musicians, especially drummers overlook it :)

The worst part of all those intense practice sessions and the abusive rehearsal part is that when they played Caravan at the end, there was no part where that blast beat was played. The drum solo, which was improvised, had that fast swing on the ride cymbal. Like many people have mentioned, the movie is not about music. It's about obsession, toxic relationships, etc. Great video by Greyson.

My music theory teacher told me this treatment is fairly accurate at the upper end music schools. He's had to endure pretty much the same abuses; said it was quite militant, at least back in the eighties. When I was a member of the Dayton Philharmonic Chorus, our director was very strict but of course, was never physical or foul mouthed. We had rules to follow and he could tell if any individual was off key or not in tempo. By the way, he was in his 90s! The Boston Pops conductor said in a Review of our performance, we were second in the nation only to his chorus, because of our discipline. Our director said that is why he was so hard on us!

The message isn't really to work hard and overcome something, it's more a cautionary tale of an abusive relationship and putting your faith in the wrong people. And the bad guy wins.

Funny thing about the hand wounds and blisters. I've had the same callouses on the inside of my fingers and keep slicing open my index finger on my hithats, among others. Think of them like burn marks a chef would get, just an occupational hazard

The fact that the guy reviewing this scene, Greyson Nekrutman, made his own cover of Andrew's famous drum solo two years before this, and with arguably the same level of mastery as Andrew has in the film by the end if not more so, gives me every reason to believe every word Greyson says.

i always found Whiplash as the golden example of the Villain winning in the end. Although Nieman did do a spectacular job at outdoing everything his instructor taught him, and even broke out of the seemingly dangerous cycle. Fletcher still got his prodigy, his magnum opus, his ideal player. and Flecther got him in HIS DEMENTED and MESSED up way.

In Whiplash, they used a stunt double for Neiman to play the harder complicated parts especially in the final song, which explains the perfect technique. But Greyson did a really good job with this video! Enjoyed it Drumeo! Edit: Has Greyson read this?

My college jazz ensemble was exactly like this guy. It was avoidable and unfortunate. But honestly he represented this old school way people teach. Belittle, shame, insult, stare down, etc in order to get your point across. I learned. But I also developed a ton of contempt.

Really nice to see such a balanced review from a professional drummer, I think your summary nails it. It's the same with countless Hollywood movies focussing on a very specific subject, the details are unlikely to be accurate throughout, that's where the 'artistic licence' comes in. I'm not a drummer (other than in my fantasy world), but thoroughly enjoyed the film and got completely wrapped up watching it and holding my breath at multiple points. Hopefully it has inspired people to take up learning the drums (I'm close to the edge myself) and was enjoyable for others.

Hoo man the rushing and dragging bit...in middle school percussion we had to do a solo every year. It was just a snare with piano accompaniment. I was always a lazy student so naturally I never practiced. This made the 1-on-1 lessons during that time of year particularly stressful. Our director was USMC, and was once upon a time part of the Marine Band in New Orleans. He took music VERY seriously. During one of the 1-on-1 lessons, he let me play the piece completely through before opening up google translate. He set it to translate English to Catalan and typed in "My name is (my name) and I am playing the drums." and told me to read aloud the Catalan translation. Obviously I butchered every single part of it and he said, "Did you hear that? How uncomfortable and awkward that sounded? That's how your drumming sounds to me. Practice. Practice, or you'll never drum in English to me." It was a brutal thing for a 12-year-old to hear, but I sure started practicing lmao