House of Drumming.com

I think the comparison of music and language is a valid one, because I believe there is also a connection.

I find that expressing myself musically enhances my ability to express myself with words.

I often try to avoid 'speaking' musically, however, and instead try to emulate the way a baby communicates before he/she learns to talk.

For me, it's usually one of two situations. There aren't a whole lot of opportunities for me to do a full drum solo with the group I'm in, but I do play them on occasion. I'm much more likely to do a solo on timbales (I play in a Latin band, and actually have a set of timbales in my setup), and those are always 100% spontaneous. That said, if we do bigger shows, and the opportunity comes along for me to do an actual drum solo, I sometimes do like to have some sort of at least a basic idea in my head as far as where to go with it. It's a very loose framework, nothing rigid. But it just gives me a little bit of an idea to go along with, which for me helps me relax and focus on the solo. But I think it's entirely a different strokes for different folks sorta thing, and also dependent on the musical setting at hand.