No lesson this week :-(

I had to cancel tomorrow's lesson because there was simply no way I could be there in time. I'm covering 2 roles at work so that and commuting is taking up all of the time I have. Unfortunately my teacher's policy is not to re-arrange or refund any cancelled lessons - so despite the fact that I was able to give 4 days notice tomorrow counts as one of my current block of 5 lessons.

This is probably a timely event : it has made me realise that it is madness for me to commit money up front to cover a 10-week period with no possibility of rearranging a lesson. I'm simply too busy with work, life and commuting to be able to work within such constraints.

So, fantastic though they have been the lessons are over after the next 3. I'll probably arrange less frequent ones on a one-off basis with other teachers.

:-(

Lesson #6

A hectic fortnight meant that I hardly got on the kit at all between the last lesson and this, so the first step was to review all the new stuff from last time. I was quite pleased that it hadn't completely gone from my mind, but it certainly wasn't ingrained at all.

The rest of the lesson was spent working on further exercises that revolved around triplets either as part of a groove or fill, and usually mixed up with 'straight' rhythms in some way. We covered a couple of neat things that meant you really HAD to have the next pattern in your head (ie they didn't incrementally evolve in a sensible order - the timing felt as though it jumped about a bit) so there was no hiding. Oh, and then the metronome came out again to remind me just how hard this really is.

Again I felt challenged and left with lots to work on.

There was one very positive thing though - my teacher pointed out that throughout the lesson my grip had, for the first time, remained spot on. Those hours on the practice pad finally paying off - progress at last :-)

Lesson # 5

Another 2 weeks already ? Cor blimey . . . that means this was the last of my paid-up-front lessons so time to decide if I stick with them, or go away and consolidate on my own for now. I gave this some serious thought over the last couple of days and decided to keep going. It has been hard to find the time to practice to get the most out of the lessons, but to be fair that necessity has been a good thing in keeping me moving forward on the practice front. And the money : well, money's for spending, and overdrafts are for, err, overdrafting. So onward and upward.

Today we warmed up with some easy singles and doubles, and we talked about how my grip really has come on since last time (the pad practice is paying off ;-) ) and the benefit of doing these things correctly from the outset. Then it was time to play through the 'homework' from last time - namely the 3 bars of 8th note groove, 1 bar fill, 3 bars 16th note groove on ride, 1 bar fill, repeat to fade. Oh and wrong-handed too.

Today's new item was the triplet. My teacher seemed a little relieved that I was at least aware of what this was "...3 notes played in the space of 2 normal notes..." and we set about a simple exercise to get the relative speeds of 8th notes, triplets and 16ths in to my head and limbs. Once I'd grasped this we applied it to a basic groove - with the right hand playing a bar of straight 8th note hi-hat (1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &), then a bar of triplets (1 & a 2 & a 3 & a 4 & a) then a bar of 16ths over an otherwise static very basic groove. Learning to feel the relative pace of each was key. All through this he was noting good and bad posture, stroke technique and all the other good things that keep me on the straight and narrow. This and similar exercises will form much of my next period of home practice.

From that we jumped back to some of my 8th and 16th note grooves from earlier lessons to make sure I'd not forgotten the basics and we then closed with a quick 'game' of copy the beat which rounded things off in a relaxed way.

Drumming versus Real Life

This Blog isn't called Drumming, it's called DrummingDad, so it's only right and proper that some real life creep in, so:

Drumming in a terraced house and with a small child who sleeps in the next room is always going to be problematic. It's especially frustrating if, like me, you're one of those people for whom the evening is when you're most awake and alert (morning people really freak me out - it's just not natural) . This has been a particular problem over the last couple of weeks and has severely curtailed my kit practice.

Fortunately I did knuckle down and put some pad time in instead, and this seems to have paid off as my latest lesson didn't seem to have suffered unduly. So all you folks wiht your sound-proofed playing areas, or kids home alone all day in the holidays, spare a thought for the frustrated bedroom-player who has to fight the urge to let rip at midnight (yes, we're still talking about drumming . . . )

Kit Upgrades

At some point in my very recent venture in to drumming, the old sickness overtook me : gear lust ! This affliction also known colloquially among guitarists as GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) is something that I know is never worth fighting. So I don't :-)

What it means is that I have upgraded a few things on the kit already. First up was a set of Sabian Hand Hammered Fusion hi-hats. The 'Rock' hats I had were great quality but VERY LOUD and far from subtle things, so I turned them around on eBay for roughly the price I paid and set about finding replacements. These came from Canada (via eBay) and are much more my cup of Decaff Yorkshire Tea


I was still without a crash cymbal, and we were using one (occasionally) in my lessons so that was next - it turned out that the friend who had been offering advice throughout my buying was selling some of his cymbals (having become a Paiste endorsee he has whatever he likes now!) and I chose a nice Zildjian A Custom 17" Fast Crash. It sounds wonderful - quick to react, quick to die away, and with a lovely low complex sound.

Now this was all very well, but what I quickly learned is that cymbals are interactive things - by that I mean that they need to complement each other tonally, and if they don't it really stands out. My crash and hi-hats were no longer in the same tonal-ballpark as my ride which was bright, quite loud, wonderfully articulate but sounding out of place among the low-pitched new arrivals. So to eBay - and this time the USA - where there was a well-used but ultimately very reasonably priced Sabian Hand Hammered Medium Ride. I love it.

The last upgrade was a very fickle one : my hi-hat pedal is a lovely Tama Iron Cobra. Obviously it would be 'best' if I had a matching bass drum pedal. Wouldn't it ? Hmm - why am I asking you I'd already decided . . . ;-) And look - all nicely matching now !

I should point out (particularly in case Mrs DrummingDad happens along to this corner of the internet . . . hello dear :-) ) that all of the things that these new items replace were sold on for at least what I bought them for: that's one of the great things about buying used gear - you're never too much out of pocket and sometimes even a few quid up. What was that dear ? Am I up or down ? Well, I, err, it's a little complicated . . .would you like a nice cup of tea and a sit down ? . . . ooh look a seagull. points. runs.

A more physical approach

In my last post I mentioned how I like to reserve a couple of minutes in each practice session to go wild and just thrash around the kit. When I do this I tend (among other things - including having poor timing !) to play harder and it changes the feel and sound of the kit quite a lot. So today I deliberately played hard all through my practice session - not because 'this is the way I play now' or anything like that but just to see what sprt of difference it made.

I noticed 4 things :

1. It detracted from my right foot - it was getting forgotten and a bit lazy as I was concentrating on beating the drums and cymbals

2. I chewed my brand new 5Bs to pieces ! haha

3. It made the toms sound better

4. My timing was poor - I was thinking about walloping the drums and not feeling the tempo

So in summary at this stage of my playing it's safe to say that playing hard detracts from my groove and is going to cost me money. Normal service will now resume.

Ars*ing about : Critical to practice ?

Something which occurred to me the other day but which I just remembered to write about : The important subject of simply messing about !

As a hobbyist musician it's all about fun - even the non-fun stuff (such as drilling those skills that are holding back my playing) I do because I know that putting that time in will mean I can better play something that I will really enjoy. To that end I try and make sure that on the rare occasions that I can sit behind my kit and make a proper noise that at least some part of it is me simply going nuts and seeing what comes out - even if nothing sensible happens it's a hell of a lot of fun, and every time I sit down I know that at some point, however tricky the practice might be, that that moment is coming soon - a reward if you like.

I don't doubt that this might undermine good practice, create bad habits, or take away from my 'real' practice time - this is about me and my drums for the moment, and ars*ing about is fun :-)