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.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Lesson # 5
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Lesson # 4
Another great lesson this week. I had to confess to not having practiced as much during this 2 week period than previously : as I moaned here I hadn't been at home at drum-able hours much. So the 16th note patterns I got last time remained mostly unpracticed. I had been doing some pad practice though - alternating singles doubles and paradiddles and trying to keep them even at low tempos.
So - we pitched in to test me on my un-practiced 16th note patterns - I surprised myself by playing most of them right off the bat from the notation. The instead of playing multiple bars of one pattern I played through all 16 one after the other - again reading - got it first time - <>
Next was some grip tuning as in doing those patterns my poor right hand grip had resurfaced. Martin's 'point your right finger' drill forced me to keep the stick in my other fingers and against my palm, which for now is the aim. I chose to play much of the rest of the lesson like this to drive this home! While doing this initially we worked out some sensible tempos (based on current breakdown tempo) for me to be practicing singles, doubles and paradiddles at (16ths at 80 bpm for all 3 it turned out)
Then came the challenging section of the lesson : "Pick one of your 8th note patterns and one of the 16th notes patterns - make sure they are nice and different" he says. So I did. Right - play the 8th note one on the hihat and the 16th one on the ride and alternate them. Hmm. There followed some swearing and nervous laughing (I must ask him to stop doing that . . . err no ok then that would be me) and it was clear why we were doing this - it's not as simple as it sounds ! I struggled for a while here until I locked the patterns in my head and it started to come together. When I'd got the idea we moved up a notch to 3 bars of one followed by a single stroke roll fill around the snare and toms, then 3 bars of the other with a double stroke roll fill around the toms the other way with the other hand leading. I had to keep at this for a while until I got it remotely consistent - but I kind of got there - one to practice at home :-)
Then his favourite trick : the same thing, but played open-handed. It's like you have to use someone else's brain for this - it takes huge concentration (well it takes me huge concentration) and breaks down easily - again something to work on at home this time.
Along with those 2 excercises I have bpm targets for my 8th and 16th note patterns "...to be played smoothly and evenly at all times!" and my 3 rudiment excercises.
It seemed like a crammed hour and I left with that best of feelings : like I'd cracked something new and improved since last time. Long may it continue.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Lesson # 1
I found my drum teacher partly through the Mike Dolbear website teacher register, and James Hester (who I'd met while working at the IGF last year) also spoke very highly of him. We'd settled on bi-weekly 1hour lessons, of which I pre-bought and booked a package of 5.
The teaching setup was ideal - a detached garage at his home had been fully soundproofed and converted to a well-equipped teaching studio complete with 2 full kits and a PA
Update to follow when I find my lessons notes !
