[This was originally written as an internal blog for my day job at LongerDays, but seemed fitting for here too… This goes for way more than drumming! Let me know what holds you back.] Putting yourself out there can be scary… Even more so when you’re sharing a creative work.… Read More »Creative Confidence
I’m no music theater pro. Not even close… I’ve done a grand total of two (Hands on a Harbody and the Seussical), but they were both such massive learning opportunities, I almost feel obligated to share some of the experiences here – and encourage you to explore it yourself. It’s… Read More »Lessons From Drumming In Music Theater
This PSA is brought to you by all of the people who’ve ever lost an important piece of gear. Thieviery of any kind sucks, no bones about it – but instruments are something else, another level of treachery. Plenty of stealable objects have monetary value… Plenty of others have sentimental… Read More »PSA: Fight Back Against Gear Theft
Oof, I haven’t even drafted anything for this blog in weeks, maybe longer… I’m sure that’s familiar to many of us – the old “put a project down for a little while” break that may or may not mean abandoning it entirely… That’s precisely what I’ve done here. I’m not entirely sure… Read More »An Unintended Hiatus
People seem unhappy. There are things happening in the forefront of public discourse that spark a lot of disagreement. Anger and fear, even just mild disgust, seem all the more common. As usual, it’s that much more visible too (thanks internet), but it’s hard to ignore a pervasive sentiment of… Read More »Transform Your Anger to Art
I’ve got something of a mantra: BOREDOM IS A MYTH. This doesn’t necessarily mean that people can’t be bored… Rather that they shouldn’t be. This also doesn’t mean that there’s no value in downtime, just relaxing, idle chat with friends, or an aimless wander through nature. No, I’m aimed at the… Read More »The Death of Boredom
We live in some weird times. Smartphones, YouTube, the upheaval of the music industry, vitriol-spewing trolls, more information than we can possibly digest, bombarding us from every angle, every minute of the day… This is life on the internet. These relatively new (and harsh) realities are having an effect on… Read More »A Guide to Being A Drummer on The Internet
Habits are hard as hell to break… Especially when you’ve been reinforcing them year after year, gig after gig, to the point they’re no longer just habits – they are parts of your personality. As drummers, this isn’t an entirely bad thing. Our go-to grooves, the way we tune our… Read More »So, You’re an Old Dog Drummer… Want Some New Tricks?
Over the last three entries on this here blog, I’ve been trying to cover my current (loose) approach to learning and developing my skillset on the drums. I’m calling it “The Twofold Path” because there are, well, two primary elements – exactly what I looked in Parts 2 and 3 – “chops” and “groove.”
Surely there are plenty of other things to consider in this vast world of percussive music making, but for me… Right now… This is where my head’s at.
In Part 2, the focus was chops and technical facility on the kit, and that should be a pretty major part of everyone’s practice. Really, this side of the coin can be expanded into anything technically oriented – speed, independence, pattern memorization, technique…
The other side (covered in Part 3) can be expanded into everything musical and practical – including things that require the ability and facility mentioned above.
Where one side is physical, the other is mostly mental.
OKAY – we’ve made it this far into a murky topic… A daunting subject to tackle, but I’ll do my best to keep things on track. This is where we really have to start slogging through the weeds though, because there’s some terminology we might not all agree on, some… Read More »The Twofold Path – Part 3: The Groove