Habits

It takes 2 weeks for something to become a habit.

How long does it take for something to un-become a habit?

Exercising, running, eating right, drumming.

Three of these four things are lacking in my life right now.

Well, four of the four if you consider the fact that I'm only drumming on practice pads and not on an actual kit.

Good habits always feel like they're so hard to reinforce, whereas bad habits propagate and intensify with little to no effort.

If the first step towards a solution is admitting you have a problem, then I'm on the right track.

Go reinforce a good habit, Glynn. Then do it again and again and again.

What habits will I have 2 weeks from now...?

...

Oh yeah, the Vater Manhattan 7A is out dueling the Vic Firth X8D at the moment.

Woodshed: Have Fun

You can practice all you want and get better and develop good technique and pile on more and more exercises and eventually become an amazing musician...

But it's all for nothing if you're not having fun.

Woodshed: Developing my Drumming "Vocabulary"

As soon as we learn how to talk, we spend the rest of our lives doing it. As a species, talking is our primary form of communication. Sure, there's writing and non-verbal communication like body language or facial expressions, but we do our most specific and explicit communication through talking.

When you first start talking, it's not very intelligible. There are lots of monosyllables and nonsensical phrases. I should know because I'm in the midst of an almost two year old boy who is beginning to find his voice. Lots of "um"s and "qwijybo"s... Gibberish, basically.

But then, after a while, after you've been talking for a bit, actual words start to take shape. "Mama", "Da-dee", "Pa-pa", "up", "eeree" (really)... You begin to convey actual thoughts through these words. These words are the first part of your vocabulary. Then further down the line there are phrases, then sentences, then full paragraphs, then you start to tell actual stories.

When you think about it, people start telling stories the moment they start talking. It's just we don't have the control over language, the vocabulary that is necessary to be understood. It's not until several years of talking that we actually communicate these stories more effectively. And even then, it will be even more years until those stories are nuanced and subtle and communicate even more complicated thoughts. When we reach our teenage years, our language and vocabulary has evolved and we might even be able to hold someone's attention long enough to tell them a really good story... even if it's not as sophisticated as the story we'll tell as young adults and then even further into our wisdom gaining years...

What's my point...?

Well, I'm a veritable teenager... when it comes to drumming. I can tell a pretty good story, but it's not as refined as I'd like it to be. The story doesn't live up to the expectations that my idealistic and impressionable mind have set for myself. And it's because my vocabulary isn't up to par... I have much to learn before I can articulately speak while I'm sitting at a drumset. I've got some pretty impressive "words" to use, but there's plenty more to say and ever more eloquent ways to say it.

Wow. What a long winded way of saying that I'm woodshedding so I can increase my drum vocabulary...

10K

Killed it today. 8:33 a mile, which is 12 seconds a mile faster than the pace I had set as a goal. And this was after taking 9 days off before the race and coming off a sickness that had me unable to talk from sores in my mouth...

But I know I can do better. If I train smarter and work in some speed work, I can do better. And that's the key to doing better: staying hungry. Pushing yourself, testing your boundaries, pushing up against your own personal walls, and breaking through them...

Let's achieve that triathlon goal next year, Glynn..

Ugh... I have to write about the Mayweather-Ortiz fight because it's bugging me so much. Yes, Ortiz was probably going to lose, get knocked out even. Yes, he headbutted Mayweather, which was a punk, chump, idiot, classless move. Yes, he should have been protecting himself at all times. But, damn... what a horrible way to end the fight. Pacquiao-Mayweather will probably never happen now because the next fight will probably be a rematch... and Floyd will win because aside from the fact that he's detestable... he's really, really good.

Ugh...

Drumming tonight felt good, tho. Yeah. Let's end this post on a positive note. Drumming definitely felt good. Starting to get a controlled bounce going. Power and lightness and coordination... Keep it up, Glynn...

Unlearning

Ugh. It's time for a stream of consciousness blog...

6 days down. Drum technique is tedious. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? How do I know if I'm making progress? And tonight I realized that the hill is even more steep because I have to "unlearn" over 16 years of incorrect technique... Oh well... I guess I should just keep going till I'm a bomb drummer...

Running has been replaced by drumming. The endorphins are the same. The attention to detail and the OCD and the focus on technique and the incremental improvement and the ultimate goal to become better are the same. But I like drumming more... not to say I don't like running, I just like drumming more...

My mouth effing hurts. Stupid canker sores. I need to stop eating so much spicy food. Or maybe drink milk more...

Dodger game tomorrow!

We won the scavenger hunt last Saturday!!

Mayweather/ Ortiz on Saturday!!

NFL season has started!!

MLB playoffs really soon!!

NBA lockout this season...

Primus next month! Maybe Ozma the month after that!

September is essentially halfway done...

Chase is almost 2...

I'm almost 30...

I love my life...

I should sleep.

But probably...

won't...

Woodshed: The Beginning

I've tried woodshedding before, unsuccessfully. I think it was because I didn't have a set time, a set routine, or even an actual woodshed...

Times. They are a-changin'...

I just finished day number 4 of my current attempt at woodshedding. Drum woodshedding. Tools include a practice pad on a snare stand, sticks, kick drum practice pad, single kick pedal, hi-hat stand (just added tonight), and the Tempo Advance app on my iPhone. Oh yeah, the book Stick Control, too...

I'm not gonna lie. Running has partially groomed me for woodshedding. They're both solitary activities, and you get a lot of thinking done during both activities. You can't quite zone out the same way while drumming... or maybe it's a different type of zoning out... I already feel more connected, more "zen" while doing the drum exercises. I'm incorporating 4 limb coordination with the hat on the quarters and the kick on 2 and 4 and tonight it felt as if I was really connected, truly actually physically and rhythmically connected... It's not about being pretty, I could feel my eyes closed and grimaces and frowns and funny faces, but the groove was happening. It's only the beginning and I have a long way to go, but I feel like I'm on the right track and I can't wait to see if I can be patient and stick to the plan and put in the work and start to see results just like running...

You can do it, Glynn. You can do it. You. Can. Do. It...

Oh yeah... I also love my woodshed. It's our garage. Actually it's the little nook that is supposed to be a storage space in our garage. But I get to climb a little ladder to get up there and it's super hot and the neighbors can't hear but I can hear when cars go by and it just feels... like a woodshed. A private place to devote to the development of musical skill... And I love it...

Running and Drumming

There are so many common themes between running and drumming.

Physical activities. Coordination (hand eye, between limbs). Timing. Technique. Dedication. Muscle memory...

I ran for 4 months last year and have been running for the past 4 months this year. Today was day 2 of my most recent dedication to developing better (or actual) drum technique.

I'm in the best shape of my life after 4 months of running. I'm interested to see how I'll be doing after 4 months of drum exercises...

I just need to take everything that I've gained from running and the development I've seen and the fitness I've experienced and relate it to drumming. Because right now I'm slow and not so coordinated and nowhere near where I want to be. But it was the same at the beginning of my run training. Just stick with it and develop a program and realize there will be ups and downs and stick to the program and have fun and keep track of goals and have fun and integrate the exercises into your actual drumming...

See. Easy. Now get to it...