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: Drumsticks

Is there such a thing as too easy?

Tonight I took the "pepsi challenge" with two different sets of drumsticks, both from Vic Firth, the SD1 and the Extreme 5B. The SD1s felt good, nice and lightweight, and rudiments were easy with them. The Extreme 5Bs had a little more weight to them, it was a little more difficult, but there was a comfort in the difficulty. The SD1s almost felt like they would slip out of my hands; the Extreme 5Bs forced me to grip them a little more forcefully, but there wasn't added tension from the firm-ness.

I might be reading too much into it, but it felt good to play with the less not difficult sticks. It reminded me of something Jack White said in the documentary about the White Stripes where they tour Canada. He was continuously looking for ways to make things more difficult because it sparked his creative flow, forced him out of his comfort zone, led to new stylistic discoveries that kept the music fresh and evolutionary. I can appreciate that.

Extreme 5Bs might be the ticket... plenty of time to make a decision.

Drumming is really effin' fun.