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: 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.

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...

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...