I had a terrific boss several years ago and I will never forget her trying to stretch my abilities further & further, always telling me that in order to grow one needs to "lean into discomfort" ... get away from what's comfortable and challenge yourself into doing something that's not natural.
I play in a new wave cover band and we had a gig last night at a party at a local university ... and on the spur of the moment I decided to lean into discomfort and switch my entire kit around, tossing muscle memory out the door. I am a minimalistic drummer, and am too old to lug around a big kit & hardware so I typically only use a basic 5 piece kit with hats, one crash/ride and a Roland SPD-S ... I put the floor tom to my immediate left near the hats ... I switched the rack toms, a 13" to the left & a 12" to the right ... put the cymbal near the 12" tom ... and the Roland to the spot where my floor tom always sits.
In the beginning, it nearly felt like I was playing a foreign instrument ... and it was so unique that I really had to think for a while but strangely, I think my timing/tempo was better and I felt a rush of adrenaline while playing songs that I had played a thousand times before. My fellow band mates, who had no idea I was going to do this, had a little extra step in their performance and we ended up crushing the gig. They are all now trying to convince me to set up like this from now on.
Obviously not everyone can get away with doing this and I, admittedly don't play prog rock or math rock or anything fancy shmansy, but I got a unique perspective for our instrument last night, one that I had not had in the 35 years I've been playing.
I play in a new wave cover band and we had a gig last night at a party at a local university ... and on the spur of the moment I decided to lean into discomfort and switch my entire kit around, tossing muscle memory out the door. I am a minimalistic drummer, and am too old to lug around a big kit & hardware so I typically only use a basic 5 piece kit with hats, one crash/ride and a Roland SPD-S ... I put the floor tom to my immediate left near the hats ... I switched the rack toms, a 13" to the left & a 12" to the right ... put the cymbal near the 12" tom ... and the Roland to the spot where my floor tom always sits.
In the beginning, it nearly felt like I was playing a foreign instrument ... and it was so unique that I really had to think for a while but strangely, I think my timing/tempo was better and I felt a rush of adrenaline while playing songs that I had played a thousand times before. My fellow band mates, who had no idea I was going to do this, had a little extra step in their performance and we ended up crushing the gig. They are all now trying to convince me to set up like this from now on.
Obviously not everyone can get away with doing this and I, admittedly don't play prog rock or math rock or anything fancy shmansy, but I got a unique perspective for our instrument last night, one that I had not had in the 35 years I've been playing.