AllTheCoolNamesAreTaken
Silver Member
I have to tell this story to someone, and I figure only other drummers would care
Yesterday I was practicing in my rented space. I managed to find a spot really cheap about six blocks from work, so I get there three to four times a week and practice a couple hours. Sometimes I work on technique, sometimes on songs for my band ... sometimes I start with one then go to the other, etc.
I went through the Intermediate Lifetime warmup, some general body warmups, and I was working on the Johnny Rabb 30 Days to Better Hands exercise. My first pass was at a comfortable speed, then one at a speed that pushed me, then finally I set the metronome up at a speed just out of my range to see how I would do. As expected it was very ragged and I gave up after a couple minutes and was about to start working on something else.
Then there's a knock on my door. I open it, and there's a guy standing there, just some guy I've never met before, holding a music case. He asks me what I'm playing and I told him I'm just working on my rolls.
The guy then proceeds to tell me that my rolls are terrible. He can hear that I'm thinking, for example, 1e+a2e+a3...4, and it's driving him crazy. I should be thinking 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a no matter what I'm playing, etc. He then pushed his way into my room and spent the next 45 minutes yelling at me to count! Count with short syllables - wuh, tuh, thruh, fuh, fi, si, seh, etc! Play with conviction, and play with focus! Don't be lazy! Count without moving your head! Start counting before you start playing so you're not guessing!
This guy just utterly destroyed me over the course of this lecture, picking apart everything I was doing and in the most ego-destroying way possible. Then he told me I needed to find a teacher, tell him my "time was bad", and I need to "start from scratch". And then he left.
The whole way through this I was trying to take it as best I could. Free lesson, right? And the guy knew what he was doing, he's a professional trumpet player and he was tapping out rhythms and singing over them. And I always try to listen to people who know what they're talking about.
After all the guy was right. I've been noticing flaws in my micro timing (my macro timing is pretty good, it's in subdividing that I have problems) and trying to work on that. So some guy coming in and just telling me everything I was doing wrong and how to fix it, for free to boot, was interesting.
But it was just so unexpected, and so utterly soul-destroying at the time, that it just ruined my night. I think I tried playing one more song and I was just so depressed that I skipped the bus and walked five-miles home.
Yesterday I was practicing in my rented space. I managed to find a spot really cheap about six blocks from work, so I get there three to four times a week and practice a couple hours. Sometimes I work on technique, sometimes on songs for my band ... sometimes I start with one then go to the other, etc.
I went through the Intermediate Lifetime warmup, some general body warmups, and I was working on the Johnny Rabb 30 Days to Better Hands exercise. My first pass was at a comfortable speed, then one at a speed that pushed me, then finally I set the metronome up at a speed just out of my range to see how I would do. As expected it was very ragged and I gave up after a couple minutes and was about to start working on something else.
Then there's a knock on my door. I open it, and there's a guy standing there, just some guy I've never met before, holding a music case. He asks me what I'm playing and I told him I'm just working on my rolls.
The guy then proceeds to tell me that my rolls are terrible. He can hear that I'm thinking, for example, 1e+a2e+a3...4, and it's driving him crazy. I should be thinking 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a no matter what I'm playing, etc. He then pushed his way into my room and spent the next 45 minutes yelling at me to count! Count with short syllables - wuh, tuh, thruh, fuh, fi, si, seh, etc! Play with conviction, and play with focus! Don't be lazy! Count without moving your head! Start counting before you start playing so you're not guessing!
This guy just utterly destroyed me over the course of this lecture, picking apart everything I was doing and in the most ego-destroying way possible. Then he told me I needed to find a teacher, tell him my "time was bad", and I need to "start from scratch". And then he left.
The whole way through this I was trying to take it as best I could. Free lesson, right? And the guy knew what he was doing, he's a professional trumpet player and he was tapping out rhythms and singing over them. And I always try to listen to people who know what they're talking about.
After all the guy was right. I've been noticing flaws in my micro timing (my macro timing is pretty good, it's in subdividing that I have problems) and trying to work on that. So some guy coming in and just telling me everything I was doing wrong and how to fix it, for free to boot, was interesting.
But it was just so unexpected, and so utterly soul-destroying at the time, that it just ruined my night. I think I tried playing one more song and I was just so depressed that I skipped the bus and walked five-miles home.