Larry
"Uncle Larry"
Finally, how are you supposed to perform visually when playing super quiet? Sure you can nod your head alot but that looks plain weird when the visual aspect of physically hitting the drums is all but gone.........
.........How do you do it? How do you "go for it, man" and play quietly at the same time?
Volume-wise, I like playing quietly but I've never been able to play quietly without affecting the clarity of tone or the visual aspect of my performance.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
A couple things that come to mind...Yo have to let go of a lot of things. Things like clarity of tone. Your drums sound better in the audience than you give them credit for. That's part of the fallacy. You are just not used to the tone. Let it go and just play, don't be manufacturing problems for yourself. You have to get out of the mindset that you feel you have to "go for it" all the time. You don't. Try NOT going for it and be pleasantly surprised at how well it can work. The visual aspect. Don't worry about that stuff. You will look as cool as you normally do. When you have great control and can relax and not worry about things, how can you not look great? Instead of bobbing your head, look around and smile. You have energy to burn because you have headroom. Relaxation is what it's all about. Not worrying about your tone or how you look. They're pitfalls. Just understand that you look and sound great and don't worry about those things....they're detrimental.
You basically are creating your own problems. Don't do that! Get out of your own way! You are not a magician. If you have to play soft, concessions have to be made. That's understood. But there are things you gain that make up for the things you have to concede. Like control. Relaxation. Headroom. Those things are pretty impressive to the audience believe it or not. They just aren't "in your face". It's very freeing when you can let go of things you cling tightly to and are more or less "naked"....unencumbered by fallacies and your own manufactured expectations. Let it all go and play naked. Be brave enough to know you don't need to give 110% all the time. Be comfortable and happy to play at 35%. It works MUCH better than you would think. In a nutshell, it's all about how secure you are.