Magenta
Platinum Member
For me, it's dressage. I only do lowish-level stuff, none of your top hat and tailcoat malarkey, but it's often struck me how similar it is to drumming. In the same way that drum kits are only as good as the drummer playing them, horses are only as good as the people riding them - although having an educated horse does make it easier.
You need good co-ordination, the ability to isolate one or more parts of your body from the rest, a willingness to put in hours and hours of work (sometimes with no apparent reward, sometimes with instant results), good "feel", and the ability to be constructively self-critical. Just as you have to play the music but not interfere with it, you have to know at any instant how much or how little to ride the horse, when to support it and when to "play the spaces". And of course, the tiniest adjustments often make the biggest difference, for good or for bad.
When you're riding a relaxed, co-operative, confident horse, his/her breathing becomes deep and regular, s/he feels as light as a feather in your hands and as soft as butter along the neck and back, and you find yourself riding by telepathy rather than by giving physical aids. It's very much like to the "out of body" sensation you experience when you're drumming and the music takes over and seems to play itself.
Quite extraordinary how much the two have in common, when on the face of it they could hardly be more different.
So - what totally unrelated activities do others do, that are bizarrely similar to playing drums?
You need good co-ordination, the ability to isolate one or more parts of your body from the rest, a willingness to put in hours and hours of work (sometimes with no apparent reward, sometimes with instant results), good "feel", and the ability to be constructively self-critical. Just as you have to play the music but not interfere with it, you have to know at any instant how much or how little to ride the horse, when to support it and when to "play the spaces". And of course, the tiniest adjustments often make the biggest difference, for good or for bad.
When you're riding a relaxed, co-operative, confident horse, his/her breathing becomes deep and regular, s/he feels as light as a feather in your hands and as soft as butter along the neck and back, and you find yourself riding by telepathy rather than by giving physical aids. It's very much like to the "out of body" sensation you experience when you're drumming and the music takes over and seems to play itself.
Quite extraordinary how much the two have in common, when on the face of it they could hardly be more different.
So - what totally unrelated activities do others do, that are bizarrely similar to playing drums?