Back to the grind

rhumbagirl

Senior Member
Well HELLO AGAIN, Drummerworld!!

Jjust thought I'd write a little note about where I'm at in my playing. You see, it wasn't always about my playing. Because I wasn't always playing. It only became about my playing when I went out and sought it out, and demanded something from myself, something that I knew was there, but not sure where or how.

So where am I? Surely I'm rested after 8 weeks off. 8 weeks off! I got out of bed, got hired, drove across the country with my dog, my cat, and my drums. What more could I need? Nothing much to be honest :) Life is good again! I don't get to play for a living, but I get to have a roof over my head. And the best gear that money can buy! Well almost the best, ha ha.

I'm in the grind again. It's tough. It's tough wondering if you'll get back to where you were. It's tough wondering if it's all worth it. What I've found in the less than 6 hours or so spread out over a few days is, it's still there. And it even might have benefited from the rest. Having a practice set on youtube helps. Monotonous yes, but it establishes a base to measure against. I can identify my weak spots and work on them.

Here's to the next 6 months and whatever I can pull out of myself to make myself better.

Oh and to the advice thing... I think what's applicable here is, you're not defined by your successes as much as by your ability to get back up when you've been knocked down. The specific twist to the drums is, and this is only my theory, is that while you may become weak after a period of downtime, your ability to drive yourself, your ability to find new techniques to overcome your weaknesses, THAT is what makes you a better player.

Improvisation. Not just in the time sense. But in the sense that's between your ears.

Concentrate on what you're playing. Listen. Relax. Rinse & Repeat.

Life is good!!!

Steph
 
Great to see you again, and I'm glad things are going well.

That's a VERY sound piece of advice too, and one I'll try to remember.
 
you're not defined by your successes as much as by your ability to get back up when you've been knocked down.
That's a great piece of life advice right there. Lord knows I've been knocked down enough in my life, & there's a somewhat perverse benefit to having your back against the wall. I'm going through another tough patch right now. It's difficult to appreciate the benefits of cyclical stresses whilst you're at the bottom of the curve staring up, but it sure makes the view from the top of the curve much sweeter ;)
 
Great to see you again, and I'm glad things are going well.

That's a VERY sound piece of advice too, and one I'll try to remember.

Thanks Magenta! It's good to be back. I suppose it helps to have a place to practice. The new company is letting me keep my drums in a spare office space where I can practice at will :) It's commercial office space with two 5x8 dry erase boards, thick walls, and carpeted flooring, not to mention 8 separate electrical outlets. It's one room out of about 80,000 sqft of foreclosed office space. Air conditioned too.

Last night I let it loose from midnight to about 5am!!

Steph
 
That's a great piece of life advice right there. Lord knows I've been knocked down enough in my life, & there's a somewhat perverse benefit to having your back against the wall. I'm going through another tough patch right now. It's difficult to appreciate the benefits of cyclical stresses whilst you're at the bottom of the curve staring up, but it sure makes the view from the top of the curve much sweeter ;)

Thanks Andy. Certainly hoping for a brighter future in the near horizon for you too. Who knows, I might come into some spare change and grab one of those Guru customs snares from you. I'm always looking for a new snare and I don't have one with a wood rim yet so.

I also like the rack design on the Guru kit. I suppose that is custom too?

Steph
 
Thanks Andy. Certainly hoping for a brighter future in the near horizon for you too. Who knows, I might come into some spare change and grab one of those Guru customs snares from you. I'm always looking for a new snare and I don't have one with a wood rim yet so.

I also like the rack design on the Guru kit. I suppose that is custom too?

Steph
Brighter futures all round are needed Steph! :)

Sorry, we don't do "custom" snares, not even for you, but the ones we do offer are ultra researched instruments designed to please. You wouldn't be disappointed.

The rack - no - it's standard series 1 Yamaha Hexrack components, just assembled with a little imagination.

Good that you're back on your game girl!!! :)
 
Sorry, we don't do "custom" snares, not even for you, but the ones we do offer are ultra researched instruments designed to please.

Well I really have only two snare drums that I like to use these days - the Pearl Masters 5.5x14 and the Pearl 3.5x14 Free-Floating. I don't know the species of wood but they sound really good to my ears. But at the Chicago Drum Show I had the chance to hit some custom snares with the wood rims and they sounded really good too. I suppose I'm going deaf and my taste is changing.

The other snare I have is a 3x13 brass piccolo that I don't have any interest in. Don't know why I have it. Forgot why I bought it.

The guy at the drum show was Terry Thompson from daVille Drumworks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZvcfz-dzgg

Check em out and tell me what you think. When I talked to him, he had a complete 4-piece set he let me jam on for a few minutes. I almost bought that set!!

Steph
 
I think what's applicable here is, you're not defined by your successes as much as by your ability to get back up when you've been knocked down. The specific twist to the drums is, and this is only my theory, is that while you may become weak after a period of downtime, your ability to drive yourself, your ability to find new techniques to overcome your weaknesses, THAT is what makes you a better player.

I like this. It certainly applies to what I've been going through recently.
 
I like this. It certainly applies to what I've been going through recently.

What I'm also finding is that, after a downtime, it's best to get back at it fulltime, almost like some muscle memory thing going on. And I know when that point is, when the patterns and ideas start coming back, and you start reliving where you left off.

Steph
 
Don't want to get political but Richard Nixon said something similar. As you know,he had more than his share of ups and downs. I'm paraphrasing here. It's not over when you're defeated. It's over when you quit.
 
Don't want to get political but Richard Nixon said something similar. As you know,he had more than his share of ups and downs. I'm paraphrasing here. It's not over when you're defeated. It's over when you quit.

That's certainly true. I just revisited Jojo's Secret Weapons DVD and now I do feel like quitting LOL.

If it isn't the humanoids, it's the Jojo's and Ryuga's of this world.

Steph
 
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