Be a better musician

I had a great lesson last night. I love it!!! I got an extra 30 minutes free too. I feel like such a beginner. It’s awesome. I have a 2 week break before my next lesson. I’m going to use the time to practice the exercises, and to have a more defined goal of what I want out of the lessons. I started going through all of my old school stuff, so that’ll help me get better too.

I had my lesson yesterday and it was awesome. To make up for the scheduling confusion, he gave me a free 1 hour lesson. I forgot how much I love learning the drums and doing exercises that stretch my brain. I have another lesson in two weeks, and then they will be weekly starting in September. I love the drums!!

I have been in contact with a local drummer to get lessons with. The first attempt was kind of a fiasco, but I’m willing to give it another go. I believe I should have a lesson this coming Friday. I am looking to work on rudiments and getting some chops. I’ve never been a chops player, but think I could really expand my playing if I opened up to it.

I just spent an hour and a half hanging out with my all-time favorite drummer. It was so amazing, and he’s as cool as I hoped he would be. I’ve met him a few times before, but to get to spend so much time just talking and listening to music, it was a dream come true. And I found out that he actually lives in LA now so I can get lessons with him whenever he is in town and has the time (and I have the money, cause I’ll tell you they ain’t cheap). I finally feel re inspired to play again and remember why I love it so much. I swear I’m not making this up, but when I turned my radio on this morning, the first song I heard was one with him playing. I couldn’t believe it.

I have a lesson with my favorite drummer tomorrow and I can hardly stand it. By it, I mean the excitement. It’s insane. My singer has heard me talk about my favorite drummer for years, and after our last rehearsal she decided to look up his website. On his site, my singer saw that he teaches lessons so she emailed him and set me up for a lesson tomorrow night. I did not wake up this morning expecting that! But I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow.

I actually played the drums tonight. It’s been so long. I miss playing on a regular basis and am kind of considering finding another band to play with. Ever since we gave up our rehearsal studio, we rarely rehearse or play at all. I’ve been playing with my sister and guitar player for over 10 years and they are the only musicians I’ve really played with. I’ve jammed with other people, but have never had a real show or anything. I’ll see how things go after the holiday (and baby). I love the drums and don’t want to stop just because we do. We’ll see…

I want to take some drum or percussion lessons. I have stopped learning and that stops the flow of creativity for me. I find that when I practice, I just keep playing the same thing. I don’t have a direction. I feel like I am getting away from music and drumming, and while a break is nice, it is still my passion and I don’t want that fire to die out. I don’t want to lose touch with that part of me. I have so many other things going on and this is the first time in the last 11 years that music hasn’t been my #1 focus. I’m not sure where it is. I want to study something totally new like latin drumming, or hand percussion. Then I can reconnect with musicians again. I miss being around musically creative people.

I finally bought an electronic drumset so I can practice at home. I really didn’t have much of a choice because we had to move out of our lockout. I just set it up last night so I haven’t had a chance to really play it, but I think it’s going to be an awesome tool.

I’m thinking about getting a small electronic drum set for my bedroom. I have my live kit at a lock out rehearsal studio, but I don’t make the time to go practice. I rehearse with my band a lot, and will get there early to practice, but it’s not routine. I’m wondering if I have a set up at home, if I’d be more into working on my chops and figuring out songs for a cover project we are doing. Target and Best Buys have some cheap sets, but you get what you pay for, so I’m not sure they’d be worth the money. We’ll see. Perhaps I’ll do some looking around today.