Back to the Woodshed

I bought Tommy Igoe's Groove Essentials Playalong 1 & 2 and they are on their way. Tried to play some of the patterns off the poster this weekend and they are hard, which is depressing. I'm hoping that getting the playalong with cds will make it all make sense. I think mastering some of these grooves needs to be a prereq for me applying to go to the Drummer's Collective 5 day intensive. I think I'm giving up on that for this year...but have an eye towards doing it in 2012. And I may need that long just to prep for the audition. But no sense in going until I'm ready.

Also pulled out the Green Day playalong yesterday. I was horrified the other day at how bad my Green Day has gotten, so I went back to basics. After proper warmup and a little time to reacquaint with the patterns...it isn't as bad as I thought. But I'm definitely out of shape.

I really haven't been practicing properly for months now. I got caught up in learning So Dang Yang tunes...and then The Drain...and while both were valuable and important exercises...I really got to get back to basics. Namely independence and playing things outside what I'm used to. I think the Igoe stuff is really going to help with that. But I gotta put the time in.

Feeling better about The Drain. I had stopped practicing on my own for a few weeks. Hit it relatively hard this weekend and feel like I'm back where I was for the show at The Dane. Gotta keep at it. Also trying to add fleurishes that I had skipped when I first learned the tunes...and that's a bit of a one step forward, two steps back process.

Anyway...while it is depressing when things are hard and it makes me not want to play...I ALWAYS feel better after a strong practice session. And practicing every day or every other day for an hour or two always makes me feel better afterwards too.

I don't know why it is that it is SO hard for me to force myself to do things that ultimately make me feel better (practice, exercise). I really am an object at rest that is hard to get started moving. And then it spirals into just feeling terrible. Worthless. Stiff. Lame. Got to push a little bit every day in order to stay feeling good about myself. So hard to remember.