Lately

So last night SSW got together after maybe three weeks off. Prior to that we'd had a few rounds of that...long breaks between rehearsals/shows. When we got together last night I was surprised at how well I remembered and played the songs. Even more than that...my general speed and precision seemed improved. I'm not sure if this is because I've been playing TD songs alot or the work I'm going towards Blondie. Either way...there was noticeable improvement that shocked me.

I have a full two day weekend to practice starting tomorrow and it's been a few weeks since that has happened. I'm really hoping to get some significant progress on the Blondie stuff...hopefully nailing down Detroit 442 and 11:59 as well as the solo section of One Way or Another and that pesky drop beat that keeps inexplicably tripping me up when playing with the live band (no trouble at all when playing along to the recording). The progress I'm looking to make in two days time is significant...like breaking through to the next level of my playing. It is strange to know this going into the weekend...that if I put the time in it will be a whole new world on Monday. I'm pretty confident it will happen...but it is gonna be a mentally and emotionally painful next 58 hours for sure.

UPDATE, Monday, 7/18: I had hoped to practice drums about 12 hours or so this weekend. I ended up putting in more like 6. I thought that there would be this grand epiphany and all would be clear by today. That I would be able to PLAY EVERYTHING! The reality isn't like that of course. I've definitely progressed. I think that One Way and Heart (drop beat) are ready to roll...just a matter of learning to play with the band and not get thrown off by them. X Offender is also ready to roll. Started to map Rip Her to Shreds. Detroit 442 is getting really close...if I dropped the little snare fills in the chorus I could probably play the song end to end. That will be a fine point to master. Similiarly 11:59 is coming along...I can play THAT end to end if I just leave out the open hi hats. So those two songs really each only have one trouble spot each...a relatively fine point ornament that maybe half the world wouldn't even notice was missing. I'm still gonna try to master those fine points though, cause that's the whole point of this Blondie exercise.

So...yeah...it doesn't feel like I've progressed much since Friday...but I'm sure I have. I figured out some patterns I didn't know on Friday. And definitely speed is improving. The thing about speed is it takes a long time to develop...so I just have to be patient. For sure by Halloween I'm going to have a Popeye style right forearm though...cause that's some long stretches of blazing fast one-handed notes. A big part of me thinks that's why he plays those little snare fills on Detroit 442...because to have to play uninterrupted with the right hand that fast on the floor tom for like 20 measures is just really, really exhausting and hard to maintain. The quick snare fill gives your right hand a second to recover in an odd way.