Author: mydrumlessons
Technology in music.
There’s a big debate that’s all the rage these days, did you know? It goes something like this: is music better because of technology or not? Someone was telling me about a band who was playing original songs. The problem was that they had 20 different parts. One section was a forceful metal beat, followed…
Packing light.
I came to this country in 1991. I had 2 suitcases, two large ones. And that’s it. Actually, no, that’s not quite “it”. I also had my drum set with me, which is a big Madonna, we’re counting about 7 packages here. The lightest would be around 14 pounds, that’s the hi toms in his…
A royal waste of time.
I’ve been hacked. This very account, the one I use to write my blogs on has been taken over by, of all people, Russians. How do I know? Because I do not understand the Cyrillic alphabet, and it was all over the dashboard of my site. I am not accusing the Russians of being particularly…
Anticipating versus coping.
When you’re a musician, all to often, you’re self-employed. And, contrary to the common belief, if you are a musician who wants to stay in business, you need to get busy in order to be busy. This is the subject of this blog: where to spend your energy. I discovered very early on in my…
Writing notes on music sheet.
I don’t do it often and when I do, it’s usually to specify that this note is sharpen or flatten. I do not underline the dynamics or write with red ink one word comments like “Dynamics!” or “Expression”. Why don’t I do that? I am not sure. Maybe because I estimate that what’s written on…
Double checking.
It happens to me all the time. Let’s suppose I have a song to play. I’ll first listen to it. Chances are I will write it down. Once written, it’s ready to be played. Then I’m done. I throw myself on the drums and I start to play. I never go back to what I…
The daily practice.
I used to practice piano maybe one hour per day. It wasn’t much. At the beginning had a very dingy little keyboard that was maybe 61 keys. I was doing the songs from the booklet that came with it. The tunes were dreadful and the way I played them even worse. But it was glorious,…
The boring practice in piano or drums
I’ve notice that people who have a stable life enjoy a very healthy amount of practice, and therefore make good progress with their instrument. And, at the opposite of the spectrum, that it is very difficult to keep spending time on the piano when your life is in transition. For example, if you’re about to…
Learning taste.
I was watching a video with Vinnie Colaiuta playing in a fusion brass band. Vinnie, if you don’t know him, is one of the great drummer that ever lived. He has played famously for Frank Zappa or Sting among many, many others. He’s a great technician, for sure, but that is not the purpose of…
The conundrum of music.
There are a lot of conundrums in music because it’s a very organic activity, and we are, after all, analog beings, prone to chaotic or non-sensical behavior and thinking. One of the common mystery is speed. Question: how do you work on speed? For fun, I’ll name the 2 common answers I see most often.…