DRUMMERS: Advice for a beginner

ok, i'm fully teachered up. my appointments have been made and i found my online supplement and i feel like i sort of have a plan.
so...how long did i last all by myself...let's see: June 15 was the day they came home, so about a month in so far. not bad!

that's cool! i only had two lessons, and they were both severely compromised by my tendency to apologize for everything. *flubs a fill* "Sorry!!" *flubs another fill* "Sorrry!!"

later on i gave lessons to other people, and it was reaaaaaally annoying when they apologized all the time! i felt bad for my previous apologetic behavior.

i am riiiiiiiiiiill nervous about being annoying to my teacher, esp since i am a teacher and i know how deeply irritating people can be even when their intentions are 100% good-hearted and real.
this is such a weird experience in so many ways. i guess that's part of the fun.

you seem a little bit nervous in an endearing way but it's hard to imagine that you would be irritating to anyone

i think the main thing to know is that it's ok and expected to mess up a bunch when you're first starting out. the only thing that fixes that is a bunch of practice. but the teacher can probably help out with a bunch of small technical things that will really help you out. also, if you're anything like, just knowing that you have an appointment is a huge motivator!

most of the time i'm ok, but i am def nervous and that really brings out the best (worst) in me.

but i have ideas and i'm bringing a notebook and preparing a little "these are the things i can currently do" routine so i can be as efficient and businesslike as possible. i've only got 30 min and i have a lot i want to share/ask regarding how i proceed with these tiny little 30 min lessons. 30 min is like a sneeze on my teaching clock. my classes are 3 hrs 20 min long!

in sum: i need to learn to control my jibjab.

one that thing drum teachers appreciate is when you demonstrate your loudest, longest cymbal roll as soon as they walk into the room, before they say anything!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSCRASH!

"i am la lechera"

lololol
will do

Also, do a rimshot whenever your teacher finishes a sentence.

the whole situation is so nerve-inducing that i really might just try one of these strategies to break the ice

you could be manic pixie drum girl

also look what i can kind of approximately play now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg1PpEDfg_8

maybe i should play this as entrance music for my teacher and then bow to him before introducing myself

what i would really like is to learn how to be cool
like calm and cool and normal

(not in general, just in these nervous situations)

Let this woman be your inspiration, LL: http://gawker.com/mystery-grandma-stuns-drum-shop-staff-with-killer-skin-836880396

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRhoHN8x_00

she is extremely cool

nice touch! And I like the sound of that kit.

it might be cool to develop an experimental "one inch punch" kind of technique - you hold the stick one inch above the snare drum, firmly but calm, close your eyes, and build your qi power up to and then past its limit. then you lay into the drum with the accumulated weight of the universe. and of course, bow to the instructor.

always yell "KIA!" whenever you strike the drum.

i should get back into teaching, i miss it!

that's how i feel about being a student tbh! i'm always teaching other people and i look forward to learning something from someone else.

first lesson is on friday! i'm trying to figure out where i stand on a number of issues: endurance, repertoire, feel, ANXIETY, etc.

endurance for playing the same beat with breaks and no fatal screwups: 3:34
not awful but it felt like forever! i think it will be more fun to play longer when there are other people here, no? i mean, is that how it works?

ALSO i REALLY enjoyed seeing YLT perform Blue Line Swinger over the weekend -- I could hear things about the drums/structure of the song that I never would have heard before starting this and I have listened to that song like bazumpteen times since it was released. It was pretty cool to realize how much I've learned already, speaking of learning.

sorry for the constant self-affirmation, it's one of those things that i feel i have to do in order to hold myself accountable to above.

BLUE LINE SWINGER

How's the 'no apologising' going?

poorly

i'm getting a little better though, if you can believe that

Love "Blue Line Swinger." Jealous you got to see them do that!

endurance for playing the same beat with breaks and no fatal screwups: 3:34

Woo-hoo!

not awful but it felt like forever! i think it will be more fun to play longer when there are other people here, no? i mean, is that how it works?

I think endurance is helped by playing with others in that you stop consciously thinking about endurance, to a degree (and fun is a huge part of that).

ok in the interest of showing progress and not apologizing, here's this xposted from "what do you sound like" thread on ilm. i posted it there because it was as much about figuring out stupid technical shit that 12 year olds can do on garageband as it was the little tiny drum loop, but it's my best one so far. (you may hear more of what i sound like than you bargained for, but here it is anyway):

i'm feeling bold, so i'm just gonna post this. this is just a practice track with two practices practice spliced together for practice, but it's the first thing i've ever put together that sounds even remotely like i did it intentionally (i totally didn't, but it almost sounds like i did!)
eek
http://snd.sc/172zPsW

― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Thursday, July 25, 2013 1:47 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

i mean IMM not ILM

i love been L-ing M for waaaaaaay longer than i have been M-ing it!

That is so cool

I'm on the train to my lesson and I'm trying reeeeeally hard to distract myself so I don't fall into nervous thinking pattern and/or prescript the whole thing in my head before it even starts. Will report back on my way home.

Remember to yell KIA!!! and u will do great!

fear is the mind killer

I got here way too early and walked around the neighborhood to relax and it's awful (makeup designer clothing babies froyo) so now I'm armed with the confidence of being cooler than this neighborhood. I'll be ok. No fear. No apologizing. No crying. No babbling. Deep breathing.

Are there toned yoga bitches y/n

There were tons of them! The whole hood is made for them like an amusement park.

Good news!! I did it! And I even got some extra time because he felt like we were on a roll. Bad news is that I've been playing backwards. Good news is that he said I've got a good sense of rhythm/coordination and good ideas.

Overall: good. My prepared speeches came in handy too!!

did their toned buttocks reverberate with the resounding report of your ratamacue?

What do you mean "backwards"?

did he tell you you should be playing kick drum with your left foot?

I was playing the hi hat with lefty and i guess i should have been using crossover righty. He's left handed too. I just need to get used to it. I think it'll be ok.

Also he told me I should be playing the bass drum with my elbow.

J/k

God I feel so much better knowing that the first lesson is over.

xp - as a left-handed person, that just seems silly. I dunno. Crossing over isn't ideal, but crossing over with your weaker hand? For a while I tried playing hi-hat without crossing over with my right (weaker) hand, and it was ok, though the challenge was that the patterns involved leading with the hi-hat and following w/the snare, which is easier when you are leading/playing on the beat with the stronger side of your body.

Unless you aren't doing much with the hi-hat? Though it sounds like what you want to play is standard rock beats, in which case that seems like setting yourself up for a major handicap.

I trust him - I might not be explaining it properly.

are you playing the kick drum with your left foot and the hi-hat with your right foot, or vice versa?

LL is playing a right-handed kit iirc. crossing over gives you more dexterity.

I'm playing normal! My hands were screwed up, not my feet.

i mean, maybe he's teaching you play a kit set up for a right-handed person in a standard manner

i learned to play a kit set up for a left-handed person, as I am a left-handed person.

Weird, I never thought of handedness as being an issue with drums. You have to use both hands anyway. One shouldn't be weaker than the other really. And righties are typically playing the snare with their left hand, so that's theoretically "backwards" anyway isn't it?