THURSDAY
December 03, 1998
Today's Quote:
( On Buddy Rich )
"Far and away the greatest
drummer who ever lived."
----Ray McKinley
My Commitment To The Journal
I checked out one of my previous journal
entries, September 1, 1998.
I was amused by my vow to cast my journal in a more positive light,
along with my commitment to continually improve the journal.
It definitely is good to look back at some of the journal entries just
to see how I've progressed. After all, that IS one of
the reasons for creating the journal, to look back and study what
one has written down in the past.
The 280ZX wouldn't start this morning!
I had to call the auto club and have it towed to the automotive repair
place.
My wife had taken the day off today and
so we spent the morning driving around and shopping in our other car.
We had some fish tacos for lunch at a
place called Fins. I like this place... it has a huge
aquarium of saltwater fish. I have an aquarium tank that I
need to redo, it really 'went to pot' and I need to find the time
to bring it back to form.
I spent some time with my younger son
after we picked him up early from school today. I challenged
him to some Tekken 2 on the Sony Playstation. I let him beat
me at first, then I noticed he had gotten really good and tried to
beat him for 'reals'. I couldn't do it, he had gotten
that good and I hadn't played him in weeks. He must've practiced
while I was away on tour. Anyway, he beat me 9 games
to 2 and I really WAS trying to beat him this time! Pretty
good for a six year old.
Practice Time
My practice session today went reasonably
well. I wasn't overly satisfied with my practice, but
at least I'm a little more consistent with it.
I can't say I had one complete block of
6 hours of practice, but I did have 3-4 half hour sessions throughout
the day on the practice pad. I'll have more time next week
on the actual drumset for some four way coordination exercises on the set.
I warmed up with double-stroke and single-stroke
rolls today, from open to close. Then I went through
the usual Weckl routines. I watched the Buddy Rich video and
studied his left hand on some key solos, then tried to apply them
to my practice on the pad.
I usually practice in front of a mirror
so I can see exactly how my technique looks.
Throughout the rest of my practice sessions
I went through a series of variations on the practice pad, and making
stuff up as I went along. The whole idea is to try and create
as many new variations of a routine as possible, and keep varying
them. The whole idea is to ad lib and not repeat yourself.
This is very hard to do.
I'm glad to be practicing consistently
now on a daily basis, and I wasn't in the past, but that was
because the band has been so busy lately. Actually, I'm
able to practice prior to gigs but I usually consider it a long warmup
routine. I really want to be ready for the New Year's Eve show
at Disney World, so I'm counting the days until then.
I never wrote about my practice sessions
on my journal before, because I thought it might be considered boring
to write about it, but I think it IS a great idea and it'll give
me feedback as to what I practiced on previous days.
Hopefully, I can keep the practice
time fresh by writing about HOW I practiced, and keep myself in check.
Currently Reading:
Currently Studying:
Lawrence Stone - Stick Control (Book)
Jim Chapin - Advanced Techniques for
the Modern Drummer (Book)
Buddy Rich - Jazz Legend (video)
Currently Listening To:
Keith Jarrett - La Scala
City Of Angels - Original Soundtrack
Sirens Of Song - Various Female Vocalists
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
T.S. Monk - Take One
Carlos Rull
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Eve show!
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