In Marimba Land

Hey groovy friends! First and foremost, I love this instrument. Ever since it was introduced to me in college a million years ago I was drawn to it. Having the chance to study and learn some difficult literature under Dr Chris Hanning was certainly a treat. The trouble is once I graduated I no longer had access to an instrument and certainly couldn't afford to own one. Finally about 4 years ago I think, I decided enough is enough and went into debt to get one. This is a 5 octave Malletech MTECH which has padouk wood bars (about half the price of rosewood). It's both amazing and frustrating to have this in my house... it's amazing because of my love of the instrument, but frustrating because I'm unable to put in the consistent hours that I had in college to actually sound good and learn difficult literature.

But alas, I still enjoy getting behind this beast even if it's not my best. I happily spent 1.5 hours tonight and worked on a Bach cello suite and also a beautiful piece called Land. Hoping to map out a timeline to get Land sounding pretty good soon. Just need to find balance of my time between life, drum set, and marimba. It's possible, but gotta be organized and disciplined.

Today was a good session... hoping for more like this to make improvements quickly. 🎵

Laid Off Linear

Hey groovy friends! Some of you that I know in real life know that I've been working through a pretty crappy lay off from my day job. Challenging is putting it ever so mildly. But I need to also find the opportunity out of this terrible situation as well. And today that opportunity came in the form of pulling out a book that I've owned for quite a few years, but had not really spent any focused time working through it... The Gary Chaffee Linear Time Playing book. Gary is certainly a legend in the drumming community and this book is definitely a must have and more importantly it's a must in regards to spending time working through it.

I was able to get a solid, focused 1.5 hour session done just utilizing the first 3 or 4 pages. It was not boring in the slightest! It's great to go back and dig in on material like this to be honest with myself about some short-comings with my playing. Really looking forward to continuing the journey in this book for sure! Let me know if you've worked on this one and if you dig it! 🥁🎵

The Drum Pad is Our Friend

Today is a drum pad day for me. I originally had other plans in mind for today's practice work, but as I'm sure some of you can relate, mood can sometimes dictate our plans.

But even on the less than ideal mental days, I try to make sure I still have a focused session. So this evening I'm just using the pad to work thru a page out of the famed Stick Control book. Got the metronome bopping out of my phone and just digging in on rhythmic accuracy and keeping the hands and mind relaxed. For those of you who want to have a similar session, tonight is all about page 9 in the book. Check it out and spend some time there enjoying the opportunity to just focus on your hands. This can be a very meditative exercise and even help with adjusting your current mental state. Be sure to take care of your hands and your head! 🥁🤓