It's a drumming day.

I realized that I never really get around to talking much about the music aspect of my artist-ness. I'll go on rants about painting and writing, but when you really look at it, the majority of my time is really spent practicing the drums. And I spent thousands of dollars a year for three years to learn how to play drums at one of the top music schools in the country. So maybe I should talk about it more.

Starting now. 

As soon as I got home today, my brain started beating me over the head with "go drum go drum go drum" and I had to tell it, "NO, brain! We have to shower first because we smell like three days' worth of camping! STOP." And by the time I got out it hadn't stopped.

So I gave in (like it was much to resist in the first place...) and had a glance down the touring band's next set list and didn't much feel like any of the tunes, so went and looked down local band's tunes and same deal. Looked at the Latin band's tunes, figured my brain was way too shot for jazz.

But I'd just drank a huge thing of coffee and my brain wasn't letting me go and so I was just sitting there, on the drum throne, buzzing and trembling from an overdose of caffeine and wondering what to do with my life. It got pretty deep. The decision was metal.

Before I joined this touring band, I had resolved to expand my metal horizons this summer and get my double kick chops more up to par. Also transcribing and learning the killer tom drum grooves that make my life so happy. For example, before the country band took over my life, I was learning this piece of "holy crap calm the heck down Danny Carey."




Has this KILLER groove that he turns into "you know what, this isn't good enough, we're going to add double kick rhythms. No. Still not hardcore enough. Super double kick." And then after the vocs kick in he's got a pretty Danny Carey-esque 16th rock thing going on that always blows my mind. Learning stuff from this guy, even though it takes months, has just revolutionized my drumming... even in the country bands.

And that wasn't quite enough for me, so I also have this wonderful mind-blowing track on the go, transcribing/learning-wise. Honestly, Danny Carey is freakishly amazing and all, but if I had to pick an all-time favorite metal drummer it would be Jordan Mancino (the guy in the next tune). This guy has got chops that blow my mind and on top of it brutally great technique. You can be good and successful at drums and all, but if you have bad technique you're only going to be so good for so long before your tendons give you a grand old bird and crap right out on you. So this guy is really one of my drumming idols. Actually, he is my drumming idol. I've met a few bands before, and even a couple of famous people, and I'm pretty okay on the whole hiding-my-excitement front, but I met Jordan Mancino briefly at an AILD signing once and he was all smiley and "hey, how's it going?" and I just kinda squeaked and hoped the English language was coming out of my mouth for the ten seconds we conversed. They say one of the best ways to get better is to transcribe your favorite players. So there's definitely a piled of half-filled manuscript with transcribed AILD drum lines sitting beside my kit alongside the jazz tunes haha. Now if only I had the time to learn them all... Anyways, this is the tune I'm learning right now.




So that's been my afternoon/evening, revisiting those two songs and then just working on some technique and drumming exercises. Enjoying a break from all the country music. I love country and all, it's just not powerful enough to keep me happy 100% of the time.

I also felt guilty after a while and worked on some funk solos out of a book... can't let my sheet music reading skills die, otherwise those three years of music school might as well have not happened. Sort of.

That's my drumming addiction in a nutshell. I go for too long without it I get shaky and over-excited and sit there like an overly happy dog, twitching and having the wheels in my head turning so fast that I don't really know how to handle it.

Also, SEVERELY rocking the flip-flop tan line today. Ready for a real picture of my real foot on my real drums?




I hope you were because I didn't give you much of a choice there...

That's just an obnoxious tan line. Like absurdly so. That'll show me for wandering around with the same sandals all weekend.

Also, decided to upload a real picture of me really playing drums in a real live show. But I made it small and fuzzy so you guys STILL CAN'T SEE ME. HAH. Joke's on those who got excited that I was revealing myself...

But really it was just so my Twitter pic wasn't the Sharpie unicorn anymore... while it was great, I think it gave the wrong idea haha.




So there you go. You can see me. Kinda. And I play drums. HURRAY.