See you next year!

My Goals for next year!

To create insane fills using linear substitution.
To master the heel toe technique.
To flow creatively around the kit without landing in sticking traps.

Taking It Easy

This time of the year we drummers can always use to rest our joints and re-evaluate our setup. Practicing constantly without rest most of us do, we sometimes forget an injury can creep up when you least expect it. I have had injuries in my writs and elbows due to playing with the wrong technique (unnatural way of playing) and heavy sticks. Being over anxious during a solo can also lead to a forced unnatural movement. It is always good to play inside your boundaries off speed and coordination. We push the physical but we neglect the creative side. Push the creative and take a holiday on reaching that 1000bpm single stroke roll.

Everything in good time...

Feel and Sound

Ok, here we come to the part were I start to enlighten you about playing drums. This blog will have many of these philosophies and I hope you will take this seriously and try is before you burn it.

Feel
When a drummer plays he/she plays towards the sound of the drums. A drummer rarely appreciates the feel of playing, meaning the way you move from surfaces directionally and the rebound of the stick.

The main reason for this in my humble opinion is lack of technique. The Moeller Method is a technique I have been practicing for about 4 months now and I use it to put more feel in my drumming. It is advised by my teacher that for the Moeller to really work for you the free stroke needs to be learned first. I am now trying to train my mind to the feel of drumming and to let the sound produce as a secondary reaction. You might think I am neglecting the sound but in actual fact when I play this way it sounds more clear and sensitive than playing after the sound.

Chapter 2

Well I’m still a Metal listener but back then I was a purist. I went to see the guys and wow! What cool equipment they had. So they auditioned me and I liked there sound although it was a little old school for my liking at that time, I loved the guitar pieces. The guitarist had a lot of technical skill. We starting playing local town gigs and after a year we were playing the Cities with other respected hardcore bands. People were always stunned if we told them where the band was based. Anyway after a few years and gaining a lot of respect and no money we got frustrated. Putting in so much work just for loads of respect and no recognition just doesn’t cut it. Believe me there is a difference, you can be seen as a god but still have nothing to show for it. I’m not talking money but milestones, things you can look back upon and feel your hair standing up. We had some milestones but nothing that can keep a band giving everything for such a long time. Maybe I was negative at a stage which I was but that is how it unfolded for me. “Usually when things don’t feel right the aren’t”

I started writing a lot of the music in the last 2 years the band was together and in the end almost all of it which is the thing that probably kept me going for so long. We split up after 4 years due a lot of reasons that came with time. Loogaroo will always be in my heart as my place of birth on the stage.

// a look at my technique then

// at that stage I played extremely hard like I mentioned, my wrist turned out when I played and I was using a position very near to German.
// On my feet my heel was raised very high and I played only with my toes.

Who am I? Chapter 1

I started playing drums about six years ago. I have always had a good feel for music and decided to take guitar playing when I was about 14 years of age, I am 24 now. I started playing and after a short while my friends and the rest of school thought I was really hot. Guitar quickly got boring because lack of skill with the instrument and I decided to let go of it after 3 years (well actually I lost my Fender Std American Stratocaster when I was about 17 but I'm not going into details cause that is another story all together). With the little bit of money I had left I bought myself a Pearl Forum Kit with Zildjian Avedis cymbals around the time I lost the guitar. I started playing the same way I did with the guitar meaning that I learned from books and listening to music. I played basic stuff good and I was a really hard hitter, much to hard if I look back at how I played. I was playing with 2B sticks which are the thickest and heaviest that I could find, which reminds me though Sabian interests me much more these days Zildjian can take the beating. After a year or so I looked for a teacher, this was not my typical behavior because I always like to do things on my own. My first teacher's was Peter Webber. Peter was already in his 60's but he had allot of jazz experience and he was respected by the people working in the local music shop. After my first lesson I felt that I would never come back again. What scared me was the thought of reading. When you start reading it looked like another form of math. Myself not being the match type hated the first 3 weeks of it but right after that everything just started making sense. Peter also showed me the basics of good technique and we did some jazz independence over the the next few months. Peter told me that a band that was originally based in Pretoria had moved here and they needed a drummer. I got the details from him and went to the audition. Thank God it they played Rock/Metal. Something that I didn't mention is that I was a big Metal listener at that stage.