Juan

Hi Robert! I see in your profile picture we have another common interest: Japanese. I studied a bit on my own for some time, but instead as of with drumming, never took classes and I didn't get far. But it is still something that draws me a lot.

はじめまして

Welcome Nicole! So glad you joined! Hope you are finding you way easy through the site and lessons. Let us know in the forums if we can help somehow.

Welcome Rusty! Hope you feel at home here and have fun with the lessons. Don't miss the chance to form part of this great community too. Everyone is very supportive and can really help a lot.

Welcome Dr! Glad you joined. How's your drumming journey so far?

Welcome Ryan!

Digged your profile pictures. Is that you playing in the street? That's a lot of gear to haul. Do you that often?

And the mountains illustration is very nice, are those of King's Peak (Utah)?

Hey Alvin! Welcome to SDS. Hope you find yourself at home and enjoy the lessons. Come by the forums if you need any help or advice.

Cheers

Hey Mark. How are you doing? Nice to have you here in SDS. Let us know if we can help.

Welcome Jonathan! Let us know if we can help. Have a fun drumming!

Ups! Almost passed this unnoticed 🤩

Today' s concert was given by Ghost Woman. A Canadian band that have a very laid back and a bit psychedelic sound on some songs, yet a more rock sound on others.

It was in an even smaller venue "La Salvaje", that programs gigs every week, and will be one of my main sources of live performances. Again few people, about 25, and the band at hand's reach.

The drummer performance brought to me some of the same impressions as of yesterday. Again just a 3 piece kit wit a ride and HH as only cymbals. Again much more playing on the ride than on the HH. A lot of snare+floor tom grooves. Some songs did just have an eventual debbie, and one song did not even have that or any crash at all. The more rock sounding songs were faster, with more snare work and some rack tom. One beat was just two kicks two double handed notes on snare followed by the same on the rack tom.

I liked the sound of the drums better than yesterday. Very well balanced, thumping, round an deep. The ride more clearly audible.

Totally different music styles, something in common: groove. I came out more determined to make groove my main practice track.

I'm decided to go out to more live gigs now that things have become more normal. Yesterday a friend wrote on FB he was about to go to a concert of an unknown to me band. Bought the tickets as I grabbed a jacket, jumped in the car and drove there.

I really recommend the band, "Silver Synthetic" from New Orleans Very good songs, a familiar soft rock sound, with their own style.

It was at a small, standing up venue I had never been before. We were like 60 people. I could be first row, five feet away from the band. It was revealing how good and complete the drums sound with just a small 3-piece, snare and ride. I've though of cutting down my kit to that to push me to do more with less.

The drummer, a pretty tall guy sat relatively low and played without much arms movement, right arm tugged, resembled my own that I've thought I should change. Maybe I don't. 🤔

He did a lot of ghosting with the fingers after the snare hits, like dropping the fingers and doing a short roll. That's something I've seen other times and liked. I think I can do it, more or less. Another thing I noticed was that he played much more on the ride than on the HH, though he did too. Foot on the HH a bit stompy.

The drum parts were nothing fancy, I did not see anything that seemed really complex. I think I could play most of what he did. That made me think I could be better learning to play these simpler songs in that solid way, with more groove and pocket, that going after the next coordination or speed puzzle.

That connected with my watching a lesson grom Benny Greb that morning, a the one @Sean shared, with Nate Smith. I had never had really specific goals about drumming, until now. I declare 12 months of nurturing groove.

Here's what I saw for a good part of the show:

The idea is to go to as many live music events as I can.

Hey Kevin, what's up? I'm kinda missing you around. hope everything is fine for you and you keep up practicing. 

I was practicing one handed 16th notes adding beats and came up with this one that I liked. Sounded good at 60bpm

Moved this content to the Micro Goals thread as it seems that I cant link directly to one of these status posts and that'll make it harder to find them later.

Killing time in between dives in the Red Sea and hopefully rusting less. Sending greetings to all the community.

Been working a long time on Moeller and Doubles, but I put special focus on them for the last two months. I've noticed a substantial improvement since I started working on them for longer times at slower tempos.

I've also been doing Stick Control exercises over that time, starting from just 60bpm and adding 1bpm per day and they have taught me how to work properly on the other exercises. I mean forgetting about adding speed and just do the exercise trying to mute the click ,and with just control and consistency as goals. They also have improved my left hand control a lot.

Here are the results.

Double 90bpm:

Interlacing Moeller:

Stick Control 105bpm: