Category: Gettin’ Good

Gettin’ Good – Vol. 5

Published by otto on October 31, 2016

It seems like I’ve been saying the same things for the last couple of months. Those things are important, but they are repetitive, so I will try to say them quickly and in a manner that is commiserate with the weight of what they are before moving on.

I am finding myself with less time to practice, but I am still getting better. In fact, I am definitely in the best playing shape of my life. On top of that I am happy with the way I sound. I still want to improve it, but I like my output. Direct evidence of both being in great shape and sounding good is that the other night at rehearsal I totally pulled off some things I never would have been able to before. On top of that I did it without ego, or at least without the idea of “I’m gonna try and pull this off.” The moments I’m talking about just flowed out of my playing. They were not an attempt to do something cool, they were a result of the meeting of my ability and and a musical moment.

I think it’s important at this time to start to differentiate these posts a little more. I honestly thought it would take longer for me to be satisfied with my playing. It had always been a struggle before. Even when I wasn’t playing I’d get a few calls a year for gigs. I’d practice for them, but it was never great. I was never at the top of my game. I remember one specifically where I got a call for a startup wedding band. It was new players working together for the first time on new songs. I wasn’t expected to walk into a fully formed band and just sit in, there was some craft in working together. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to really dive back in to playing. I got the song list and started working, but I got bored quickly. While I could play the tunes, I wasn’t playing well at all. Nothing felt right. I was fighting it.

What I missed was that I needed to be working on me, not the songs. I wasn’t spending any time at becoming a better drummer. I was just trying to learn those songs. That’s why I got bored. Learning the mechanical spots of when and where to hit what part of the drumset is an inherently droll task. Certainly there are times when an insane combination of dexterity and coordination is exhilarating, but the second one can do it, it’s not as important as it was before. That’s what failed me all the times before. I thought I needed to work on tunes. What I needed to work on was me.
I don’t know what it was that lit a fire under me last January, but it’s been really amazing to become this better player. I don’t think I would ever get here, but here I am. Thank you for reading these as you have. This is not the end. I will continue to update on the 31st of every month that has a 31st, but they will be a lot less “yep, it’s getting better,” and hopefully a lot more “this cool thing happened” and “this was something that helped me in my journey.” That journey that is of course ongoing. Thanks for coming along with me on it.

otto

Gettin’ Good – Vol. 4

Published by otto on August 31, 2016

I’m at a very odd spot in my playing. On one hand I feel as though I am at the absolute top of my game. There are days that I sit down and play and marvel at the gifts that the hours woodshedding have given me. On those days I feel like I’m not me, but the player I want to be. Each and every hit fall the way they are supposed to and the music gods are having a fun time controlling my limbs.

Other days I can’t play a paradiddle correctly. Seriously, paradiddles. I try to play them and they turn into whatever sticking exercise I was chopping out last. My speed disappears. My fluidity turns to lumpy gravy.

Practice is supposed to be the key to fixing that. In practice we hope to narrow the gap between the player we are and the player we want to be. The hard part about that is that the drummer I want to be is a moving target. That’s the thing about getting better, is that it allows you to see the next step and all of a sudden you want to be that guy, instead of the guy you thought you wanted to be. What’s weird about this time around is that more than ever I am not just hamstrung by the drummer I want to be, but also by the drummer I used to be.

By that what I mean is that I have continuously run into having to relearn concepts that I thought I had down. Feels that used to feel right don’t feel right anymore. My left hand sucks now, I thought I fixed that years ago! What happened?

Oddly enough I think it has to deal with being a better player. A benefit of gettin’ good is that you understand the instrument and the music with much more depth than you did before. This allows one to analyze their playing at a much higher resolution than they were previously able. Things that seemed smoothed over have a vast network of cracks right under the surface. There were a lot of ghost notes in that one song you figured out five years ago that you couldn’t hear then. The feel you worked so hard on is still not right. All the work you did on your left hand made it ok back in the day, but now your right has gotten so much better it has left its partner in the dust.

Where am I now? Well, it is gettin’ good, but it’s also a lot of going back and patching the foundation to hold up all the impressive new structures on top.

‘Till next time,

otto

Gettin’ Good Vol. 3

Published by otto on August 1, 2016

Ok, so I’m a little bit late, but I spent this weekend up in Traverse City where my band Old Empire played at the 12th annual Traverse City Film Festival. This was great for a myriad of reasons. One is that I had never been to Traverse City before and it is absolutely beautiful up there. The only other times that I’ve been in that area were more than ten years ago and in the middle of winter.

It was really great to play a festival again. It’s been a while and there’s something inherently fun about playing in an open air environment. I’m normally a pretty loud player with this band, which makes sense for the kind of music we play. I didn’t play any louder because we were outdoors, but it felt as though there were no barriers to the sound. I wasn’t getting echo off a wall a few feet from me. Actually, I wasn’t getting echo at all since there were no buildings for a few hundred yards. It was very freeing. I know we’ve got a few more festival dates coming up around the end of summer and I am looking forward to those.

Here’s a video of one of my cymbals being played with by the wind in the setup area on Grand Traverse Bay.

Ok, now down to the nuts and bolts of it. I’m done with the school year, which as I mentioned in the last post was keeping me from practicing as much as I want. It has gotten a bit better, but there are other things, sone of which being creating posts for The Musician’s Notepad, and believe it or not responsibilities for the band, that are keeping me from full daily practice. That being said it is getting better. As far as playing with the band goes, I feel as though I’ve reached the ‘initial lull’ and I just need to work through it.

Initial lull, you ask? I’m sure there is a real name for the phenomenon I am about to profess about, but I don’t know what that name is. When one learns a new skill or in this case wins a new position they tend to come into that position or that skill with all pistons firing. They really nail it, … for a while. Then there is an ‘Initial Lull’ where that person’s skills seem to take a slight step back and they have to build back up to that highest level. That’s where I am right now. I’m over thinking my parts and feel and messing a bit of it up. I don’t think anyone has really noticed, but I have. I just need to really get back in the woodshed and go for it.

I’m keeping this one short for now so I can get it out on time…ish. For now just enjoy this pic taken after our set at The Open Space. I’m the goofball with the hat on.

’Till Next Time
Otto

Gettin’ Good, Vol 2.

Published by otto on May 31, 2016

Some years back I was called into a lesson being taught by a colleague because the student had questions about recording. As we talked I found that the student was really looking to decide between spending money on a better set of cymbals or a nice set of drum mics. He wanted the mics because he planned to make high quality YouTube videos to get a gig. I quite honestly thought this absurd and the longest of shots at best. The student’s teacher and I told him that the cymbals would lead to a better sound which would also sound better when he got those mics to record with. The student went with our recommendation, though soon after also found the money to buy the mics.

About two months ago I got contacted by the leader of a local original band. He was looking for a drummer and was looking to see if I was interested in playing in his band. Where did he see me play? On YouTube, of course. Specifically the Look Back In Anger Groove Of The Month. I find it incredibly ironic and still honestly surprising that this happened even though I know that the videos I produce for The Musician’s Notepad have gotten me more recognition than I have had since I was a hot shot sixteen year old rookie professional.

Playing in a band has been very beneficial. It’s been a long time since I’ve played permanently in a group, where it wasn’t a one off gig, which has really allowed me to focus on playing with and in the band. I’m able to sit back and really listen to the bass and how we should lock together. I have other musicians to push and pull against to manipulate the feel. It’s been an extremely positive and necessary step.

The rigors of daily practice have really paid off. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I feel as though I am in the best playing shape of my life. That being said, I still have a long way to go to be where I want to be. We should all be that lucky, right? I am a little worried as, I’ve picked up a long term substitute teaching position through the end of the school year and finding the time to practice has been very hard. Since starting two weeks ago I’ve only found the time for a full practice session on the weekends. During the week I am limited to about a half hour between teaching school and teaching lessons, and the odd half hour that a student cancels and another one doesn’t slip in for a make up.

Overall though, these are problems one wants to have. Boo hoo, I don’t have time to practice because I’m working too much. Woe is me.

‘Till next time,

otto

Gettin’ Good – Volume 1

Published by otto on March 31, 2016

Those of you that read this regularly (for the two weeks the site has been around) know that this site came in part as an outgrowth of my work with Musician’s Notepad. Editing the site for the last year and a half I have had the responsibility of writing two ‘year end wrap up’ posts, and in both of them I have mentioned the idea of ‘Getting Good’ again.

My drumset playing has really fallen off in the last handful of years. One of the reasons I decided to go back to school was that the band I was in and was dedicated to had broken up. I was burnt out on relying on others for my musical destiny and needed to take matters into my own hands. Going back to school let me be completely self motivated, though those of you that knew me then also know that I can’t keep out of trying to make things bigger and involve more people. I started to work on classical percussion, and got ‘ok’ at it. My kit playing that was pretty good went by the wayside.

During that same time I started picking up the guitar more and working on songwriting. I took this approach because I didn’t want to be in yet another group where I was not in control of moving the project forward. I could either be a solo act or have a band and no matter what I was in control of the destiny of the music. Eventually the band became just as important, and then more important, to the music as I was, and as most bands do it eventually fell apart. By the end of everything I had ignored my drumset skills for the better part of a decade.

For the last year since that happened I’ve been in a musical abyss. Uncertain of where I’m going or what I’m doing. Realizing there are aspects of music I have been working for that I do not want, and realizing that there are aspects that I should be chasing down. This past December I had a two conversations with two of my best friends in the world that really inspired me. A few weeks later, Musician’s Notepad missed its first Wednesday content release since its inception because I was busy researching where I want to take things and where I want to go. In the post I mentioned that it will be life changing for me. I don’t mean to be vague or coy, in fact I’d be happy to talk with anyone about it if they message me, I just don’t want my plans to be public yet.

I will talk about step one of this plan though, which is that I need to get back to being good. I feel that to be able to confidently step forward I need to be in the best playing shape of my life.

For the last three months I have been practicing drumset consistently. My feel has come back, my chops have come back, and I’m really happy with my playing. I think that my practice technique is better than ever and I am getting more out of the time I am putting in than I ever have. Mentally I am feeling much better as well. I feel less lost. An adult student of mine likened it to going to the gym. It goes good, it goes bad, it goes easy, it goes hard, all around it makes you feel better and you feel bad when you miss it. Three days in I got that musician’s high. You know, where it’s like something is playing through you and all the choices you make musically are the right ones. I hadn’t had that in forever.

So I guess the point is that I am on the right track. I’ll let y’all know how it’s going as it goes. Originally my plan was to use the fifth Wednesday of every month for these kind of updates on The Musician’s Notepad. As I don’t want to conflict with the standard release schedule of The ‘Pad I’ll drop one of these every 31st of a month. Thanks for paying attention.

Otto