Mhm Klar?

So todays practice was pretty productive i feel. I started out with the 52 excercise at 140 BPM going all the way up to 16 and back down to 1. This whole excercise took about 16 minutes - man was my left arm dyin. I did the excercise with my hardimanns - it was a good work out. I really want my traditional left to be as strong and capable as my match left is - if not better. It was a good warm up time.

Then i moved on to the solo pieces with the ostonattos underneath. 1-4 weren't where Dave wanted them on thursday, even though i felt that i was doing pretty well - so given that in a weeks time with an hour of practice each day i'm not making the kind of progres he wants me to be making - then i'm left with a decision - do i decide to do the best i can with that hour each day and just know i'm doing all i can with that time allotted, or do i start sacrificing other things in my life to be able to practice two hours a day? One behind the kit, and another strictly working on my hands. I wonder how much better i could get in 2 hours of practice a day over the course of the school year. I've gotta pray about it - but something in my heart tells me that not only could i do 2 hours of practice, but that i could do two hours a day. We'll see.

Solo's 5-8 didn't get a whole lot of attention today - i was still working on trying to clean up 3 and 4. I hope they come a long way by thursday - and certainly by performance seminar - which i still don't know what i'm doing so i'm a litter nervous cause i don't know what to concentrate on - but i'm sure i'll be ready by that time comes.

Alright thats all for today. God Bless.

Wes

Tuesday, October 17th

Practice tonight - was not so much.

I practiced some, worked on the interdependence stuff some more, which is coming along.

but this jazz stuff - its the most frustrating thign i've ever done.

also i'm just warn out and exhausted - having other stuff due the same week as midterms is absolutely ridiculous. So i'll probably be up all night again just trying to study and put my focus on midterms since our schedule never gave us the luxury of being able to focus on midterms this years. its very frustrating indeed. oh well.

Wes

all my blogs recently should say "october".

all my blogs shouldn't say september. wow.

Tonights practice was cool. I had fun. Worked on the interdependence stuff some more. I'm really enjoying that.

Started working on my jazz stuff - i don't get it. Its frustrating. and i just don't get it.

wes

Sunday, September 15th, 2006

Tonights practice was just fun.

While not as productive as it may have necessarily been in lou of what i need to get done for my lessons - i still had a blast, and it was just one of those practices where God reminded me that, hey, i can do that stuff, how cool! I have gotten SO FAST, sometimes i can't even believe it - and i've been pulling off these fills that i never even understood before, and i'm starting to undeerstand how to do other wicked fills taht i still can't do, but atleast before couldn't even understand and now i can. Its so encouraging. I just want to get to that place as a player, where it just starts gettign easier and easier to learn new concepts, even the harder ones. I want to be excellent some day.

I finished by devoting serious time to the bio bass thing. I got frustrated and started working on doing a triplet with my hands over hte bio bass - i can't do it. Until i can, i don't even want to look at the piece. I've got to get this - i think this is the key that will open it all up for me.

Wes

Saturday September 14th, 2006

Practice was cool today. I practiced for about an hour before church - and it brought me joy.

I started working on the interdependence pieces and got frustrated and moved on - it wasn't until the end of practice that i finally started to get it.

The jazz piece is not so much right now. Piece number one is no sweat really - other than the back beat stuff.. not sure how to do that when my hands are playing triplets. Piece 2 is a bothersome little diddy - but i hope to have it by my next lesson.

Wes

Thursday, September 12th, 2006

So today i practiced over lunch, and the Jazz piece really felt good - Praise God!! He has helped me so much in my practice times. I ran through the interdependence pieces - they're still a bit rough but i feel better about them than i did.

So i went on to lesson - found out i had been practicing the bio beat wrong, bummer, however dave complimented me on the jazz piece, which was encouraging. Then, just when i thought i was gettign off the hook - he throws me a curve ball. I've gotta put the piece on the kit. I feel like i should be able to get it - but some of it is just confusing to me right now. I hope it really comes along in practice times this week.

Wes

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006

Practice over lunch - there's nothing better.

I'm kind of starting to freak about this jazz excercise too - i know i've got the chops under my hands, but its just my reading chops that are getting me hung up. But durign todays practice God really helped me out and i really started to get hte hang of what i was doing. I even got to practice it with the track a couple times before i had to go. Good times.

Wes

Mhm Klar?

Practice today was pretty fun. No lie, i started working on that thing that Lester Estelle showed me in my dream. haha, its ridiculous. I can't quite do it yet because i haven't found/worked up a way to do consitant fast doubles on my bass drum to go inbetween the licks, but it sounds cool at slow tempos regardless. So exciting.

Started working on the jazz pieces again, as well as the interdependence ones. Excercise two i'm still having trouble with, probably because i haven't practiced it enough. There are so many consistant notes that i always lose the count. But i'll get it.

So yeah, practice was good. I really need to get back in the habit of warming up. cool.