Back Up to Speed!
I'm still here! Still breathing, didn't forget about this! I'm still alive I think, that one's up for debate with all these school finals though. So what have I been doing for 5 months? How am I, what's the word, what kind of progress did we make, where am I in life and music? Well those are some big topics that we'll delve into! I created this to keep a tracker on my progress through drums and life, clearly I'm a bit behind!
Alright so let's crack some knuckles and get straight into it!
-Right Up 'Till Now-
Where to begin? Let's pick it up where we left off - around my birthday - January 24th. Then I was still getting my lessons online, and I still am, but mostly I was progressing through songs and simply just playing whatever I'd feel like, you'd be impressed at how far that alone can take you in music progression, but with all things, there's a limit to just how much you can learn on your own with that method. I was learning some really good essentials though, SOAD's Toxicity, Chop Suey before that, some new Linkin Park stuff, tom grooves, rudiments and specifically development including paradiddles and buzz/double-stroke rolls.
My doubles on the pedals are getting faster and my independence with my left foot is becoming more and more open by the day! Improvisation never fails to amaze me, my first time playing a big and upgraded worship service was just yesterday! I played behind the big kit with the drum shield so I could play the songs louder than usual which was a nice addition! Things like that, as in church-wise, have been progressing immensely since January! Playing worship teaches you patience and control when playing big and especially with the slow songs. And when a busy week hits you out of nowhere with a semi-gig to play on Sunday, you don't have much time to practice the songs, so when I say I was amazed, it's no understatement! It went swimmingly!
The road that lead to that church service was a long and monotonous one. And let me tell you, there's nothing that can subdue your passion for an instrument quite like jazz and swing can. Unless of course you're into robotic and very minimal playing that's harder to master than a world record speed-run of Dark Souls! I did not learn this from the advanced and groovy parts of jazz/swing, no no no, I learned that from just the very early basics of the genre! One look and I'm out of here! Count me out!
I trash talk those genres a lot but truth be told, they're essential to mastering my instrument and I'm not too hot about picking up the sticks and playing me some smoooooth jaaazzzzzz! Heck no! The dude who's teaching me this difficult and rather slow corner of music is none other than Ron Hurst, drummer of Steppenwolf! He's a literal rock star! ...I'd really rather just stick to my rock and paradiddles and refuse the existence of latin and jazz music but it's good to know every nook and cranny of this trade. Ron had suggested me signing up for the Century High music program where the instructor there has invited him to teach at. Ron continued to tell me that if I wanted, he would recommend me to the instructor there! And if you're recommended by an actual rock star, you're PROBABLY gonna get the job! I'm still juggling the idea of band though, I pretty sure I don't wanna go march, but it's a fun idea!
That brings me to my next topic - what's going on outside of drums and music? Well, for starters, I've gone to some brick-and-mortar school events since January, a play and a dance too! When I went I saw all these groups of friends, and my friends' friends hanging out and talking, conversing, and so on. I thought, I don't do that on a daily basis, in fact, I only really SEE my friends in person once or twice every week or so! So I began talking about it with my friends, addressing what's going downhill, what could be better and what's good about my situation. We boiled it down to this: my school, as I could tell, was not fitting me. The electives list for one is a joke, my school ORVA only provides Spanish for foreign languages, the only interesting elective for me was creative writing, plus, and here's the deal breaker, there's no practicality! Consider this, you're sitting at your couch, looking at your laptop screen each and every day, with a computerized voiced over a microphone teaching a class online. Then you go off and do online quizzes and read through the screen and when you've completed some online essays and maybe a presentation here and there, you're done for the day with extremely lenient limitations and all the time in the world to complete your work.
Sounds like heaven on earth right? Your own house, not much work, laziness is permitted and you can wear anything you want and do whatever requirements almost whenever you want, surely a heaven right? ...For some. Notice how everything is 'online', there's no practicality, in chemistry class, there's no exciting reaction that you see in person, with the teacher instructing and teaching in person. In math class, you don't have a teacher right there writing down on the white board and giving you papers with equations to evaluate. In PE you have no teacher in front of you to encourage you to do work and complete activities. There's no sports, no activities, no classrooms, little paper work, not much wiggle room at all for friendships in the slightest, there's no track, no music programs or music classes (I wanna be able to take intro to music theory), and best of all, I literally haven't even met any of my teachers. So I'm trying to transfer! Just as Ron suggested, I want to go to Century High, although the music program is still on the table. We submitted the admission and we're waiting for feedback in July!
-A Recap-
~ I've learned a ton of new songs, new skills and I've refined on old techniques
~ I've began taking in-person drum lessons from the man, the myth, the legend Ron Hurst
~ I'm trying to transfer to Century High
~ I've advanced musically in the church and play the big kit on the main stage!
~ Progression through friendships, making new ones, and forging opportunities for more!
I am making good progress, I'm not quite dead yet and I'm happy, although struggling with finals. I'm very hopeful for this summer and the horizons beyond!
~ Levi, the Drag-on
