Weekly Update

So It has been awhile, and I'm finding this project harder to do. Between the difficulty of Junior year and my laziness, I now know how much harder it is going to be. I have come to the conclusion that this won't get any easier, and I'll have to push incredibly hard to get were I wan't to go. I have not been working on my chops as much as I should have, as I have not made progress since my last tempo update.

However, all hope is not lost. I am constantly thinking about drums and music, I dream about it to some extent. It's just I procrastinate so hard, and It feels like I never have time. But, I am still learning, as slow progress is still progress.

In terms of songs, I have got almost the entirety of Ghosts on The Dance floor by Blink-182 down. It's just near the end were their are fills everywhere and I need to transcribe them one by one. The intro took me about 40 minutes to figure out and get down after I slowed it down with my computer. I am also just jamming to other Blink 182 songs to get the Travis Barker feel, I'm pretty confident with first date, but my right hand gets tired after playing sixteenth notes the entire song.

Link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHPsjZ-TFxA

2nd Sucks, by A Day to Remember, I have down completely except for one part (Just a awkward snare rhythm) which should take me no longer than 10 minutes to get down.  I plan to have this recorded, filmed, and up by Sunday if I get up off the couch.

Link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSPsrvnYbMg

In terms of Art of Bop drumming and lessons, I still have much to practice. If I really work hard this week, I think I can make considerable progress. I'm going to give this week my all and see how far I can get. The exercises I made up in Syncopation are going along pretty slow. I'm having trouble sight reading them with a triplet feel. However, once I have the first several pages of that exercise down with a triplet feel, reading jazz charts and placing fills in will almost be automatic.

Also (I know this is a long post! Stay with me here) I purchased some Roxul AFB fiberglass, and I am going to home depot this weekend to build sound panels! I hope to somewhat acoustically treat my drum practice room so recordings sound a bit better, and the neighbors are a little less annoyed.

Google day and Lessons!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to take a lesson to make sure I was still on course. I have some new exercises out of one of my favorite books "syncopation" to help sight read fills. Throughout the google day I worked on bass drum and snare independence in triplets. I'm making slow progress, but I am getting better

End week Results

Singles: 180

Feet: 155

I am making progress on my chops and on Art of Bop drumming. I had a very busy week so I'm very far behind were I want to be. I hope to make it through comp exercises 4 and 5 in art of bop drumming this week. However, today I did learn a fairly easy song called "2nd Sucks" by A day To remember. The song wasn't difficult at all and took be about 30 minutes to learn (even though I don't exactly have it nailed down). However I do feel fairly confident with it. I want to direct my interests into the Trivium song "In Waves" which in itself isn't a hard song, but will take awhile to master exactly what he is doing. I hope to log in about 10 hours this week, as well as get a lesson in on Tuesday. Wish me luck!

Google Day/ Week Summary

The google day on Friday was incredibly productive. I finished comp exercises 2 in Art of Bop drumming as well as started com exercises 1 for bass drum independence. I am going to change my rudiment charts to just total single stroke speed for both feet and hands, as it takes about a hour to update it every week. I am still going to practice rudiments, its just hard to keep track. The progress I have made so far seems rather slow, I feel like I should be much farther in the book and I felt I would have made much progress since I have been practicing a lot more but I still feel halted. I might get some lessons in the following weeks just to double check I'm doing everything right. Last year I made a sonic leap in my playing with a few lessons, So I'm hoping the same will happen this year.