Go See Live Music!

Sometimes you can learn just as much from listening to music as practicing it. Learning by osmosis is a real thing! Saturday night I checked out Start Making Sense: A Tribune to the Talking Heads at Brooklyn Bowl. They were on fire! Thanks for capturing the moment, Steve! 

Practice tips: iPod Shuffle

So I was out of town at my parents' place in Maryland over the weekend and upon returning to NYC Monday night, I realized I hadn't picked up a drum stick for almost five days! I just wanted to play. No grooves to build, no music to study, no licks learn, just play.

It was a little late to call friends for a jam session, but who needs friends when you have access to hundreds of top tier musicians on your iPod (actually, there's nothing better than playing with real, live human beings!)? So I got out my iPod (err, iPhone), hit shuffle, and played a long to whatever it threw at me. Here's what came up (yes, my iPod is Phish heavy...):

Phish - Bouncing Around the Room (A simple, basic Latin groove that never changes. Can you stay as steady as Jon Fishman for the entirety of the tune?)

Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime (I tried to play all the percussion parts with the drum set part. Pretty doable!) 

Phish - Round Room (How many ways can you play a pattern of nine and still fit within a song?)

Radiohead - Morning Bell (The 5/4 version from Kid A)

Phish - My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own (Traditional bluegrass number played here by Phish. Again with the steady-as-Fishman bit.)

Steely Dan - Rikki Don't Lost That Number (typical Steely Dan studio perfection with Jim Gordon on drums.) 

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Suddenly it was 10pm (quitting time at my apartment) and I was feeling much better after getting to hit some drums. Always keep it fun! If it's not fun, why bother?