I've had that experience many times. Often after a holiday, or even a few days without gigs or practice, I find that I come back to kit refreshed and with a new creative direction.
I had a fairly busy 2005 with touring, local gigs, rehearsals, and a regular practice schedule. I finally got a break during the holidays, in which I basically didn't sit behind my kit for about three weeks. I started to get worried after the second week that my down time was going to start eating away at my chops. I was surprised once I sat back behind my kit to find that my chops were still at a respectable level and more importantly my playing seemed refreshed and fluid. I contribute my epiphany to the down time! I guess my mental and physical muscles needed time to rest and collect themselves. It was defiantly the opposite result than what I expected, but it makes perfect sense. Have any of you had a similar experience?
I've had that experience many times. Often after a holiday, or even a few days without gigs or practice, I find that I come back to kit refreshed and with a new creative direction.
I've also experienced the same thing just this past Christmas!
I had been very busy with both working and visiting and entertaining family and friends and then being deathly sick with pneumonia for what seemed like forever, that I didn't even get to touch a drumstick for 3 weeks!
When I did get to sit back down at the drums just this past weekend it was really gratifying and extremely fluid.. I had a great warmup and was totally amazed how easy it was to get "in the zone" like I never left the zone.. very cool!
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Of course.Originally posted by Lorenzini:
Have any of you had a similar experience?
I understand it's quite normal...in any field of endeavor.
This is a necessity from time to time, otherwise we experience a form of "overworking" it AKA burnout. Life can't always be about just drumg 200 & eleventy-seven % of the time.
[Unless you're Virgil [img]tongue.gif[/img] ...which in that case, make a little extra time for isometrics/isotonics/excercise...& STRETCH quite a bit - when you can find the time away from hitting the skins & between the few meals!]
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 11, 2006 02:45 PM: Message edited by: got_a_match_grip? ]</font>
Yes - in common with many of us, I have found that a break away from the kit means you return to the fray refreshed, rejunvenated and bursting with ideas and energy. My longest break from drumming was a period of some 3 years!!!!
It immediately followed the collapse and eventual break down of my marriage - which was at that time 23 years old. It was such a devastating blow at the time, that nothing else, including this craft of ours, seemed to matter.W
ith the passing of healing time, perspective gradually came to bear, andmusic drumming returned to take their rightful place in my life - after all, I'd been playing in one form or another, since I was 7, and I did eventually realise that, in abandoning it, I was turning my back on a vitally important source of consolation, escape and therapy of sorts.
[img]biggrin.gif[/img] [img]biggrin.gif[/img] [img]biggrin.gif[/img]
I think thats one of the wonderful things about being a drummer/keyboardist/guitarist etc (ie not a wind player). I feel so sorry for my friends who play the trumpet and other brass instruments - most can't really go any more than 2 days without playing, otherwise the emboucher goes (at least, this is according to my friends). But my mate has to take his trumpet with him on holiday so that when he comes back he can still play. I dont know how i could cope with something like that... lol
If you go TOO many years w/o playing, you may risk losing your touch, which you will have to get back by hitting it for several days or a week or two, depending on the length of time away AWA level.
Re: again, the Virg factor...
Word has it he takes a pair of sticks & pedals in with him to breakfeast...& his morning constitutional...& to supper...& to bed at night...& the headboard [over her head] has pock-marks in it...[did he go there?!...I'm such an ice hole...] [img]wink.gif[/img]
I bet he had more than his share of being ousted from class in school for tippety-tap-tap-tapping [desk & floor]...I'll bet his dashboard is missing chunks...
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