practice slump

[Nikk]

It seems like right now I'm having such difficulty motivating myself to get up off my butt and practice. I'm certainly not questioning my love for the instrument. It's very frustrating. Any of you folks go in and out of periods in which it's hard to self-motivate?

[buga]

Nikk ive got 2 words for ya: Dom Famularo, besides being a great instructor and player the guy also focuses alot of his time into "motivation" and "drive"

the problem itself is motivation and founding other musical outlets and interests that you haven't explored(mallet percussion for instance or in other words try to study other instruments that relate to drums and study the relation btw them, like say "bass and guitar", that will probably help u gain a much clearer and wiser perspective on your instrument)......also try to get in touch with other instrumentalists or people u would never listen to(this really depends on your level of musicianship and understanding, its like expecting a fan of ROCK music to understand Jack DeJohnette's drumming and swing itself, they won't get it because they're not used to it). For drum motivation I would suggest u search for sum publications by Dom (check VicFirth for his columns and tutorials)

Also setting up a routine for practice(like a "weight loss plan"-sorry of the example is to extreme for sum of you-with sum agenda on different things to work on, I mean come on im a *newbie* to the drums compared to you guys and there's so much I need to learn besides focusing on rudiments and ostinatos/polyrhythms), definately try to focus on your "weakness"(take in mind NO ONE including Dave Weckl is perfect).

Each character and person is individual and their circumstances are also variables that should be accounted for......IMO what drives me the most is reading(besides the instructional stuff from Dom that should be getting by NOW )reading something from Modern World or any other drumming magazine, an article from Donati or Lang(talk about MAJOR discipline, those guy don't really have ANYTHING to shoot for seeing they're at the top of the mountain YET they're still pushing himself!)...And like Weckl says its always nice to go "Back to the Basics" and re-evaluate your playing(with a teacher perhaps and one thing my teacher told me is try to play stuff that you're familiar with(something that will increase your joy and appreciation for drumming so instead of bridging over new territory and trying to go through Marco's "Proggresive Independence" try to go back to the roots, for someone like me that would be The Beatles or Zeppelin, think about it, playing all this complex polyrhythms, whacko stickings, but IMO I seem to have the most fun playing Beatles stuff and Zeppelin/Police etc, whether sum may dismiss it as crap or easy, its FUN and may help your *current attitude* towards drumming perse!)

Dom Famularo

[PencilZ]

Excellent advice Bozzio...The cycle of empowerment.
(uncle dom's bag of pick me up tricks). [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

[buga]

while you're at it, grab a copy of "It's Your Move" [img]wink.gif[/img]

[PencilZ]

Why you be playing with his motions and emotions. [img]wink.gif[/img]

[FuseU1]

..."(take in mind NO ONE including Dave Weckl is perfect)"...

...that may be, but he's sooo darn close, the fine line of difference is unrecognizeable
[img]eek.gif[/img] [img]confused.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]

PS - cool post, Boz

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 14, 2003 02:47 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

[PencilZ]

Theres also Mike mangini's Book(s) HERE!

[buga]

well while we're at it(recommending books) get all of Gavin's books "Rhythm Illusions"/"Rhythm Perspectives" and something u MUST own "Conversations in Clave" from El Negro and probably "New Breed" which has already been talked about here numerous times.....

while doing sum research on Dom I came up with this from his Rhythm Magazine Interview(there's a link on his page-Eductational)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor=""><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">"Look at what Terry Bozzio's doing. Look at Oscar Peterson, out doing a solo tour and he plays great, you love it. Yes, that's a melodic instrument, but I had a conversation with Terry Bozzio and I told him that if there's one drum set artist that will take drumming into the year 2000, it is him, and that he must accept the responsibility of his talents. At first he was a little bit taken aback by this because he didn't know if he wanted to go out and do this solo thing, he said he didn't enjoy it. I said, it's past whether you enjoy it or not, you are so talented, you must do it. I'm a firm believer that art is not born from 'I can', it's born from 'I must'.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

and the nay sayers rest in silence *flams* [img]wink.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 14, 2003 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Bozzio ]</font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 14, 2003 05:04 PM: Message edited by: Bozzio ]</font>

[FuseU1]

Oooooooooo...
Yes - *FLAM* [img]wink.gif[/img] [LOL] ...
TBoz was a major influence on me...
I 1st heard him w/ UK [aft Bruford departed], & it floored me [i ESP dug "The Only Thing She Needs" off "Danger Money" [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] ]...
I have an old tape fr the mid-to-late 80's of a triple-clinic in FL w/ him, Sonny Emory, & Gerry Brown, SOMEwhere [which is great]...
I like his approach to melodic drum parts/ostinatos nowadays, AW...
I hope he continues to do BOTH [solo AND band/ensemble]...
While I'm not necessarily into Dom's playing at this point, in & of itself [he's not really a jazz player, to me; but of what he does/his style, he's good]; but I AM DEF into his infectious & contagious pro-activeness / positivity / & progressivity in practice...["Mind your P's; u must eat all your P's"....]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 18, 2003 10:02 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

[buga]

yeah TBo is the man....a guy from this board who will go unnamed tho his contributions are BIG(U know who u are!)contacted me awhile ago(he thought I was Terry after sum reply I did regarding Zappa and his recordings), he sent me sum video footage of Bozzman with Missin Persons and "Baby Snakes", all ive gotta say after watching Bozzio's playing in that my opinion is still the same, even 20 years later his playing is still relevant and a staplemark(even tho guys like Marco and Lang are taking it even farther-keep in mind those peeps are in their 30's!)but still to this day when I think of "solo drumming" I still think of Bozzio...btw he does alot of playing besides the ostinato based concepts, like Bozzio Levin Stevens and The Lonely Bears(most of the grooves are ostinato based buy hey!).

anyways back to the original thought to keep continutiy, the point IMO is that there is so much stuff out there in terms of resources(instructional like books and multimedia video's/dvd's)and so much language being spread that there's no possible way IMO that u can get tired of playing....NO WAY!(and I don't mean that as an insult, im not trying to go down or you or sumething).....The setback is alot of the info could be classified as "recycled"(especially anything involving Moeller [img]rolleyes.gif[/img] and "finger control"/rudiments, double bass drumming, funk/latin, groove cookbooks, fills(get "Gratton Licks" NOW!) independence-polyrhythms/ostinato's-melodic(linear) concepts etc)...the same thing u get on Bozzio's videos u get on Marco's(more or less)and this stuff is SO expensive! [img]mad.gif[/img] pshhhh I could go on forever but now im just rambling on(Zeppelin YAY! ohhh?)

like Uncle Sammy says on his sketch about Jesus Christ........."BUY THE BOOK, BUY THE BOOK"(in reference to the bible hehe!)....but I mean Dom's book!

Keep it Greasy [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 14, 2003 05:10 PM: Message edited by: Bozzio ]</font>