60th day of practice - First Band Practice

Hi
today was a bit of a special (practice) day. We (Guitarist, Bass Player and myself) went to see a practice room and they also wanted to test my skills while practicing. So I practiced the George Kollias workout at home (because I had to go right after that). Well and the practice itself? It was pretty ok, the bass player and the guitarist are cool guys but I somehow felt that they were a bit unorganized. The guitarist actually told me before practice that we would play "Bloodline" by Slayer and the bass player hadn't even practiced it. So we did some tries on it, but we always had to stop during song. But that also happened because we actually couldn't balance the volume of our instruments. The others always had the feeling as if I was too loud and we couldn't get a real balance. So sometimes while playing I actually didn't hear the others playing.

But we are probably not going to choose that room at all so we'll see if the volume can be balanced better in the other room we might go to. But the drum kit the owner had was pretty cool, it actually had a bass drum trigger and two different crashes (I was so silly to get a splash and a china instead of getting two crashes...).

So all in all I hope we will be organized better next time (which will probably be in January. I also hope they pick me as their drummer of course. Besides that I'm also already noticing that I'm getting more and more motivated to practice. So this basically proves the old drumming rule "Play in a band if you need motivation."

Thats all for now.

greetings

58th day of practice - Extreme Headache

Well...Today I'm having a really bad headache and I actually thought about not doing any practice at all, because it's that bad (and I'm writing an exam tomorrow). But I think I'm going to do the Geoge Kollias workout (I'm going to practice now) and again do some hand exercises on the practice pad (as I always do when I can't really get to my kit. If you've read more than only this post you probably know that already ^^).

So thats all the news today, I don't even want to write more, my headache is just that crazy.

greetings

New Top 10 Video (And practice is still awesome btw)

Sooooooooo
after a person requested that I do more Top 10 videos I just did that :D
As a result of that there is a new Top 10 video I did up (today or yesterday or whenever I uploaded it lol). There is still more to come and I suppose I will do 1 or 2 new covers during the holidays, so stay tuned and make sure to subscribe ^^

Heres the vid:




greetings

55th day of practice - Best practice day ever!!!

How can I say it...Yesterdays practice was just amazing. Why? Well, it was just the most fun I ever had behind the drumset. Some reasons for this:

1. I found out how I can prevent my rug from slipping away, so I don't have to move my stool every 2 seconds.
2. My double bass practice was consistent.
3. The Thomas Lang exercise was great. Playing the double bass figure and improvising the hands on top just sounded so cool.
4. The improvisation part was exciting.
5. The song part was amazing too (mainly because my rug used to slip on this part the most often). I played Killswitch Engage's "End of Heartache", which was great (and I'm probably going to do it on a cover) and Carnal Forge's "Decades of Despair". But instead playing Carnal Forge's song the next time I will probably play something else, I can do good in a YT cover.

By the way, I'm uploading a new Top 10 List on YT today, so check my channel out here.

greetings

52nd and 53rd day of practice - Headache Drumming

So for the last 2 days I went back to my usual routine. It went pretty ok and I'm starting to search for new songs from 100-125bpm. I tried "World of Lies" by At the Gates, but I think there were some parts in it which were faster than 125bpm because it was much too hard (although I completely analysed the whole structure and every fill etc. I'm either not ready for 125bpm or this song was too fast. I'm going to try other songs I marked as 125bpm and see how it goes.

The Thomas Lang exercises are pretty difficult by the way. I'm starting on the first chapter now (3 exercises per day, 5 minutes each) and I can't play them at their recommended speed (125bpm for the first exercises). Instead I'm doing them at about 100-115bpm and that is ok for now. But I think they are funny bass drum combinations which may help increase my coordination. I'm not even thinking about playing with the hands while playing one of these exercises (as Thomas explained on the DVD) and I'm trying to get some consistency into them.

The double bass exercises work good so far I'm starting to get continuous double bass on 160bpm for 1 minute and beyond running (although I think I'm sometimes a bit sloppy). I'm still struggling with the hands though and I hope I'm going to get comfortable with them sometime...

Thats all for now.

greetings

50th and 51st day of practice - Still Sick

Hello
since I couldn't do anything on the 49th day I decided I would repeat the George Kollias exercise I did on the last practice yesterday and continue with a new one today. But except for that and much practice pad practicing I couldn't start my routine and I hope to do so tomorrow.

As I already said in the last post I'm going to start with some of Thomas Lang's exercises tomorrow replacing the Extreme Independence exercise. I want to do those exercises to get some more freedom around the kit while playing double bass phrases. And the Extreme Independence exercises where similar to Derek Roddy's Blast Beat exercise which made them a bit useless in my routine.

The finger exercise still stays at German Grip (while my right hand starts to get into French Grip by the way) and I'm still waiting for my new Tom Heads...

greetings

48th and 49th day of practice - I'm Ill

Well...
it just sucks...I somehow couldn't concentrate yesterday and I felt like I'm becoming sick. I got to the point where I did the George Kollias workout and that was it. I think I'm having a cold or something worse. But I think I'll even have to skip the whole practice for today and (if at all) do something on the pad. I hope this is not going to last too long (I didn't even go to school today).

I think I'm going to try some things from the Thomas Lang DVD (Creative Control and Advanced Foot Technique) the next times I get to practice and I'm also going to talk about my routine with my teacher.

greetings