Monthly Roundup #33 - November ‘20

You guessed it - with November being another locked-down month here in England, not a lot has happened since last time! I’ve been very grateful for the bits of teaching that I’ve been able to do, but besides that I’ve been trying to use the continued downtime as productively as possible.

First of all, I was delighted to hear the finished product of Jack Allsobrook’s 4-track EP, “On My Own”, which we recorded in October. Having not had many opportunities to make music this year, it was a real treat to be a part of this and I had a blast doing so! Please do check it out in all the usual places you find your music!

Jack Allsobrook’s EP, “On My Own”

On the teaching side of things, as was the case in October, throughout November I was able to teach in 2 of my 4 schools. I’m keeping my fingers crossed to return to the remaining 2 in the new year, but in the mean time I’m continuing to offer lessons via Zoom to the students whose schools I’ve not been able to return to yet.

My trusty teaching setup in one of the schools I visit. Never has this been such a useful bit of kit as it is now!

As for the rest of my time, I’ve been continuing to generate more teaching material, although I’m now getting to the point where most of the ideas I’ve banked up over the years are now written down, so that’s slowing down a little after a few months of really going at it most days! Really, I think that’s one of the best things I could have hoped to have achieved during this strange year of downtime, as I’m now equipped with a great arsenal of my own teaching resources. I’ve loved being able to start putting some of them into practice in my teaching as I’ve gradually returned to a couple of my schools. It’s also worked well for my online students, as I’ve been able to send over PDFs in advance of our lessons (or screen share from the iPad) so that the students have all the necessary material at the ready!

With the teaching material slog finally slowing down(!), I’ve now started working my way through some of the video footage that I’ve archived from gigs over recent years. My plan is to get caught up with all the gig footage through the next period of downtime, so that by the time I get back to gigging regularly (whenever that may be!), I can get into the routine of sharing more recent clips - rather than catching up with gigs from a year or two ago! So, watch this space for more clips like the following, which was from a production of West Side Story in February 2019. This show was a blast to play and the band (and cast!) was fantastic!

“Cool”, from West Side Story - February 2019

Once again, there’s also been plenty of practice time available which I’ve been doing my best to make the most of! Recently I’ve been particularly enjoying time on the pad, getting on top of some of the technique related aspects of my playing. In “normal life” I’ve been guilty of putting off time on the pad, as I’ve found myself feeling that when I had dedicated time to practice that I ought to spend it all on the kit, with pad work being reduced to the shorter, often spontaneous windows of opportunity. However, without having any “practice deadlines” for a while (preparing for upcoming gigs etc), it’s been great to take a more long-term view of my practice, and as a result, allowing myself to spend more time focusing on the “pad stuff”. It’s no surprise that as a result of that I’m feeling more and more comfortable at the kit, so hopefully I can make a habit of spending time on the pad that’s here to stay once things do get back to normal!

My arsenal of practice pads, each of which serves a different purpose in my day to day routines!

Finally, we had a great virtual drum hang at the end of November, with a few of us getting together via Zoom to discuss ideas we’d be working on in recent months. For some of us, lockdown had proved a time to to get plenty of practice done - so there was much to share - and for others, the lack of playing opportunities meant they hadn’t spent much time on the drums lately. What was wonderful though, was that it seemed to give each of us a bit of a motivational push to go and try some new things, or at least revisit old ones, which was absolutely the best outcome I could have wished for! I’ve loved being able to stay in touch with our wonderful community of drummers virtually, but can’t wait until we can get together over a cuppa in person again!

Great to catch up with some fellow drummers for our virtual Drum Hang!

There you have it for another month… Despite it being another strange month in the strangest of years, I’m enjoying finding plenty of ways to keep my drumming-brain occupied! Needless to say, I’m looking forward to being able to get back to spending time playing with other people and gigging, but equally, I’m happily making the most of this downtime and hope to come out the other side of it better off in many ways! Thanks as always for checking in and catch you again soon. All the best! Ed.