Monthly Roundup #26 - April '20

You won’t need me to tell you that April was a strange month for all! As you might have guessed, there isn’t quite so much to update you about this time around, but I’ll do my best! I’ve been spending most of my time doing my online drum lessons, but it’s also been good to spend some of the down-time productively to get on with some things that I don’t ordinarily have so much time for - both work-wise and otherwise - which has been nice. Overall, like most people I’d imagine, I’ve been settling into a new way of doing things for the time being until things return to normal.

The online teaching side of things settled in nicely, and my new routine got fairly well established after a couple of weeks which was nice. Once that happened, I was also able to spend more time practising again, after the first few weeks of lockdown threw my carefully honed routines out the window! There’s been a decent uptake from my existing students who I usually visit in schools, so it’s keeping me fairly busy throughout the week - which I’m very grateful for! It’s been a sharp learning curve for both myself and the students, but on the whole I’m really pleased with how it’s all going!

My cosy home setup, where I’ve spent most of my time over the last month!

One thing that was a bit different was the opportunity to do a few bits of recording from home. While I do have a bit of (relatively basic!) recording gear, my room isn’t really set up for it ordinarily. However, with nothing else to do(!), I took the chance to get things set and see what I could produce from home. I was actually quite pleased with how the drum tracks sounded, so I’ll be sure to share the results some time! Having great sounding drums at the ready certain helps!!

My improvised home studio

With the “Clap For Carers” which has become a staple part of lockdown Britain, one Thursday night a neighbour quizzed next on why I hadn’t got some drums out?! So, that was all the encouragement I needed for the following week, where I set up a couple of bits I could make some noise with - when else do you get to sit on your driveway and play drums, after all?! It’s certainly the closest thing I’ll have to a gig for a little while!! On the drum nerdery side of things, I was actually really pleased with the sound these little offerings made when put together…!

Set up in the street for one of the “Clap For Carers” nights!

We also took to doing some more virtual drum hangs this month, which has been nice! It’s been great to stay in touch with everyone during all this, and it was nice to hear how everyone was getting on from their drumming side of things at the moment. In fact, some of our virtual get-together’s have been better attended than ever now that they can be attended from the comfort of one’s own home - who’d have thought it?! ;)

A sample of one of our virtual drum hangs!

So there you have it… Obviously it’s fairly brief with the current circumstances, but there’s a snapshot of my month in lockdown! I hope you’re all staying safe and well, and I shall look forward to catching you again next time - whatever things look like at the end of May! Take care and al the best! Ed.