Monthly Roundup #31 - September '20

Hello once again, and welcome to my update for September. As has become quite usual in the world of music right now, there’s not a huge amount to update you on, but there’s been a few nice things nonetheless… I’ve had a slightly unusual routine throughout September, but it’s had it’s perks, which I’ll get onto below!

While I’ve been continuing with the online lessons throughout the month, the main change there was that as the school students were all back to school, it meant all my online lessons had to take place after the school day. As such, Monday-Friday I generally had quite a bit of free time on my hands during the day, before the online lessons picked up when the kids got home from about 15:30 onwards. Once again, I’ve been really pleased to be able to offer these online lessons, and while they’ve been becoming more and more “the norm”, I’m excited to announce that I should be getting back to a couple of my schools in October, which I’m thoroughly looking forward to! With all that time to myself during the day, I’m pleased to report that none of it went to waste… be it practice time, writing out more teaching material, touching base with friends I don’t usually have the opportunity to see, or most recently, planning my return to school, there’s been plenty to keep me occupied!

My “Drumgeon”, where I’ve spent most of my time over the last few months!

Practice-wise, this last month I’ve found myself really enjoying time spent on the practice pad, honing in the techniques that I’ve been working on in my lessons with my teacher, Andrew Small. I suspect it’s as the things I’ve been working on for a while now are starting to feel more natural, and as such the benefits are showing themselves in my playing. As such, I’ve been enjoying applying those techniques to my rudiments and so on, spending some time getting them feeling as comfortable as possible.

One exciting addition to the “Drumgeon” was my technique-checking mirror - hours of fun!!

As mentioned, besides practice I spent a lot of that free time writing out teaching material, putting my ideas onto paper ready to apply to my lessons. Going into lockdown I had a couple of folders worth of material written out which I used regularly in my teaching, but I’m pleased to have been able to use this time to add a whole lot more, which is sure to keep my students occupied for some time!!

My current lineup of teaching folders… Most are now full of good stuff, but there’s a few more things I’d still like to add to some of them.

While I didn’t have any gigs in September, I did have one opportunity to load the car up with drums and head out for a rehearsal, which was a lot of fun! Coming up in October there’s a weekend recording some original songs for local artist Jack Allsobrook. He put on a live show a couple of years ago where we performed a number of his songs, but this time around it was a case of getting the songs ready to record. It was a blast to get together in a room with a few other guys and just have a great evening playing through some songs together, so I can’t wait to take them to the studio soon! It was even nice to be lugging drums around for the evening - despite the storm on my way home!!

It was SO good to get take a kit out and about again - especially when it’s as lovely a kit as this one!

It was such a pleasure to get this kit out again (after months sat in cases!) that I’ll treat you to two photos of it!

Something else I’ve enjoyed doing a bit of this month (with my free time during the day!) was catching up with a few other musician friends, who I don’t necessarily get the chance to see that often in “normal life”. It’s definitely something I’d like to do more of, but obviously it becomes tricky when folks are working on similar routines! With all that’s going on it’s been really good to chat with other musicians in particular, and it’s been a comforting reminder that we’re all very much in this together, as well as to just chat about music and other things over a coffee! A drummer friend and I that got together had a great time comparing things that we’d been working on, giving one another new practice ideas and so on… I love talking “music” with friends - it’s one thing that always leaves me inspired to play and search out new things to listen to.

On that subject, another exciting milestone that came in September was the chance to finally have an in-person drum hang again - hurrah! Obviously it was just a small crowd, but it was so good to catch up with some more friends who I hadn’t seen for a while (besides on a screen!). We didn't have any particular topic in mind for this one - it was just great to catch up and see what we’d all been up to over the last few months. As mentioned above, I love getting together and chatting with fellow musicians (especially drummers!), so I’m excited to be able to do more of it over the coming months - hopefully!

Masked up, socially distanced and reduced numbers, but a drum hang nonetheless!

There’s a glimpse into my musical goings-on throughout September… Gradually there appear to be more bits and bobs happening, but I shan’t get too ahead of myself as there’s every chance things might take a step back over the winter. Hopefully there won’t be any major setbacks though and we can continue to gradually get back to things one step at a time! Until next time, thanks for checking in and all the best, Ed.