Monthly Roundup #45 - November '21
/Hello, and welcome as always to my monthly update! There were a few things going on in November on top of my usual teaching week, but to be honest, my main focus was to get things ready for January as best I could, as December is set to bring about a lot of change in the form of my wife and I’s first baby! So naturally that’s been taking up most of our attention lately while we get things ready for the big arrival…! With that being the case, November wasn’t the busiest month on the drumming side of things, so I’ll keep it brief!
As mentioned, November wasn’t a particularly crazy month for me on the playing side of things, so there’s not loads to report… One thing I did have on though was a kind of “thank you, NHS!” charity night which a band I’m involved in played a set at. We had arranged a kit share with the band closing the show (we were the openers), so I had the luxury of coming and going with the gear already in situ - what a treat! I was even more pleased to find a lovely Gretsch New Classic waiting for me with some fabulous K Custom cymbals, so I was a very happy drummer that night!
The Gretsch/Zildjian combo on a kit share gig - what a dream scenario!
Despite the quieter month on the gigging side of things, I was very grateful as always to have my teaching to rely on! That’s been ticking along nicely, and I’m currently getting set to start at a new school in the new year too, which will be a nice addition to my week. Watch this space for updates on that one… I also got this super cute present from one of my students, which I just had to share! I was very grateful to have received a few lovely gifts from students with baby on the way, but this one seemed relevant enough to put on the blog!
A gift from one of my students!
The trusty teaching setup!
One highlight this month was to have a lesson back in person with my teacher, Andrew Small, having been doing all our lessons remotely since Covid first shut everything down - so it had been a while! After about five and a half years of pretty much monthly lessons, with baby due soon I decided that now was probably the time to put my lessons on hold for the time being, as I’m sure my practice schedule will take quite a hit to say the least! It’s been a brilliant period where I’ve learned a lot, and I’m looking forward to applying the things we focused on to many other areas of my drumming in this next chapter. I’m hoping to use whatever practice time I do get in this next season to work my way through some more of the drumming books in my library, be it checking out some new ones or revisiting things I’ve not worked on for years. I’ll be sure to report back with what I’m working on!
Another highlight, which unfortunately will also be put on pause for a little while, is our monthly drum hang. While it’s been great to get back to doing it in person again in recent months, sadly we’ve struggled to see the numbers we saw pre-covid. Through a combination of that and the obvious baby-shaped changes coming my way(!), again we’ve decided to put that on hold for a little while in the hope that we can pick it up again a little further down the line. We gathered at the end of November and it was a great turn out, and a nice one to end things on for the time being. I shall look forward to getting back together with the rest of the group before too long, I’m sure!
Drum Hang!
Drum Hang!
One more change I’ll be making from this point forwards is to change my blog updates from monthly to quarterly. I suspect I’m likely to have my hands a bit too full to keep up the monthly updates, plus, hopefully quarterly updates will make for a more interesting read for you! As such there’s going to be a bit of a break until the next one, so watch this space and I’ll be sure to report back with how I’m getting on as a drumming dad!! Thanks as always for checking in and I hope to catch you soon, Ed.