Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I'm not feeling so hot, so I figured I'd crawl back into bed and listento, more than watch, the second half of Live at the Lincoln Center, "Red Hot Holiday Stomp". I've opened my eyes occasionaly, but have mostly just been listening. And noticing stuff.

First, I finally noticed how much memories of the sound of tap dancing (via occasional exposures to the art by way of television growing up) have coloured my instincts when playing a single drum -- and maybe I should give in to those urges a little more.

Second, I noticed how much the fellow behind the trap set on this show is making me really want to become a much better drummer than I am now. Or at least to be able to get more of what I hear in my head to come out on a drum kit where others can hear it, and to feel more confident on the throne.

That second part is going to be a several-years project, methinks. I'm currently at the "very basic competence" level behind the trap set, able to hold things together and (I think) not sound completely boring, but I don't have any 'flash' and I stumble coming out of fills and back into the pattern I'd been doing (so I timidly don't use as many fills and flourishes as a 'real drummer' would) ... and while my tone isn't crap -- I got a few compliments on my snare drum work during the Regency Ball at Darkover -- it only took about four strokes on my snare drum at Conterpoint for Sally Childs-Helton of Wild Mercy to show me how very far out of my league she is. (She saw the look on my face -- I'm pretty sure she had not intended to show off, she was just checking out my drum set and she had no idea what my level of ability was -- and leaned over to whisper, conspiratorially, "It's okay, I'm a ringer; I was classically trained." I see from her bio on the band's web site that she started playing drums at age fourteen.) So my tone doesn't suck, but there's room for a lot of improvement there, as well as in matters of control and confidence coming out of fills and flourishes and fancy stuff.

This means I've got to actually set up the drum kit again so I can work out on it. (Practicing drums alone is boring, but if I'm going to get better, I gotta do it.)

In the meantime, I've got recorder parts to practice for Sunday, and guitar arrangements to transcribe eventually.