Get the connection

This morning, I was looking at the NYT Spelling Bee puzzle, and for the first several moments, no words were coming to mind.  I could have reacted two ways:  (1) I know this game and have a better-than-average vocabulary, so even if nothing comes to mind now, if I briefly back off and come back to it, there's a very good chance I'll start finding words, or (2) I really don't have any talent for this, and I don't know why I bother with it.  I suck.

When playing Spelling Bee, I've always felt the confidence in #1 above, and never the attitude in #2.  What, never?  Well, hardly ever.  There have been times when a minute variation on (2) has come to mind.  Then I step away, think of something else for several minutes, and return to the Bee and get results.

I'm trying to get to that point on drums.  It's easier to get to the attitude in #2 when trying to follow an online lesson, particularly when the instructor goes through five exercises in less than seven minutes, spending, as far as I'm concerned, too little time on the mechanics of the motions.  This is a beginner level class, and I'd expect a slower approach to the exercises.  

But I imagine putting my arm over my shoulders, reminding myself of the parts the instructor was leaving out and resolving to do them without him.  Slower, as slow as necessary, with Repetition and Patience (not the names of the lions outside the New York Public Library).  

One more thing that helped:  when I went through the exercises, I was not on the e-kit.  I wasn't even on the practice pad.  I was downstairs in the rocker-recliner, and that was intentional.  Back when I was trying to learn about drawing, I had a drawing desk, but without developed skills, I procrastinated as long as possible before picking up the pen.  I realized if I felt like I knew how to do something, there was no delay; I'd just do it.  But without the skills, I dreaded trying.  To work around that, I'd start the process somewhere other than the drawing desk, and it helped enough that I'm using the same kind of workaround with drumming.

Tomorrow (or actually, later today) it'll be (A) 30-day drummer II, one more time through Day 6 as a warmup, and (B) the first run-through of the Day 7 lesson.  

Then, maybe not immediately afterward, but later that same day, repeat the first set of exercises under Styles.  There are five exercises, and I had the first under control at the assigned speed of 80bpm, with the second nearly to that point.  This took at least a half-hour, and combined with the time spent on 30-day II, my forearms were feeling it.  This is at least partly because I was doing all this downstairs in my rocker-recliner, pounding folded fleece blankets placed across my lap with a pair of Vic Firth 5A's.  

So the practice was delayed due to the student's sagging confidence, but after getting rolling at 11:00, the next 90 minutes were time well spent. In good shape on (A), with a good start toward getting where I want to go on (B).