Friday, July 3, 2026

Better

Kept at it, and tonight I played the song once at 70% of full speed and a second time at 80%.  Wasn't on the beat every single time, but nobody's perfect.  Actually starting to get comfortable with the song and its transitions.  How long did that take?  Weeks?  

But I did learn some things about learning a song.  I had a full-size sheet of notebook paper on the music stand, telling me if I needed it what to do at the next transition.  It was my third or maybe even fourth attempt at one of them, and I learned something from the ones that fell short.  

Anyway, I'll keep going to find out how fast is too fast.  Is it really going to be one of those 80-20 splits, and that last 20% will take four times as long as it took me to get where I am now?   

Next, re-starting the rudiments section of Method, which I first went through about this time last year.  There's a 2025 note in my PDF of the exercises for the first rudiment (4-stroke roll) that says I couldn't get above 80 bpm, while the target is supposed to be 100.  Tonight, I eased into it at 60 with a right-hand lead, 50 with a left-hand lead, and 50 on the exercise that alternates between the two.  I'll give myself a few more days to work my way up. 

So now I can ease back on just doing one song per practice session.  For the time being it's:

Hands:  Warm-up of some kind or another 

Head:  Re-do rudiments section of Method

Heart:  Intermediate song, 80% and beyond; if I get to a stopping point, I can try a pop song off my list, or work on Between The Lines from Drumeo.  

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