4 on the floor.

For a drummer who does not drum as much as he used to or as much as he should I sure throw a lot of money into the hobby. I can always use the excuse, “Quality does not come cheap.”

As true as this may be, I still can’t figure out how I throw all this money into it.

I buy some of the nicest cymbals money can buy, I but sticks by the truck load, I have so many add-on pieces that I rarely use and to top all this off I am looking at a custom drum company out of Winkler, Mb. They make gorgeous drums. In fact, I am planning on heading to Winkler sometime in March to take a look at some stuff. You know, try before I buy.

With all this money put towards my favorite past-time you think I would put all my focus into becoming the best I could be. This is (sadly) not the case. You see, this all falls back on my motivation or lack thereof. I often say I am too tired after a full days work to sit down and drum. Not only am I physically too tired but also mentally. Practice and screwing up is a total mental game. I rarely want to put my head through that. When I have gained enough energy after work it is usually too late to go down and drum. After all, the whole block can hear that.

The rare times I do drum at home are less practice times than they are times of me playing along with whatever song comes up on my ipod. I don’t do well with teaching my self new things, so I have pretty much stopped altogether. I just do what I know and I don’t branch out and try to learn something new. I have been drumming for 7, almost 8 years and in my opinion I am not as good as I should be. I know I could learn, but again… motivation not really there.

With all this said, I have bought myself some mesh practice heads. This will allow me to practice at any hour without disturbing anyone. They will allow me to screw up to no end, and I won’t have to deal with the thought that everyone can hear me botching a groove.

So, I hope all this helps me pick-up the sticks with a new motivation, and why not, maybe a new dream of where drumming can take me.

Shine on.

Patience? I Gots None…

I have found that there are not many things that piss me off more than a change to my plans.

I generally don’t make too many plans. But the times I do are usually important times. I work out a plan in my head over and over until I am satisfied with what I have concocted; to change them brings me so much frustration that it pushes me over the top.

I don’t like that something as small as a potential change to my plans can drive me into a fit. The truth is, plans changing are not the only things that have me on a short fuse. I have noticed myself lacking in the patience department of life. Not only am I on a short fuse, but these days I am not one for waiting. This can sometimes get me into an aggravating spot.

I like to blame all this on the fact that I have not had a full nights sleep since summer. Blaming lack of sleep is so much easier than admitting that I just don’t have the motivation to work on my patience.

My motivation is in roughly the same place as my patience. I do not find myself motivated to do much, writing is one of those things I haven’t cared to put effort into. I suppose I need to start kicking my own ass and getting motivated to work on change, to work on letting go of what burdens I am holding onto, to work on moving on and to get myself back on to a good track.

Shine on, y’alls.