Feet!

For the first time (and probably the only time in 2011), I was able to spend a Saturday morning at home, sleeping-in without having made plans to do something with that morning. I was quite adamant about it, really, anticipating that I'd meet with the band later. 9am was all I could sleep in to, so I thought it'd be best to launder and possibly work out some patterns. One of my roommates was out, so I was tasked with keeping the volume down for Mario (I didn't know if he was asleep or not).

The kickpad (pad for the bass drum/kickpedal) lay dormant in the trunk of my car for too long, evidenced by the dust/dirt accumulation on the face and frame. I cleaned it off, fixed the clasp of my kickpedal, and folded my persian rug to protect the wood floor.

I started with heel-down singles at a very slow pace, listening to a few songs and keeping tempo with the songs. When a new song with a slower tempo would play, I would attempt a double-stroke (or a even a paradiddle) so I could vary the patterns. At some point, I realized that I could observe what I was playing in the mirror (narcissistic, isn't it?), and see how far back my beaters were retracting after a stroke. As was to be expected, my left foot had so much less control than my right foot, the beater angle varying greatly from one stroke to the next. The difference is heard in the sound, and felt in my ankle. Generally, when you're playing evenly, you can't differentiate between sides. The mirror helps me to address that, but I'm also thinking about the feel of the attack and how relaxed the action is.

So after finishing with the exercise, I'm expected in Garden Grove in an hour and some minutes, so I get ready to head out, bringing my pedals to possibly see if I should be incorporating any left bass drum pedal voicing. The playlist in the car on the way down consisted of The American Daisycutters (my friends' band) for the first (virgin) listen. When I got around to the 405, I switched up to the LA Rock radio stations (my favorite is 100.3). I don't know why I thought to check on Chris's text at the 405/22 split (about 50 minutes into my travels), but apparently...

...I'm 24 hours too early!!! He scheduled it for Sunday!

I'm such a calamity!! A quick phone call to Chris, and I'm on my way to his house in Long Beach to meet with Presley, Laurel and Chris. Chris and I work out the patterns of the song he was composing, and yes, this is sure to be a pretty fun piece to compose. I'll have some wiggle room to throw in some cool accents and voices. I also think this new song will facilitate more voicings (more toms) and a double kick pedal may come in handy for some of the parts, so we'll see how that works out tomorrow. It wasn't a waste at all, since I also got a chance to hang with the family on a perfect Saturday!

I'll have more to blog about as long as I don't mess up the schedule again.