There is a massive difference between playing in an ensemble, wether it is an orchestra or a rock band, and performing a solo piece in front of a live audience.
The soloist has no safety net whatsoever. There is only him or her and the audience. It is one of the purest forms of communication. Whatever that soloist is thinking, it travels directly through the instrument and into the audience’s ears. No filters. No editors, or managers, or artifice of any kind.
Sundays and Mondays are big days around the studio here…and everyday I teach (and every day in fact), I practice what I preach to my students: GET THE STICKS IN YOUR HANDS EVERYDAY. There simply is no substitute for daily practice. Even if your practice sessions are on the shorter side, i.e. 20 minutes a day, the cumulative effect of practicing every day will become apparent over time.
In other words, practicing everyday yields more growth faster as a player.
Very much looking forward to seeing some of the students perform at Saturday’s recital….
We have been working hard behind the scenes to build grooveKSQ into a community partner that will provide percussion and arts education programming and performances for a long time to come. Our ability to do that, however, depends on financial support from the community, in addition to revenue generated from teaching individual and group lessons.
Finally, we can announce that grooveKSQ has entered into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with Fractured Atlas, which is one of the largest non-profit support organizations in the United States. What that means to you is that you can now make donations to grooveKSQ that are fully tax deductible.
Below is a video detailing our mission statement. Please take a look and then consider making a tax deductible donation to grooveKSQ. Many, many thanks for your support!!
Use your talents everyday.
Quite a few people have asked me, what is grooveKSQ? What do you do there? Here's the answer.
Structure is important in your rehearsal and your performances, and that is true of a performer on any instrument. Goals, lists, calendars are all tools to help keep you on a path towards achieving your performance goals.
But, one thing to keep in mind is the importance of freestyle improvisation on the drumset (or concert or marching snare, or piano, violin, etc., etc.). Letting your mind run free while your hands and feet create combinations seemingly on their own is extremely important to a musicians’ growth.
Freestyle improvisation is a great exercise for any drummer/percussionist out there building a solo piece for a performance or for an audition.
We want to thank our event sponsor, Woodland Percussion, for their support in making the June Student Recital possible.
Woodland Percussion specializes in creating handcrafted percussion instruments. From basic hand percussion to custom stave snares and drum kits, each instrument is individually crafted, ensuring every piece is as unique as the musicians that play them. In addition to our own products, we are delighted to offer a number of unique percussion accessories from brands such as Evans, Vic Firth, Promark, Zildjian, Puresound, Lowboy Beaters, Keplinger Drums, Spinbal, Drumkubes, Big Fat Snare Drum, Latin Percussion, Tackle Instrument Supply Co. and many more!
For more information, please visit http://www.woodlandpercussion.com to learn more.