Under Rick Dior's guidance, my hands are swiftly improving—my gratitude to Rick.
Here are my personal goals for drumming:
1. Improve foot technique.
2. Master rudimental, orchestral snare, and percussion techniques.
3. Expand my collection of beats.
4. Prepare several drum solos to perform as required.
5. Start practicing with mallets, focusing on both orchestral and jazz styles.

Rick Dior gives a lot a material to work on between lessons. But I'm up to the challenge. So, I've organised my practice along the picture above. Not included is practice away from the instrument, namely deep listening, and band rehearsal, two key ingredients to making progress. 

1. Warmups. This takes about 20 minutes using Rick's instructions and hand outs. 
2. Technique. I work on his bebop pattern sheet by playing it along to recordings from the jazz canon or using a bass player from iReal pro. 
3. Brazilian, Latin, Funk, and Rock patterns from either books or transcriptions. These are areas of weakness that need to be removed if I'm going to be an effective drummer in the Metropolitan Silver Band. 
4. Sightreading. I'm an expert sight reader, so I don't spend more than a few minutes on this activity. 
5. Lifting drum figures and licks from recordings and YouTube videos. I usually do this in response to some need of the Metropolitan Silver Band or Kerr Street Big band. 
6. I work on weak areas of the repertoire for upcoming concerts with the Metropolitan Silver Band. 
7. I conclude by playing along with at least one track from a reputable source to conclude my practice. 

I practice everything with the metronome and evaluate my results through listening back or reading the score on my Roland practice app that is built into my TD-27 Sound module. 

     I started teaching in 1982. I can still remember the first pop song I taught: "Wake Me Up Before You GoGo." In 2023 the job still has some wonder in it. Perhaps, not as much as when I started, but enough. What have I learned about students that can be shared?

     Realistic goals are difficult to set if you don't know the field. For example, a year ago I began part-time online studies at Athabasca University. Before I signed up, I dreamt about which courses I might take, which area to focus on, how it might benefit my students and my interactions with the world. Then I took the first course, then the second, and I'm now on the third. Reality check. My goals failed to consider the enormous amount of work involved. Furthermore, my previous ideas on the subject matter were, at best, uninformed, at worst, mistaken. Am I sticking with it? You bet. Is it exciting? Yes, because it is the most exciting thing I've done since I earned my ARCT at age 47 and just as difficult. 

​David

PS I've completed an English writing course (A) and an ancient philosophy course (A-). I'm now deeply involved in an ethics course. 

It is time for the yearly stock taking part 2, the setting of new goals while considering my long-term goals.

1. Toronto Concert Band. These folks have standards, the music is challenging, the concerts are professionally produced, and it is fun.
2. Fade/Dissolve noise trio. The musical mayhem continues.
3. The Toronto improvisation scene including Audiopollenation, and the Toronto Improvisers Orchestra and friends.
4. Drum lessons.
5. Summer Jazz workshop. Every year I attend I learn new valuable ideas, strategies, and tactics for my students. 
6. Jam with my friends a few times a month. 
7. Continuing my university studies at Athabasca. What a surprise this has been. 
8. Continue Breakfast piano minutes. 
9. Keep working with the Malletkat GS. 

What are your goals?
David

Earlier in the year I posted this:
"Top 5 things I can do to grow as a musician in 2022

1. Listen only to recordings from the last 5 years
2. Practice my instruments daily
3. Compose more complex works
4. Start a group playing original music
5. Continue to take lessons, follow instructions, pay for feedback

​The goal is to update the sounds in my head for a more modern outlook, sound, and sensibilities."

How did it turn out? 

1. With so much crap competing for my attention online it was difficult listening to contemporary music but, listening to JazzFM in the car helped. 
2. I do practice daily. But it's mostly on percussion. In early fall I spent Saturday afternoons playing piano with a jazz group which was a tremendous help. This winter I will be playing piano in the Toronto Concert Band. Resuming my daily piano minutes is also worth considering in 2023. 
3. Composing took place with the group Fade/Dissolve and at improvised events. 
4. I tried putting a group playing original music together, but my old pieces sounded so dated and stale, aka 1990's, that I gave up on that project.
5. Drum lessons are roaring along. 

David

Top 5 things I can do to grow as a musician in 2022

1. Listen only to recordings from the last 5 years
2. Practice my instruments daily
3. Compose more complex works
4. Start a group playing original music
5. Continue to take lessons, follow instructions, pay for feedback

​The goal is to update the sounds in my head for a more modern outlook, sound, and sensibilities. 

Fall is just around the corner and it is time to get ready for students and hopefully this year in person jamming. I've been practicing the piano and the drums and over the summer the bass.  I'm ready to get back to work.

Like all musicians, I've spent a lot of time thinking about what's next in this new normal, hopefully post-pandemic world.  Some things I'm looking forward to resuming others not so much. Choices will be made. Stay tuned.

David

I've enrolled in the Royal Conservatory of Music's "How To Teach Music Online" course. This should be interesting. It's important to expose ourselves to new ideas in areas we believe we are competent in with an open mind. Stay tuned for a review. 

How to Teach Music Online | The Royal Conservatory of Music (rcmusic.com)
​
David

Living by design in 2021. Shit happens: Covid. But, we can still make plans and head out with some confidence in a direction of our own choosing. We will get there? Who knows. If we have the privilege to consider this idea though, I say go for it.

Sales tune-up. Why?

1. No sales= no business.
   
2. No business= no opportunities, no freedom, no fun.