• Monday 1-2 hours of solo practice.
• Tuesday 1-2 hours of solo practice. Metropolitan Silver Band in the evening for 2 hours. 
• Wednesday no practice, just a few drum students.
• Thursday 1-2 hours of solo practice, plus drum students.
• Friday 1 hour or so of solo practice plus a 60-minute lesson twice a month. 
• Saturday 2 hours with the Kerr Street Big Band, 30-60 solo practice.
• Sunday 1-2 hours of solo practice. 

Additionally, I spend a few hours each week, away from the kit, practicing through deep listening. 

Total hours practice: Low side 9.5 hours a week, high side 15 hours. 

David

Juggling practice is difficult when you play three instruments.
1. Piano practice is required for my job as a piano teacher.
2. Drumming is required because brass band music is difficult, and I want to keep the chair in the band. Furthermore, endurance takes time to build and repetition to maintain. To improve my skills, I take a weekly lesson and lesson preparation requires daily attention. 
3. Mallets. I love playing the malletkat and xylophone. And it is a required skill, on occasion, in the brass band. 

How do I do it?
1. Piano practice maintains my skills to the level required to serve my students well. I'm not preparing for concerts or gigs anymore. Therefore, endurance is not required. 
2. Drumming. I have a ritual I've been following for a few months. It starts with 20 minutes on hand warmups and chops building. I follow-up by reviewing a lesson from a drum kit book for 10 minutes. Then I tackle Brass band music. However, I only practice the tricky bits as there is no time for fooling around. With this I've covered chops, endurance, skill development, and being ready to contribute to the band. 
3. I do a few minutes in the evening working out of a lesson book and slowly chip away. 

​David

This year I've taken on two new projects: a Saturday morning rehearsal big band, and a serious, you'd better practice or you are out, brass band. The big band is strictly sight reading among friends. The other group is friendly but gives public concerts that make the stakes higher. After three weeks of practicing two hours a day I've drawn some conclusions. 

1. The tone of the drums has improved.
2. I can play the parts.
3. My confidence is greater.
4. Folks are pleased to see me. 
5. My groove has improved because I've been deep listening to Count Basie, and English Brass bands. This has refreshed my understanding of the idioms. 

Two challenges remain. 

1. Feeling comfortable with horns that drag without sounding like I'm rushing.
2. Keeping up the practice regime with my other responsibilities. 
3. Sometimes the toms are too loud in the big band and too soft in the brass bands.

David

True story from this week. Each month, my friends and I play at a recording studio in Etobicoke: guitar, bass, drums. I bring a new tune. It is a shuffle I had written for a student. Now the set up.  

Twenty-five years ago, I was playing jazz piano with a poet in a Queen Street club, we opened for a blues band. Our hippy dippy poetry set went well. During the blues set the band invited me up to sit in. I am thrilled. They yell piano solo! I wail through and finish triumphantly. I look to the band leader for affirmation of my brilliance. He says, 'nice jazz solo buddy." I am crushed. So, I went home and learned to play the blues.  

Fast forward to this week. I did it again with the drum set. Too much jazz in my blues! I was comping on the snare drum instead of focusing on the pop of the back beat. My drum coach heard it right away. I immediately heard what he was saying. I was being too clever. So, I now focus on the snare drum, keep the bass drum down, minimize my fills, and no comping like a jazz guy on the snare drum. Next session, my shuffles will be simplified and popping.  
​
​The moral of the story. When we accompany on the drum kit, keeping disciplined and focused for the entire song is difficult. It is easy to get bored and want to fill: here, there and everywhere. This goes for jazz too. In pop and rock drumming with a singer, this never happens, I can play my part and stay out of the way of the story telling. However, in instrumental music, I must stay on my toes, or I will over play.  

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. 

Returning this weekend drumming with Pacy Schulman Jazz quartet at Tartary in Etobicoke. Saturdays at 2 pm. It's been a long wait. For details check here.

Do drummers ever stop dreaming of drums? Nope. 
Do pianist every stop dreaming of playing? Nope.
Do composers every stop putting sound in order? Nope.

Staying healthy when teaching a full roster will be the number 1 challenge. Physical fitness, rest and good nutrition will be key. And time off every long weekends and school break holidays. 

​David