Audio Coaching

Bonus

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the blog post page to get your Bonus Playlist

Hearing Impaired?

Read the Transcripts for Audio Coaching April 19, 2023 HERE

Hi drummers,

Happy Wednesday. This is Mickey Stewart. Coming to you from a very, very beautiful Scotland today.

I'm in the top third floor of our house which is like our music room and where I make all my videos from my Platinum and Keepers of the Rhythm students and I'm literally looking out at Drummond Castle out the window. It's in the distance but I can see it very clear. In the morning time it is much easier to see and then after lunch, it kind of like disappears.

I want to shoot you a little memo here to share some really cool tools with you. And I find that when I get emails and emails in my inbox every day, it's just hard to consume them all. One of my coaches sends voice memos and it's one of the emails that I open every single time when I see that little audio emoji in the subject line. I know that it's a voice memo from her I always open those emails.

So I wanted to make this for you, and add the transcripts for my hearing impaired friends, to share some tips and advice with you

So what I'm going to focus on in the next couple of upcoming weeks are some slow downing apps resources that in my 42 years of drumming and teaching, it's one of the things that I use the most because at one of my schools I teach a variety  drumming, not just bodhran, but I teach drum kit, bass drum, snare and tenor drum and and there's a lot of different levels even at the young beginning stages.

One beginner will be able to play at a different tempo from even someone else that started the same week as them so I want to meet you where you're at.

One of my favourite quotes that really supports my whole belief that to play well, fast, you have to be able to play it slow.

If when I put the metronome on and my student says, 'Oh, I can't play that slow' big alarm signs go off in my head. 

If you can't play it slow, you're probably fluffing through some stuff. You're trying to use the speed to mask what you're not playing cleanly.

There's a great quote from Tim Ferris and he said, 'Sometimes to learn fast, you have to slow way down.'

Taking time to play with clarity and control may not sound as fun and as exciting as playing along with tunes at rip roaring speeds, but playing with control at slower tempos will set us up for full speed success. I know you get that.

Our hands love repetition, but they may get too tired looping a pattern at the faster speed. You have to be really careful about that so you don't cause yourself any kind of injury. Don't hesitate to just simply slow down, listen to your hand when it's getting tired or if you're straining it and you're getting tension all up your arm and your shoulder.

Think of slowing down not as that can't play faster or that it's a bad thing or you're sliding backwards in your in your playing. If you're trying to level up it doesn't always mean just playing faster, right? Think of it as taking the scenic route. Not many of us these days take the time to really take the scenic route. We're all in just a rush and can't get there fast enough. Right? But there's something definitely beautiful about it.

Growing up in Cape Breton, that was one of the things we did. We didn't have a lot of money to go off on holidays and adventures and stuff. So we as a family we went for a Sunday drive. That kind of our thing. So you know, tap into that - how good that felt when you were a child. Slowing down doesn't mean that we're not capable of doing the rhythm faster. We're just choosing to play it slower in the pursuit of mastery.

I really want to just drill that in and support that. Playing it slow - there's there's an art to it. 

One of the tools I'm going to share with you this week is how to slow down a YouTube video. I know a lot of my online students in my courses already know these tips because I share that with them.

But I'm going to create a link in this email that will have the resources of how to slow down a YouTube video so that's Volume 1, as we'll call it, for our Slow Down Series, and then next week I'll share another cool tip with you.

I want you to get your drum out this week. If you have not had your drum out in a while or you can't even remember the last time you had your drum out . . .

Could you do me a favour? Today as you're reading this just dig your drum out, put it somewhere you're gonna play it. Go to the blog post. Find out how to slow down that YouTube video.

You know what I'm going to throw in an extra bonus here.

I'm going to throw in a playlist. I create lots of really cool playlists for my online course students. I'm going to throw in a playlist here for you and I want you to pick a track that you are really drawn to and then try to slow down the YouTube video like I show you in the blog post. 

Anyway. I hope this finds you well.

I hope that if you've been away from your drum for awhile and you get it out, that you don't attach any shame or feel guilty about that. OK? 

All momentum starts with no momentum. Right? 

Talk to you soon, bye.

Mickey

ps. CLICK the blog image above to read Volume 1 of the Slow Down Series.