tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1548521609721342932026-10-11T12:12:15.441-06:00Keith SorensenDrummer, percussionist, music educator and blogger.keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.comBlogger251125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-32580164268179843392020-01-17T21:54:00.000-07:002020-03-04T21:24:43.902-07:00Why musicians should watch the big game (Seriously!)
Photo by Ameer Basheer on Unsplash
Here we are, about to watch another televised wrestling match over who puts a football on one end of the field or the other, and all I can think of is how similar the big game is to the big gig. For elite athletes and musicians alike, here are five lessons I can't ignore.
Preparation isn't everything.
Seriously, does anyone think anyone keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-23655887225802356362020-01-11T08:49:00.000-07:002020-01-11T08:49:01.723-07:00Hanging by a thread - literally!Sometimes I'm an idiot. And not just in the normal, open-mouth-and-insert-foot sort of way. I have the ability to be an idiot in the grandest, highest-stakes, end-your-life sort of ways. Let me tell you a story.
I may have mentioned a time or two that I've been an adventurer in my life. Climbing, rappelling, mountaineering, and subbing in a heavy metal band are just a few examples. Well, I've keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-9198837200798339072020-01-04T08:18:00.000-07:002020-01-05T07:29:14.881-07:00What would you do if you weren't afraid?
"Everything you want is on the other side of fear. " - Jack Canfield
One of my favorite sports is rock climbing. I started climbing in college and spent as much time as I could possibly justify in the local canyons and gyms while getting my music degree. It proved to be a great mental and emotional exercise, in addition to the physical challenge, stress relief and lifelong connections made keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-79752610067434845642020-01-01T16:38:00.002-07:002020-01-01T16:39:48.226-07:00Gigs: quality or quantity?
Photo by Nainoa Shizuru on Unsplash
A friend of mine tells the story of opening for a major, world-renowned rock band. The audience was huge, the venue was amazing - it was a great opportunity for exposure for him and his band.
The problem, it turns out, was that the audience was rabid in their anticipation for the main event, and the opening act was endured instead of keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-21306797964990714722015-02-16T21:50:00.000-07:002017-09-12T13:26:20.041-06:00Drummer's Weight Room: Tap Timing Exercise
This blogpost has been moved to my website. Click here to read: http://keithdrums.com/drummers-weight-room-tap-timing/
keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-56843948901172781902014-02-19T07:00:00.000-07:002017-09-12T13:24:46.649-06:00Everything you've ever heard is a lieThis blogpost has been moved to my new website. Click here to read it: http://keithdrums.com/everything-youve-ever-heard-is-a-lie/keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-90587244315486835302014-02-15T07:00:00.000-07:002017-09-13T20:53:32.177-06:00What I Wish Every Young Percussionist KnewThis post is has been moved to my website. Click to read this post http://keithdrums.com/what-i-wish-every-young-percussionist-knew/keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-26807455350181076532014-02-09T07:00:00.000-07:002014-02-09T22:21:49.678-07:00"Just do it like we did it in rehearsal."As a young band director, I was always caught off guard by how differently my band played on stage than they did in the practice room. Sometimes the drop-off was extreme, and in my first year it got to be so bad that the kids started to expect the performance to be dismal even if rehearsals were excellent.
At the district festival, I happened to be talking to one of the most successful directorskeithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-27255460390275095682014-01-13T07:00:00.000-07:002014-01-13T22:10:47.358-07:00How do you spell fun?
"Because after a while, even lobster starts to taste like soap." - Dave Ramsey
When I taught high school band, I would start off every year by telling my new students that my whole goal for them was to have fun. That's it, just have fun. I loved the stunned reactions on their faces. They'd giggle and do little celebration dances. (Easy A!)
Then I'd twist the plot.
"Let me spell 'keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-32637256199862109282013-12-31T07:00:00.000-07:002013-12-31T18:24:03.163-07:00With the end in mind, you don't need resolutionsI'm on record as saying that I don't do New Year's resolutions. They're largely a waste of time and they set you up for failure. And that failure results in less motivation and less productivity.
One alternative is to focus on results. Ask yourself what you want the end result to look like, then work backwards. What will have to happen to get that result?
The other day I was shooting baskets, keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-80787741773401284502013-12-24T07:00:00.000-07:002013-12-24T23:51:42.236-07:00Servants get all the good stuff
"You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." - Zig Ziglar, Secrets of Closing the Sale (1984)
December is a great time to be a freelance musician. One of my annual Christmas gigs is to play in the percussion section of Dr. Craig Jessop's American Festival Chorus and Orchestra. It's a world-class ensemble, and always features a keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-79085684939510358002013-12-08T07:00:00.000-07:002013-12-24T02:00:33.678-07:00Gear Up: What's in your tool bag?"If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail." - Traditional Proverb*
Any musician knows that you can never have enough stuff. Whether it's reeds, mouthpieces, picks or strings, you need tools at your disposal. For percussionists, this means sticks and mallets - and a lot of them - and a variety of other small instruments and tools.
One of my students recently asked me which keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-11192387115350105232013-12-01T07:00:00.000-07:002013-12-01T22:59:02.165-07:00Book Review: The Gigging Musician by Billy MitchellI just finished a book. That's not unusual for me. I read a lot of books, usually fantasy/sci-fi, business management and personal finance books. I'm a nerd. For a musician, I don't read a lot of music related books aside from the notes and staff variety, but this one reached out to me. Maybe it knew I needed it.
The book is Billy Mitchell's The Gigging Musician: How to Get, Play and keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-50353124454804307322013-11-07T07:00:00.000-07:002013-11-07T07:00:01.030-07:00It's all about the musicAs a sophomore in high school, I was one of two drummers in our school jazz band. This may sound strange, but at our school the band had as much prestige as any of the athletic teams, and the jazz band was the top of the heap. It was an honor, but also a lot of pressure, to be in that band.
For the first couple of months, I struggled to open up in rehearsals. My playing was stiff and not very keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-6496775823852564522013-11-06T07:00:00.000-07:002013-11-06T22:45:10.264-07:00Practice LESS. (Wait....what?)Like all music majors, I performed solo recitals at the end of my junior and senior years in college. The experience of prepping for a recital is excruciating, and it feels like every waking minute is devoted to learning, cleaning and rehearsing every aspect of the performance.
Just a few weeks prior to my senior recital, I was seriously struggling with a difficult snare drum solo, and the keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-71000154043163697402013-11-02T07:00:00.000-06:002013-11-03T16:43:34.050-07:00Friday Feature: Diana KrallRecently I was going through a box in my garage and ran across a pair of concert tickets from the summer of 2004. One of my close friends, also a serious music lover, took me to see Diana Krall for my birthday that year. Diana gave four (FOUR!!!) encores that night.* Just looking at the tickets put a smile on my face and sent me to my stereo to enjoy some tunes.
Diana Krall is at once a keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-77926176081962580022013-11-01T07:00:00.000-06:002013-11-03T15:51:56.188-07:00It's a matter of (public) perspectiveDisclaimer: Before I dive into the topic du jour, I have to say that I get it. I really do. It's just a little joking around, and there are jokes about every profession and every class of people. (Recently I played a gig for a bunch of sewage system engineers, and, let me tell you, those were some pretty crappy jokes.) But there is an underlying problem, and it's time that we, musicians and non, keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-3199479687602930162013-10-06T00:00:00.000-06:002013-10-06T00:00:21.157-06:00Great! Now do it againI'm always using basketball metaphors, but I guess 'tis the season to talk about football, so here goes.
For two years in high school, I played on our school's football team. It was a lot of fun and taught me much about hard work, teamwork, perseverance and more.
I remember a day when our coach introduced a relatively complex play. We worked hard and finally got it right after lots of tries andkeithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-14463189569772834952013-10-05T07:00:00.000-06:002020-01-10T16:36:16.868-07:00(UPDATED) Friday Feature: Neil Peart of RushI while back, I posted about Neil Peart, expressing my respect for him as a person, even if I have been slow to fall in love with his playing and the music of Rush.
This past week I discovered an article on www.drummagazine.com talking about the new album, "Clockwork Angels." The article is absolutely worth reading in its entirety, but there are two points that immediately struck me.
Neil Peartkeithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-6050319103501000812013-08-14T07:00:00.000-06:002013-08-14T23:49:01.195-06:00Bag of Tricks: Easiest linear funk grooves EVERCreating fun and funky grooves doesn't have to be hard. If you're looking to get out of your groove rut, try these two easy linear grooves on for size. As always, start slow and work to get comfortable and play with a solid feel before you increase tempo.
Performance notes:
Keep the bass drum nice and solid. Fat kick sound helps both of these patterns groove.
Any unaccented notes in the keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-57418070716943245892013-07-22T07:00:00.000-06:002013-07-22T13:11:45.078-06:00The importance of buy-in
Recently I attended a band concert at Utah State University. The first band to perform was the Symphonic Band, largely made up of Freshman music majors and other non-music majors. They performed their selections technically very well, but there was something even more impressive to me.
The difference between a lot of "good" high school musicians and what I saw at USU was simply this: buy-in. keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-25747055864156260512013-07-10T07:00:00.000-06:002013-07-10T22:12:21.752-06:00What are you bringing to the kitchen?
One of the biggest frustrations for musicians who are starting to develop into good players is often the people around them. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, as it were, but here goes.
Think of a rehearsal like a bunch of cooks in the kitchen. Each member of the band or group has the assignment to bring an ingredient to make, say, chocolate chip cookies. You need eggs, milk, flour, keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-32891886893616725082013-07-05T07:00:00.000-06:002013-07-05T07:17:13.229-06:00Battle of the BandsA few months ago, I was on the panel of judges for the Utah PTA's Battle of the Bands Finals (2013).
In a nutshell, here are a few things I observed, and would humbly suggest to every band that is ever going to play in front of an audience, ever:
Don't let anything get in the way of good tone, time, musicality, etc. It's easy to get excited during performance, but put the music first.
Know yourkeithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-4488849610676470652013-07-04T07:00:00.000-06:002013-07-04T16:31:23.738-06:00Practice - What does that look like?I have a love/hate relationship with a certain question that I frequently ask my students.
"Okay, what do you need to do to make this better?" (Or accomplish this goal, or nail this performance, etc.)
The answer - say it with me, people - is, "Practice." Yup, the dreaded p-word. And are they right? You bet they are. Good, solid practice cures just about everything that ails musicians.
The keithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154852160972134293.post-78503869665606955982013-06-25T07:00:00.000-06:002013-06-25T17:33:57.182-06:00Flexibility 101: Focus on the goalOver the course of my career I don't think I've ever had a performance where everything went as expected. Each time, I have to make adjustments and remain flexible. No, I'm not talking about gymnastics or yoga. I'm talking about the ability to adjust to surprises, unexpected problems or opportunities while performing. I wrote a little bit about this concept here.
Let me illustrate withkeithpercussionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05124883868481409281noreply@blogger.com2