Clicky clicky clicky
It's a pretty godforsaken hour to be updating, but I've just got back from a gig in Barnstaple.
I was playing against click, which I've only done live three or four times before, with varying degrees of success. But I'm totally chuffed with tonight's performance. OK, so I misjudged a couple of cues during endings, but we got away with it. And hey, the singer missed a couple too. But most importantly, I managed to stay locked on the click right through the entire gig. I was even confident enough to start playing around and improvising, and still didn't lose it. Go me!
Seriously, playing live against a click is a real challenge, and despite my many years as a drummer it's one area in which I am woefully underpracticed. To those encountering it for the first time the click is a relentless enemy, highlighting all your flaws. But once you learn to lock into it and relax it can become a friend, giving you the freedom to experiment while always being there to keep you on the path. It's one thing to feel your playing come alive, to feel you've not simply played a song but soared through it on wings of adrenaline; but it's another to know, thanks to the click, that you've managed to keep yourself in control of that feeling and nail the beat absolutely perfectly. That's what happened tonight, and it feels like a pretty major accomplishment.
And now, sleeeep...
---
Edit: And I've just spent most of today at work wandering around like a zombie. A few years ago I was coming into work while doing this 2 or 3 times a week. How the hell did I cope?
Oh yes. Badly.
I was playing against click, which I've only done live three or four times before, with varying degrees of success. But I'm totally chuffed with tonight's performance. OK, so I misjudged a couple of cues during endings, but we got away with it. And hey, the singer missed a couple too. But most importantly, I managed to stay locked on the click right through the entire gig. I was even confident enough to start playing around and improvising, and still didn't lose it. Go me!
Seriously, playing live against a click is a real challenge, and despite my many years as a drummer it's one area in which I am woefully underpracticed. To those encountering it for the first time the click is a relentless enemy, highlighting all your flaws. But once you learn to lock into it and relax it can become a friend, giving you the freedom to experiment while always being there to keep you on the path. It's one thing to feel your playing come alive, to feel you've not simply played a song but soared through it on wings of adrenaline; but it's another to know, thanks to the click, that you've managed to keep yourself in control of that feeling and nail the beat absolutely perfectly. That's what happened tonight, and it feels like a pretty major accomplishment.
And now, sleeeep...
---
Edit: And I've just spent most of today at work wandering around like a zombie. A few years ago I was coming into work while doing this 2 or 3 times a week. How the hell did I cope?
Oh yes. Badly.