Getting back in the saddle

JazzAcolyte

JazzAcolyte

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Work has been insane for the last 6 - 8 weeks, because I made a rookie mistake. My boss's boss told me that a major project I was working on was in no rush, could launch November/December, heck, maybe January/February of next year. So I decided that the next few months were looking light and therefore it would be a good idea to hold a 2-day summit for 35 people to solve some thorny problems. And after I announced the summit - which required an INSANE amount of preparation - and people started booking flights, the senior leaders at my place of employment said, "Just kidding! We actually need you to launch that other thing as soon as possible!" Which I have since learned is par for the course, and only a newcomer like myself would have been so foolish as to assume that I could slow something down just because someone told me that I could slow it down.

So I got into a negative spiral. I wasn't practicing much because I didn't have time, and when I did have time, I was (a) exhausted and (b) overwhelmed at the thought of everything that needed practicing, which caused me to practice even less, wash rinse repeat. And it didn't help that nothing was progressing, which is a common side effect of not practicing. Which resulted in me thinking that I needed a break from jazz and telling my teacher that we were going to start my next lesson with a Metallica play-along. (His response: "Is Black Sabbath too goyish?" Me: "If we call it Black Shabbos it's OK." Teacher: "I thought we could start with War Pigs. I'm looking for a kosher turkey version.")

Anyway, today was the first day post-summit (which went well, thanks for asking), and I finally had time to breathe and reflect that maybe all I need to do is get back on a normal practice schedule. So I emptied my drum room, cleaned it top to bottom to give myself a fresh start, told my teacher to forget about War Turkeys, and hopefully I can get back to my usual angst-ridden but dedicated headspace.
 
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I think doing some Black Sabbath for a few months would be good for ya.

From Bill Ward's wikipedia page:

...listening to the big bands of the 1940s; his early major influences were Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson. Later he was influenced by drummers such as Larrie Londin, Bernard Purdie, Joe Morello, Keef Hartley, Hughie Flint, John Bonham, Ringo Starr, Jim Capaldi and Clive Bunker.
 
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JazzAcolyte said:
And don’t tell me that Shazbot Blues is connected to Black Shabbos because that’s just beyond.
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Oh man. 2 reasons I posted this.

1. Growing up I always wondered if Robin Williams coined Shazbot* because it made him think of sh_t if I was more aligned with Shabbat or Shabbos or Sabbath.

*I was immediately vindicated when I saw that my trusty spellcheck wanted to change Shazbot to Sabbath. True story.

AND

2. He’s singing da blues!!! Doesn’t that count for anything?

AND - Bonus(!)

3. Being “just beyond” is totally fine in my book.
 
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I retired early from my stressful, angst-causing job. If I didn’t, the stress was going to kill me (I’m not kidding). Maybe I took a bit of a hit on my pension, but sometimes it ain’t about the money. More time to focus on the drums has been nothing short of a blessing.
 
Drumming was always secondary to my main career in advertising in the days when I actually had a job but I could juggle it well enough to do three of four overseas gigs as I was the managing director :). These days being long retired, drumming is my only "work".
 
MrDrums2112 said:
I retired early from my stressful, angst-causing job. If I didn’t, the stress was going to kill me (I’m not kidding). Maybe I took a bit of a hit on my pension, but sometimes it ain’t about the money. More time to focus on the drums has been nothing short of a blessing.
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I quit my stressful, angst-causing job and found another one that I like a lot better. It does eat into my drumming time, though.
 
Sister Jazz , I personally think War Pigs would be a beautiful thing for your drum palette, and just overall drumming repertoire adding to your experience of trying different things. I’ve never heard anyone get it right even when they feel they have, because Mr. Ward has a feel that other drummers just don’t have in my opinion. And it’s not an easy song to play correctly, and everything he touches has a jazzy swing feel to it. So you’ll absolutely enjoy it!

I get you, with a name like Black Sabbath, it may be hard to wrap your head around, me being me, and they being my favorite music entity of all time, I had to do some head wrapping myself :)
 
JazzAcolyte said:
Work has been insane for the last 6 - 8 weeks, because I made a rookie mistake. My boss's boss told me that a major project I was working on was in no rush, could launch November/December, heck, maybe January/February of next year. So I decided that the next few months were looking light and therefore it would be a good idea to hold a 2-day summit for 35 people to solve some thorny problems. And after I announced the summit - which required an INSANE amount of preparation - and people started booking flights, the senior leaders at my place of employment said, "Just kidding! We actually need you to launch that other thing as soon as possible!" Which I have since learned is par for the course, and only a newcomer like myself would have been so foolish as to assume that I could slow something down just because someone told me that I could slow it down.

So I got into a negative spiral. I wasn't practicing much because I didn't have time, and when I did have time, I was (a) exhausted and (b) overwhelmed at the thought of everything that needed practicing, which caused me to practice even less, wash rinse repeat. And it didn't help that nothing was progressing, which is a common side effect of not practicing. Which resulted in me thinking that I needed a break from jazz and telling my teacher that we were going to start my next lesson with a Metallica play-along. (His response: "Is Black Sabbath too goyish?" Me: "If we call it Black Shabbos it's OK." Teacher: "I thought we could start with War Pigs. I'm looking for a kosher turkey version.")

Anyway, today was the first day post-summit (which went well, thanks for asking), and I finally had time to breathe and reflect that maybe all I need to do is get back on a normal practice schedule. So I emptied my drum room, cleaned it top to bottom to give myself a fresh start, told my teacher to forget about War Turkeys, and hopefully I can get back to my usual angst-ridden but dedicated headspace.
Click to expand...
Steely Dan!
 
I wonder whether your singular devotion to learning jazz only, is a handicap?

War Pigs is fantastic… and if you can’t cope with the Black Sabbath version because of your religion, there is always the version by Cake, which I think is pretty cool too.
 
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