I've been practicing Weird Fishes (Radiohead) on drums, and I'm playing the high hat the hard way, it was starting to hurt my wrist so researching how to do it properly.

I don't think I can practice this on my CompactKit because its a flat surface, so might need to just hit a fence post or something.

On my last birthday, my partner got me a 2 in 2 out USB interface. Its kind of silly how much of an impact it had on me, I could have always bought one, I knew they were important, people had recommended them to me. It was just one of those things I put off because I couldn't easily justify it.

But as soon as I got it I could record demos that sounded so clear. I recorded all the time. But this new found fidelity was sort of a curse, immediately I noticed holes in the songs I didn't mind before when the recording was rougher. The first thing that bothered me was the lack of bass. I don't have a bass, I tried to make my guitar sound like a bass but it isn't convincing unless if add on a bit of a fuzz so it was limiting. So my next major purchase was a Bose octave pedal. It's not perfect but it was so much more convincing than doing it in software.

Immediately after having semi-convincing bass I knew I needed drums. I started with "musical-typing" in garageband, I'd later learn this is called "finger drumming". I found keeping my fingers independently playing different parts of the beat was a real struggle. So I thought why not do some drum exercises but with my fingers. So I went on a big youtube journey watching drumming tutorials, and I practiced these exercises over and over. I noticed my brain could start to mentally separate the layers and put one finger in auto pilot to allow variation in the rhythm elsewhere. I later learned this is called "limb independence".

So I started finger drumming over the songs I had recorded. For some songs it was great, but for others it was limiting. Because things that would be easier with 4 limbs are much harder with 1 hand. Maintaining a kick pattern over a tom pattern on one hand is super tricky.

I also noticed I was able to translate my limb independence to my full limbs when just tapping on a table and kicking on the floor. So in my mind I felt I'd learnt enough to justify an upgrade to some kind of electronic kit. One particular song Never frustrated me enough to force me over the line. It's a pseudo country song and parts of it require a shuffle, and I just couldn't keep it up with my fingers, I was sure I could do it on a proper kit.

So I bought the Alesis CompactKit for <$300. When I watched videos on it, it looked like a lot of parents bought it for their kids, but what interested me was it had USB midi out. I could record direct to midi into GarageBand. Yes it is a bit of a toy, but I love it to bits!

But I immediately found, some skills transferred from finger drumming but others didn't. I needed to learn how to hold the sticks, how to not strain my wrist, how to not get super tired constantly staying in time and hitting the kick.

So I stopped home recording and just focused on getting good at playing this thing for about 3 months.

My process was to play along with music I felt I had a chance keeping up with, and when I struggled on one particular section I'd turn that section into an exercise. One thing that really helps me is moving the same beat across different parts of the kit. My mental model is, I don't want to get muscle memory for specific positions on the kit, I want to build those neural pathways for the rhythm itself, and I should be able to play that same beat with any combination of my arms or legs on any combination of cymbal, tom, snare, kick, crash etc.

For the exercises I'd play really slow, usually 60 or 50 bpm and stay there until I was playing it absolutely perfectly. Then I'd knock it up 10 bpm at a time. I could spend hours playing the same exercise until it clicked. Then I'd hit play on the song and if I could play it through I was allowed to stop.

The CompactKit has an audio line in jack so you can feed music through the speakers on the kit, but also plug in headphones to the kit and get the mix into your headphones without any computer necessary. I think it is so helpful to be able to play with headphones as its less embarrassing playing the same thing over and over. But also I've found playing with headphones off helps a lot with technique as you notice subtle things that don't come through on the midi, e.g. like how your stick is sounding hitting the pads, or if you're accidentally hitting the chassis.

I'm now at the point where I'm trying to bring what I've learnt back to home recording. It is a struggle because you're not playing to some other beat, you are the beat. And you have to write/curate that beat with the skills you know, ensuring its helping the song be what it wants to be, that you are keeping time, and that you're not over doing it or making the song boring. It's a separate skill to playing, but it is a compatible skill.

I've been writing songs for a long time, but I stopped for about 10 years. My theory is, I'm never forced into boring situations anymore. I don't have to walk anywhere, or catch the bus or train. I'm constantly occupied either by work, or whatever else. So there's no chance for that part of my brain to work. And prior to that I was living in small apartments where I didn't feel I could be creative as it would annoy the neighbours. I know other people where this doesn't stop them at all. Maybe me growing up in a rural area has made me require more space to be creative. I hope it comes back one day.

As I can't write new songs, I thought I should try and do justice to my existing songs. So I'm aiming to record literally everything I've ever written (at least what I can find/remember). And I'm deliberately starting with the oldest stuff, the stuff I'm least proud of because otherwise I'd probably never record those songs. Recording newer songs feels like a carrot I can dangle in front of myself.

I don't even know if I'll release them or not, it's not really about that. It's not about a legacy or others knowing about those songs. I feel like each song is a person or a shard of me at a certain time in my life, and those songs not being recorded properly, its like they are malnourished, I feel actual guilt for letting them fade.

It's also a kind of therapy for me. I work a lot, I'm a programmer, I contract out, I have a business. I contribute to different projects and my life has lost balance over the years. So having this epic project of recording everything, its something I can always come back to, it stops me getting rusty, it helps me remember parts of myself and not get lost.

This song popped up on my discover weekly, and I really like the chorus lyrics:

The pain in the end is all in your memory Try it again, try it another way

I think this is a super hopeful and optimistic lyric. Pain and fear of failure shapes so much of our decision making and life choices, but often it is just an abstract thing that can't hurt you anymore and there's no reason not to try again.

Anyway... I tried to drum to it and was really hard for me to maintain that kick pattern with those consistent 8th notes on the high hat at that tempo. But after about a week I can finally play it all the way through without making any mistakes.

This table top kit I have, the layout makes it pretty hard to play 16th's on the high hat while also hitting the snare. So it was nice to find a song with a fast 1 handed beat as it was a great exercise that was also possible on this kit.