CarolineS_drums Day 18

Had another good rehearsal with Cygnus Flare today, we’re working on our set for some upcoming gigs. Most of our tunes involve odd time signatures (not just for the sake of it, honestly, they just seem to evolve that way..) and recently I’ve been working on different approaches to phrasing - particularly in 5 and 7. I spent some time on my own today practising keeping a repeated ostinato going (whether singing it or tapping it with one of my feet), and playing things like downbeats, offbeats and dotted quarters over the top. I have to concentrate quite a lot when practising that stuff and really slow it down, but I think it really helps in a lot of ways. It opens up new ways of phrasing and being comfortable playing over the barline, and it helps me to internalise the 8th notes that aren’t being played so I think overall it’s helping to strengthen my sense of rhythm. I’m usually using a melody or bass line from one of our tunes so that it’s potentially adding something new to the music instead of being an arbitrary exercise.

I also hired out my timpani to a local college for a few days - it’s nice that someone else is getting to play them for a change!