Rabb 195 minutes
Dbl bd 10 minutes
Speeds counted manually:
Rabb Right: 608 (some pain in wrist--I think from the dips and pullups)
Rabb Left: 352 (had to keep slowing down and relaxing because of wrist and finger pain)
Rabb Alt 288 (Interlaced one-handed rolls)
Non-Rabb Single Strokes 744
Dbl Bass: 672 (stopped and started at least once during the minute when alternation clumped)
Dbl Bass dbl strokes: 704 (no stops and achieved very short strokes compared to my dbl bass singles)
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Thursday Dec 31 HAPPY NEW YEAR
Tried to fit it all in at the gym today. It took a few hours.
Started with 5 pound dumbells doing curls, tricept extensions, rows, shoulder extensions and wings and shrugs, bench chest work starting with butterflies until the weight got too heavy, then switching to pressess progressively like this:
20 x 5lbs of each exercise above
16 x 7.5lbs " " " "
12 x 10lbs
8 x 12.5 lbs
6 x 15 lbs
4 x 17.5 lbs
2 x 20 lbs
2 x 22.5 lbs
2 x 25 lbs
2 x 27.5 lbs
2 x 30 lbs
2 x 32.5 lbs
35 is my max. This is what all the previous lifts are all about: Explaining to my body that it's got to lift some weigth that's really heavy for it. It's the ultimate warm up. Here are my failures:
7 or 8? curls
6 rows,
8 shoulder Presses (the last one was hilarious, it felt like it took a full minute)
17 bench presses. It was a joke. Two months ago I could only to 8. But I'm resisting adding more weight till April. I'm letting my tendons, tendons sheaths, and joints adjust. Not that a joint can, but it makes me feel better to lie to myself about it.
7 30lb assisted dips (replaced tricept extensions after 10lbs and incremented my way up to this)
8 30lb assisted pullups (If i could lose 30 lbs I could do unassisted pullups. Wouldn't that be cool?)
Then I balanced on a wobbly board on one foot rolling the rim in circles on the floor x 40 on each leg
Then did exagerated jujitsu blocks while doing 40 calf raisers per side on it
40 calf raisers on a wobbly disk.
100 crunches on the Bosu ball
30 back extensions while holding a 25lb disk.
Strapped wieghts to my ankles (10 lbs per)
Got on my hands and knees and...
10 dog peeing on fire hydrant per side
10 mule kicks per side
10 backward kicks extending the legs
10 of those lay on your side lifts per side
10 bent leg " " " " "
20 squats with by back against the excersize ball
Forgot to do my bridges. But, I"ve never done so much upper and lower body work in one session. I'm glad I forgot.
Man I feel great! Better feed the boys and go practice now!
Started with 5 pound dumbells doing curls, tricept extensions, rows, shoulder extensions and wings and shrugs, bench chest work starting with butterflies until the weight got too heavy, then switching to pressess progressively like this:
20 x 5lbs of each exercise above
16 x 7.5lbs " " " "
12 x 10lbs
8 x 12.5 lbs
6 x 15 lbs
4 x 17.5 lbs
2 x 20 lbs
2 x 22.5 lbs
2 x 25 lbs
2 x 27.5 lbs
2 x 30 lbs
2 x 32.5 lbs
35 is my max. This is what all the previous lifts are all about: Explaining to my body that it's got to lift some weigth that's really heavy for it. It's the ultimate warm up. Here are my failures:
7 or 8? curls
6 rows,
8 shoulder Presses (the last one was hilarious, it felt like it took a full minute)
17 bench presses. It was a joke. Two months ago I could only to 8. But I'm resisting adding more weight till April. I'm letting my tendons, tendons sheaths, and joints adjust. Not that a joint can, but it makes me feel better to lie to myself about it.
7 30lb assisted dips (replaced tricept extensions after 10lbs and incremented my way up to this)
8 30lb assisted pullups (If i could lose 30 lbs I could do unassisted pullups. Wouldn't that be cool?)
Then I balanced on a wobbly board on one foot rolling the rim in circles on the floor x 40 on each leg
Then did exagerated jujitsu blocks while doing 40 calf raisers per side on it
40 calf raisers on a wobbly disk.
100 crunches on the Bosu ball
30 back extensions while holding a 25lb disk.
Strapped wieghts to my ankles (10 lbs per)
Got on my hands and knees and...
10 dog peeing on fire hydrant per side
10 mule kicks per side
10 backward kicks extending the legs
10 of those lay on your side lifts per side
10 bent leg " " " " "
20 squats with by back against the excersize ball
Forgot to do my bridges. But, I"ve never done so much upper and lower body work in one session. I'm glad I forgot.
Man I feel great! Better feed the boys and go practice now!
Weds Dec 30
Worked on a timeline in Visio to figure out all the crazy things I've done in the last 5 years.
1/2 hour: Rabb
10 minutes: Dbl bass (thought I'd practice with my feet on the floor at a party I went to last night. But it was a no shoes situation, and the conversations were unexpectedly fantastic. I'll blog someday about why drumming with bare feet doesn't work for me.)
No exercize.
RESULTS:
Rabb is feeling gentler on my hands and more automatic. Doing accellerandos now. But when I try to put it into a fill or solo I pulverize my fingers with stick shock from the rim. So, it's not ready for me to use in a sentence, yet! But Hey, I have time. 2010 doesn't start for another day. Didn't time anything. Drum-O-Meter is not trackable so far with USPS. I can count how many hits without it, but I didn't try yesterday.
1/2 hour: Rabb
10 minutes: Dbl bass (thought I'd practice with my feet on the floor at a party I went to last night. But it was a no shoes situation, and the conversations were unexpectedly fantastic. I'll blog someday about why drumming with bare feet doesn't work for me.)
No exercize.
RESULTS:
Rabb is feeling gentler on my hands and more automatic. Doing accellerandos now. But when I try to put it into a fill or solo I pulverize my fingers with stick shock from the rim. So, it's not ready for me to use in a sentence, yet! But Hey, I have time. 2010 doesn't start for another day. Didn't time anything. Drum-O-Meter is not trackable so far with USPS. I can count how many hits without it, but I didn't try yesterday.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday Dec 29, 09
1/2 hour Rabb
1/2 hour double bass
See graph for obvious improvements on Rabb due to last night's tv watching.
1/2 hour double bass
See graph for obvious improvements on Rabb due to last night's tv watching.
Monday Dec 28, 2009: I did 10 minutes dble bass, and 2 hours 40 minutes of Freehand (one handed roll)
Hi there,
I did no physical therapy or working out or even walking. I'm in vacation slug mode. Very dangerous. But, I'm getting sleep!
Yesterday afternoon while my kids were with their acting coach in the room where I do my software work, I slipped into the drumroom, and did 10 minutes of double bass, and 10 minutes of free hand technique.
In the evening my boys wanted to watch a Simpson's episode on Hulu, so I brought out a pad on a stand and worked on the freehand technique (for brevity I'm thinking about just calling it the Rabb) while I watched with them. Then we watched a Charlie Brown movie and I continued to work on Johnny Rabb's free hand technique. After they went to bed, I watched an episode of brotherhood as I continued to work.
RESULTS:
I have a ganglionic cyst that pushes up on the tendons on the top left side of my wrist: It waxes and wanes with the frequency of my playing. Cropping up when I play too hard, or when I lay off for a while and then come back to playing. It started sending pain messages about 15 minutes into my Rabb work. Everytime it came up, I adjusted my grip, or switched to work on the left accepting only the dissapearance of the pain. It stopped happening after an hour and a half.
Half-way through Brotherhood I was shocked to see I was starting to get some speed while staying very relaxed. When one hand would start to go fast, I'd quickly stop, and switch to the other hand, so each hand could have rest breaks. I tried very hard to not push myself. At times, unfortunately I did lose discipline and just tried to force it. Hints of oncoming aches and pains barked back at me. Mostly I stayed disciplined and tried to let my body locate and manipulate the physics of the Rabb. When a hand would start going fast even though it was relaxed, I took it to mean the various elements had started to temporarily coordinate.
On the pad my downstrokes were slaps, because Rabb says the objective is to have the shank of the stick hit the rim at precisely the same time as the tip hits the head--to avoid the temptation of letting the tip hit first. So I substituted the rimshot for a slap because the pad has no rim. Plus, I know he uses this technique on surfaces that have no rim, like cymbals, countertops and pads like mine. I think I should give Johnny a call and ask what his diffinitive teaching resources are for this technique.
I should also mention I spent at least 30 minutes trying to alternate. Toggling right left inside the down ups. That was extremely difficult for me. But my Dr. Evil mad scientist drummer in his laboratory reason for this is: If you can play fast enough with one hand to qualify as a roll, then interlacing two hands moving that fast would be a rediculously speedy feat. And not much of a strain, if any.
I did no physical therapy or working out or even walking. I'm in vacation slug mode. Very dangerous. But, I'm getting sleep!
Yesterday afternoon while my kids were with their acting coach in the room where I do my software work, I slipped into the drumroom, and did 10 minutes of double bass, and 10 minutes of free hand technique.
In the evening my boys wanted to watch a Simpson's episode on Hulu, so I brought out a pad on a stand and worked on the freehand technique (for brevity I'm thinking about just calling it the Rabb) while I watched with them. Then we watched a Charlie Brown movie and I continued to work on Johnny Rabb's free hand technique. After they went to bed, I watched an episode of brotherhood as I continued to work.
RESULTS:
I have a ganglionic cyst that pushes up on the tendons on the top left side of my wrist: It waxes and wanes with the frequency of my playing. Cropping up when I play too hard, or when I lay off for a while and then come back to playing. It started sending pain messages about 15 minutes into my Rabb work. Everytime it came up, I adjusted my grip, or switched to work on the left accepting only the dissapearance of the pain. It stopped happening after an hour and a half.
Half-way through Brotherhood I was shocked to see I was starting to get some speed while staying very relaxed. When one hand would start to go fast, I'd quickly stop, and switch to the other hand, so each hand could have rest breaks. I tried very hard to not push myself. At times, unfortunately I did lose discipline and just tried to force it. Hints of oncoming aches and pains barked back at me. Mostly I stayed disciplined and tried to let my body locate and manipulate the physics of the Rabb. When a hand would start going fast even though it was relaxed, I took it to mean the various elements had started to temporarily coordinate.
On the pad my downstrokes were slaps, because Rabb says the objective is to have the shank of the stick hit the rim at precisely the same time as the tip hits the head--to avoid the temptation of letting the tip hit first. So I substituted the rimshot for a slap because the pad has no rim. Plus, I know he uses this technique on surfaces that have no rim, like cymbals, countertops and pads like mine. I think I should give Johnny a call and ask what his diffinitive teaching resources are for this technique.
I should also mention I spent at least 30 minutes trying to alternate. Toggling right left inside the down ups. That was extremely difficult for me. But my Dr. Evil mad scientist drummer in his laboratory reason for this is: If you can play fast enough with one hand to qualify as a roll, then interlacing two hands moving that fast would be a rediculously speedy feat. And not much of a strain, if any.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Preparing for one incredible year
Hi fellow reinventors,
I'm very excited about making this a very challenging year. When I'm doing this drum and physical therapy stuff, I'm also starting a software company to promote a privacy product I've been working on. I'm also driving my kids to school and my wife to work, and taking the kids to their various activities every afternoon after 3pm, and helping them with their homework and giving them extra reading and math training, and doing some home gym stuff nightly to help my son with Sensory Processing Disorder--a disorder I fully intend to become an expert in treating.
I'm certain that if I get enough sleep and varied exersize, 2010 will be one of the happiest years of my life.
Here's my theory on how I'm going to become a dbl bass one handed roll drum god: One hour a day, 7 days a week, turns you into someone radicallly different by years end. It's the hour and it's the daily-ness of it.
I've got about 4.5 months of double bass practice under my belt. But am rusty after a dead fall practicing wise. I'm also bummed about the springs offered by the manufactures and the hardware stores. Which I'll devote an entry to at some point.
I've probably logged 40 minutes on the one handed roll so far, tops.
But dbl bass and the one handed roll really separate the old drummers sitting around saying "Kids these days." from, well, the kids these days. The one handed roll can make drum and bass, and jungle beats so much more fun. I can't stand the thought of being the drumming equivalent of bellbottoms and polyester shirts. And true, I've lived out many of the era's of drumming since I started playing in 1969 at age 9. But, now I'm decidedly cool only in a retro sense. When did alt rock become classic rock? How did punk become 40 something? IT'S TOTALLLY UNFAIR how time marches on. But, does it have to march on without older drummers being able to even teach younger drummers what is currently pertinent? I hate the idea of telling a kid, first you have to learn all this irrelevent stuff from the past, so you can figure out from that what's going on today. (Implicit message: Because I can't figure out what's going on today even though I know all this older stuff from when I was a kid. Four months of hard core double kick practice taught me that if you want to learn something current, get to work, it's going to be hard, very hard.)
Part of my drumming heart is still only 9 years old. I want my 9 year old heart to become the biggest part of 49 year old heart this year. To do that, I need to start being just as uncomfortable and full of wonder about drums now, as I was in 1969. So, I'm doing what I call platforming for success. I'm starting this blog to create pressure. My wife and some of my drum students bought me a Drum-O-Meter for Christmas. I'm waiting for it to arrive . I reconfigured my drum room for efficiency so it doesn't depress me and my students, anymore!
During the last year and a half I had a tremendous physical comeback. Fall 2008 I could barely walk, I had so much pain in my feet, ankles, knees and hips. I stopped the denial and met the fear, and have figured out the source of my hip, knee and ankle pain is over development of some muscles for drumming which has caused underdevelopment of other counter balancing muscles, which has caused incorrect walking which has caused hip joint damage, and threatened to damage my knees and ankles, which had started really hurting me by last fall. I also just learned last year that a birth defect where my toes join my feet has really hampered my range of motion in how I walk and play drums. This has also contributed to my walking dysfunction and over/under muscle development.
I did this by finding the podiatrist for the Northwest Ballet, Alan Woodle who figured out everything about my feet. While I still have to constantly work out or lose them to pain again, who cares! It keeps me fit, too. I'm also a regular with Diane Hughes. Diane is an ex-basketball player and current sports trainer/massage therapist/physical therapist/chiropractor who understands bio-mechanical movement more than any MD I've met. And I've flown down to see the king of hip and knee surgeons, Robert Klapper. He's seen plenty of drummers in Beverly Hills, and recognized the notches in my upper phemurs (called breaks by the Seattle surgeons) as wear points from spreading my legs so wide to play Hi Hats and Bass Drum. He's "seen this in almost every middle aged pro drummer that's come into my office".
So, it with great enthusiasm, that I look forward to 2010 as a serious ass kicker with a future of drumming reinvention and growth. Thanks for coming along for the ride and helping keep the pressure on me.
I'm very excited about making this a very challenging year. When I'm doing this drum and physical therapy stuff, I'm also starting a software company to promote a privacy product I've been working on. I'm also driving my kids to school and my wife to work, and taking the kids to their various activities every afternoon after 3pm, and helping them with their homework and giving them extra reading and math training, and doing some home gym stuff nightly to help my son with Sensory Processing Disorder--a disorder I fully intend to become an expert in treating.
I'm certain that if I get enough sleep and varied exersize, 2010 will be one of the happiest years of my life.
Here's my theory on how I'm going to become a dbl bass one handed roll drum god: One hour a day, 7 days a week, turns you into someone radicallly different by years end. It's the hour and it's the daily-ness of it.
I've got about 4.5 months of double bass practice under my belt. But am rusty after a dead fall practicing wise. I'm also bummed about the springs offered by the manufactures and the hardware stores. Which I'll devote an entry to at some point.
I've probably logged 40 minutes on the one handed roll so far, tops.
But dbl bass and the one handed roll really separate the old drummers sitting around saying "Kids these days." from, well, the kids these days. The one handed roll can make drum and bass, and jungle beats so much more fun. I can't stand the thought of being the drumming equivalent of bellbottoms and polyester shirts. And true, I've lived out many of the era's of drumming since I started playing in 1969 at age 9. But, now I'm decidedly cool only in a retro sense. When did alt rock become classic rock? How did punk become 40 something? IT'S TOTALLLY UNFAIR how time marches on. But, does it have to march on without older drummers being able to even teach younger drummers what is currently pertinent? I hate the idea of telling a kid, first you have to learn all this irrelevent stuff from the past, so you can figure out from that what's going on today. (Implicit message: Because I can't figure out what's going on today even though I know all this older stuff from when I was a kid. Four months of hard core double kick practice taught me that if you want to learn something current, get to work, it's going to be hard, very hard.)
Part of my drumming heart is still only 9 years old. I want my 9 year old heart to become the biggest part of 49 year old heart this year. To do that, I need to start being just as uncomfortable and full of wonder about drums now, as I was in 1969. So, I'm doing what I call platforming for success. I'm starting this blog to create pressure. My wife and some of my drum students bought me a Drum-O-Meter for Christmas. I'm waiting for it to arrive . I reconfigured my drum room for efficiency so it doesn't depress me and my students, anymore!
During the last year and a half I had a tremendous physical comeback. Fall 2008 I could barely walk, I had so much pain in my feet, ankles, knees and hips. I stopped the denial and met the fear, and have figured out the source of my hip, knee and ankle pain is over development of some muscles for drumming which has caused underdevelopment of other counter balancing muscles, which has caused incorrect walking which has caused hip joint damage, and threatened to damage my knees and ankles, which had started really hurting me by last fall. I also just learned last year that a birth defect where my toes join my feet has really hampered my range of motion in how I walk and play drums. This has also contributed to my walking dysfunction and over/under muscle development.
I did this by finding the podiatrist for the Northwest Ballet, Alan Woodle who figured out everything about my feet. While I still have to constantly work out or lose them to pain again, who cares! It keeps me fit, too. I'm also a regular with Diane Hughes. Diane is an ex-basketball player and current sports trainer/massage therapist/physical therapist/chiropractor who understands bio-mechanical movement more than any MD I've met. And I've flown down to see the king of hip and knee surgeons, Robert Klapper. He's seen plenty of drummers in Beverly Hills, and recognized the notches in my upper phemurs (called breaks by the Seattle surgeons) as wear points from spreading my legs so wide to play Hi Hats and Bass Drum. He's "seen this in almost every middle aged pro drummer that's come into my office".
So, it with great enthusiasm, that I look forward to 2010 as a serious ass kicker with a future of drumming reinvention and growth. Thanks for coming along for the ride and helping keep the pressure on me.
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