In My Mind’s Zen Garden

The gig with the Flamenco group went quite well last night. Not that there are times when things go wrong. For the most part the Flamenco group is always a fun gig and we generally do well. But last night was pretty special.

We had a nice crowd there, but it wasn’t as packed as Thursday night. Someone in the band mentioned that Cinco De Mayo is coming just around the corner, so people were probably getting geared up for the partying on Monday. And it’s too bad I don’t have a gig on Monday.

There was a young lady at the gig last night who was very enthusiastic about our music, and was dancing right up front there. It was very apparent that she was digging my drumming, and she called me “drummer boy”, and she complemented me more than once. One of the guys in the band was a bit nervous about her, as if she was rather “stalkerish”, but I had a talk with her after the gig, and she’s a very nice person. Just very enthusiastic about our music, that’s all. And I’m grateful for that. It’s nice to see people really get into what we’re doing.

I wanted to do something a bit different last night. I wanted to re-approach what I was doing on drums and started off playing as minimalist as possible. Sometimes, it’s best to approach the music from the point of “nothingness” and then slowly build from that. And I think it worked very well. I’ll be using this approach from now on.

Drum Solos are the hardest thing to do.

Especially when you play at any venue several times a month, the challenge is to keep things fresh because there are people that come to see you more than once. Sure, there will be times when I’m not as much in the zone as I could’ve been, but the main thing is to keep things creative and fresh each time. I had some very different drum solos last night, which I was happy about. I never want to play the exact same thing each time. And thus the challenge.

But, I’m at a point now where I want to add another cowbell and a woodblock. Mix things up more with the drumset. And get another set of double pedals so that I can strike the bottom of the floor tom.

Anyway, sometimes at the gigs I can feel like I’ve glimpsed eternity… until I get home and find myself once again away from the crowds and the excitement… back to the solitude of home, back to nothingness… until the next gig.