Thinking about tinkering…
Link in bio for this week’s newsletter, on CarTalk and tinkering in the practice room.
/5eva586f
Interested in learning more? The summer cohort is coming up fast. I’ll share conceptual ideas, and we’ll put things into practice with material from cohort members.
#newsletter #cartalk #tinkering #unsnareddrum #snaredrum
New ideas!
In celebration of my forthcoming book, I’m launching a summer cohort, aimed at exploring how creativity in the practice room can help us develop custom-fitting instrumental technique, perform well under pressure, and learn music more effectively and efficiently.
Unsnared Studio is coming in June, and I’d love to have you join us.
Link above, or visit
/unsnaredstudio
#summer #program #learning #snaredrum #percussion
After two recent MikeDrop episodes, our chat with Hannah Collins and our Metronome Showdown, I updated and consolidated some thoughts on using the metronome in practice, and its utility on the quest to develop timing, rhythmic expressivity, and pulse control.
Hot take: if you really want to develop pulse control and subdivision, the metronome can help, but there are better ways.
Constant, thoughtless metronome can trains us to do the wrong thing. Even if putting a metronome on every subdivision helped develop a steady pulse and even rhythmic subdivision—it doesn’t—evenness is just a tool, not an endgame.
Link above!
What makes a great percussion piece, and a great performance of it?
In this week’s Learning Percussion newsletter, I go deeper, sharing how long-term collaboration shapes expressive new music.
This video is part of my Unsnared Drum Performer’s Guide. For each work, I ask “what makes a great interpretation of this piece,” and then offer specific tips for learning and performing each work (and any work, to be honest), point the interpreter towards salient musical details, issues of style, and technical ideas that might facilitate flexible interpretations.�
I hope they are valuable tools for ALL pieces…
Shout out to @chrisgouletproductions and @jcostamusic for the vids!
#percussion #learningpercussion #practice #pearldrums
Inverted doubles are a useful way to strengthen the fingers, which help stabilize arms and wrists during rebounded strokes.
This week’s Learning Percussion newsletter explores inverted doubles in greater depth, offering a number of prompts to invent and compose your own exercises to help your hands. Happy practicing!
#percussion #learningpercussion #snaredrum #practice #pearldrums vicfirth remopercussion challenge snaredrum practice backtoschool getinshape practice musician snare warmup
Some thoughts about changing intervals on the marimba, and how to loosen the fingers to allow for relaxation and fluidity.
More marimba tips are in this week’s Learning Percussion newsletter including my clinic handout from @udelpercussion , my marimba exercises, and my top tips for Stevens grip for fun and profit.
#percussion #learningpercussion #marimba #practice #pearldrums
Thinking more about feedback, and how sometimes I feel like a Lumon employee: my onstage personality is unknown to practice room Mike.
Here’s another way to be your own teacher in the practice room: recording yourself to simulate a performance environment. Special thanks to my creative AI prompt engineering.
I wrote in more detail self-feedback in this week’s Learning Percussion Newsletter. Join me there (link above).
#percussion #learning #recording #AI #images #recording #selfrecording
Visited @cuboulderperc last week and fumbled when trying to help a student with inverted ruff-taps.
This morning, I took a break from book-writing and learning new notes to try and right my wrong!
Compression to the rescue. Next step: practice rolls 🤦 and work on my grip 🥸 and practice everything else 😱
#percussion #learningpercussion #snaredrum #practice #pearldrums #vicfirth #remopercussion #challenge #snaredrum #practice #backtoschool #getinshape #practice #musician #snare
This week, I explore one of my 7 tips for creative practice: practicing multi-modally.
I explore two techniques that emphasize recombination and help us get to know our repertoire better and perform with less stage fright. Link above!
1. Practicing horizontal music vertically, and vice versa
2. Making cheat sheets. Adding a step between reading and playing from memory forces us to think about musical structure, highlights the value of work away from the insturment, and increases our potential to visualize a work.
i’d love to know how you organize your practice, and what kind of strategies work for you.
Happy practicing!
#percussion #learningpercussion #snaredrum #practice #pearldrums #vicfirth #remopercussion #challenge #snaredrum #practice #backtoschool #getinshape #practice #musician #snare
Melodic accents 🎶🥁
Thinking of inflection (change of weight) instead of accent (change of color) on the snare drum, using the weight of the arm to create a nuanced moving phrase.
I’m looking forward to going into greater detail about how to create exercises to develop melodic inflection in my percussion newsletter early next week.
#percussion #learningpercussion #snaredrum #practice #pearldrums #vicfirth #remopercussion #challenge #snaredrum #practice #backtoschool #getinshape #practice #musician #snare
Drum: @PearlDrumsUS 5x14” Pearl Philharmonic Maple
Head: @remopercussion Renaissance Diplomat
Creativity in the practice room is the best way to achieve peak performance in classical music. So so many of the best practices for encoding new information and recalling it under pressure depend on recombination, variation, flexibility, and (dare I say it?), creativity. How can performers leverage creativity to learn music faster and more effectively?
Here are 7 tips. This week, I take a deep dive into the first four, some of which may not immediately seem creative…
Link above!
#newsletter #percussion #learnwithmike #practicing #deliberatepractice #writing #designthinking #snaredrum #marimba
