TAW Week Two: I'm Ready For A Band

I started taking drum lessons a year ago, on a 15-year-old electronic kit that was sad and tired; it didn't really want to be played anymore. But in "make do" mode, as a practical parent myself who always says, "Let's see if it sticks before we invest," I practiced my rudiments and exercises and learned a few songs dutifully on that resistant equipment.

I went, in those early months, from telling people, "I am taking drum lessons," to, "I'm learning to play drums." And somewhere at the end of summer, I started to really feel in my heart and soul a little bit like a drummer. Even though I never said it out loud, it was rattling around in my head: "I AM A DRUMMER."

Imagine my surprise, days later, reading the opening to Week Two, which is not coincidentally titled, "Recovering a Sense of Identity," and opens with, "This week addresses self-definition as a major component of creative recovery." How we identify ourselves matters. I don't know what magic threshold I was waiting for to call myself a drummer, but I passed it in my head.

Due to a bout of tendinitis late this summer, I did almost nothing with my right arm for 6 weeks. At my first lesson after recovery, my drum teacher asked me to play through all the songs I'd learned. After the second song, he said, "You're ready for a band." He might as well have said, “You’re a drummer.”

That felt like a signal that I had “earned” a new (to me) acoustic drum kit. I bought this Ludwig kit from a retired drummer in Liberty Hill, TX -- a musician-turned-local-businessman who seems to have almost made it as big as he’d hoped. I'm excited to give this drum kit a new adventure.

Getting Attention vs. Paying Attention

I stumbled on this TED Talk by Joseph Gordon-Levitt last week, as I started a 12-week group tour of The Artist’s Way. Given my own personal desire to share more on social media, it really grabbed my attention, haha. It’s a great reminder to keep chasing the focus that comes with paying attention, and to share on social media, but to not let getting attention change the focus and the creation and the output. Quite a few good thoughts in this very short, under-14-minute TED Talk. If you watch, LMK what you think.

The Artist's Way: Round Two

I decided on a whim to start another round of the 12-week The Artist’s Way program this week (which means I’ll finish the final full week of 2019). This whim was immediately followed by another whim to invite folks along with me, so I posted on FB and IG that I’d help facilitate for anyone interested in giving it a go. Almost 20 folks expressed interest, so it’s a thing!

I’m excited to see what folks uncover in themselves. It’s a great program for so many people who attempt it.

My intention this time around is to share more of what I create… it’s not so much that I’m a private creator, as I have some serious reservations about social media! So I’m just going to keep up this impulsive spirit for the next 12 weeks, over-posting and over-sharing and seeing how much of this new habit will stick after the new year arrives.

So far, I’m 2/2 in daily artist pages journaling. The weather in Austin got suddenly crisp this morning, so everything feels fresh and new and full of possibility.

Cowboy gets cozy with a spiky autumn pumpkin.