Welcome back!
Alls great here. It’s been another fantastic week of drums, drumming, drum-life, and drum-nerdery, which all make me very happy.
Speaking of drum-nerdery, check this stunning new snare I scored from my friend, Ben, at KDrums –
It’s a 13×7 ‘Corten’ Steel Snare, and a Kdrums first, a metal snare release. And man, it sounds insane! You can listen to it HERE.
Nothing like a little ear-candy, to kick things off! 😉
Anyway, I hope last week was great for you, too, and you got in some pad-time, in some shape or form.
Its amazing how even just 10–15 minutes of focused pad work, with the headphones on and locked in, can leave you in a good mood. It does for me, every time!
Remember, some minutes is still better that no minutes!
I’ll continue on this trajectory in a second, but just wanted to get some admin out of the way, right at the top of this newsletter…
I’ve been asked multiple times now if there is a way in which you can just log in once if you have multiple MasterMind Drummer courses, rather than logging into separate portals each time, for each course…
I totally get that. It’s the little things that make the user experience enjoyable, right?
Well, the answer is YES! You can! You can now log into all your courses at once, in one convenient spot, via the MasterMind Drummer Portal –
Get access to all your courses, in one simple login, as well as staying up to date on any new releases, too. They will all appear here. 🙂
This makes me very happy as it’s all just day-by-day progress with the technical side of MasterMind Drummer, and each day I take another small step forward.
This may not seem like a biggie, but it really is hahaha. I do 99% of all the backend work here at MasterMind Drummer. Website maintenance, courses (film, edit, upload, release), branding, the newsletter, the website design, layout, maintenance, all of it!
It’s been a massive learning curve for me, but a great one, I must say.
It was really important to me that, right from the start of this journey, I could just do everything myself. I did not want to be at the mercy of anyone. So, I just spent many evenings getting my hands dirty and getting to know the programs and software, and everything in between.
These things take a lot of time, but I love seeing MasterMind Drummer evolve each day, and move ever-so-closer to the ‘master-vision’ I have. Still much more to do…
It just takes time.
Anyway, what was I saying?
Ah yes, practice. Chipping away. That’s right.
So, I actually moved my practice kit home recently, as I have enough pads in my studio for my 1on1 lessons, and we thankfully have the room at home.
For practice, give me a practice pad kit over an e-kit, any day. Seriously. I just find e-kits distracting. I can get sooooo much work done on practice pads.
And I tell you, just nipping down the hallway and jumping on the pads for a few minutes here and there, goes a long way. It’s great.
I think its great my kids see this, too. Not so much the idea of hours and hours of locking myself away and banging on the pads (even though it is kind of great getting that time in, I don’t actually like to cut into my time with them at home). I just mean, them seeing me chip away at my goals, grabbing what I can, when I can, and the importance of that to me.
It’s pretty normal in this house, as it should be for any house with kids.
My oldest son is now at university, and it definitely served him well as getting into uni was something he worked incredibly hard for, all through his schooling years.
He turns 20 in August (which seems insane to me), and the years and years of relentless pursuit towards my goals, that he was exposed to, was only ever a good thing for him.
The amount of band rehearsals, gigs, gear pick-ups and drop-offs, airport runs, setting up and packing down my kit, prep work for important opportunities, all of it! Its countless at this point.
Between two different countries too! That kid has seen a lot!
Actually, 3 countires if you count DRUMEO, as I took the whole family with me!
Here’s my son on the DRUMEO monitors, in the studio –
And my daughter on my setup at the time, in the main drum room –
Such a cool experience, looking back on these. Quite surreal too!
My daughter is now 12, and I know it’s all rubbed off on her positively. I can already see it.
She recently got into the ‘A’ netball team at her school, a position she worked incredibly hard for all summer.
We spent most evenings down at the courts, practicing her shooting, working on some passing and catching drills, and even jogging laps around the courts, too.
What’s awesome about all this is it was completely self-led.
This started when she came to me at the start of summer, telling me her goal for the new year was to get into the A netball team, and asked if I could help.
I said, ‘absolutely!’, trying to contain my excitement. You know what kids are like, especially teens, if you’re tooooo keen on something, they’ll back off, so I played it cool. But inside I was busting at the seams with excitement.
I laid it out in simple terms, that all we needed to do was –
A. Put the work in, and
B. Be consistent.
Thats it.
Progress in almost any skill acquisition is not rocket science (except rocket science, of course, as that really IS rocket science), it’s just time and effort. Nothing more.
I made the point that whatever she wants to put her attention towards and get better at, the key is not so much in the details (although important), nor is it about having the best netball, or the flashest shoes, it’s simply about committing to the process and being consistent.
That is one of the most important factors, showing up daily, and even more importantly, is showing up daily even when you don’t feel like it.
So that was us, all summer long, getting the reps in. It was great.
Then, a couple of months later, when it came to the netball trials, she gave her best, did her thing, and she absolutely crushed it.
A few days later, she got the email. She had made it into the A team! And just 1 of 9 girls, too! She was wrapped, as was I.
As a dad, the coolest part of this whole experience wasn’t actually that she made it into the team (although that was great), it was that she saw firsthand what happens when you set a goal, and work towards it.
It doesn’t get any better than that.
At the time of her initially setting this goal, she knew she wasn’t quite ready to be on the A team, but she also knew that if she put the work in, then the chances of her making it were much much higher.
And it all paid off!
I didn’t actually initially set off on writing a little anecdote about my kids, specifically my daughter, but these newsletters tend to write themselves. And also, there is a powerful message in all this too, so I hope you enjoyed it.
If not…. sorry, I guess? hahaha.
——————–
Now, before we wrap up, and continuing on the chat regarding the evolution of MasterMind Drummer, I have some exciting news…
My new course ‘The Key To Single Kick Mastery‘, is now LIVE!
I’m very excited about this as I have put everything into this course, to give you as much as I possibly can, when it comes to attaining World-Class Single Kick Technique.
Inside the course you get over 2hrs of lesson material – video and PDF, covering everything from Pedal Settings, to Mechanics, to Foot Health (a very important topic), to Patterns & Exercises, my approach to Multiple Strokes, the works!
You also get a 30-Minute Guided Practice Session too, that is guaranteed to take your single kick to the next level! All YOU have to do is show up daily, and put the work in. Thats it.
I’m super proud of this course, so if you feel your single kick technique is letting you down, you’ll definitely want to check this out. I’m already getting some amazing feedback, which is great to see. 🙂
——————–
And there we have it. A little bit of admin, a little bit of story, and a little bit of course plugging… That’s a pretty well-rounded newsletter in my opinion!
So on that note, let’s leave it there this week.
My parting words this week are, quite simply, if you want to Level-Up, its easy…
…Just Chip… Chip… Chip… Away!
As always, thanks for taking the time, and thanks for all your feedback, too. I really appreciate it.
I read them all. So please, if you have any thoughts, send them through, and let’s get a dialogue happening.
Don’t forget… Stay hungry! See you next week.
Stan