​Are you practicing or just screwing around?

Practice: To earn, grow, or maintain proficiency on our instruments. My definition. 

My beliefs: To earn professional proficiency will take time, effort, focus, coaching, piles of $$, and buckets courage or grit.  
To grow our proficiency further will take the above plus vivid imagination. ​To maintain our skills so we don't embarrass ourselves just takes focus on fundamental skills and repertoire maintenance.  ​​

My goals, my strategies, my tactics for 2017-2018 as a drummer...

My Goals ​
Audition for and be accepted to the Siena Jazz Academy summer program. in 2018  ​
My Strategy ​
Dual lessons with both Terry Clarke, jazz drummer and mentor. technique class with Tony Nesbitt-Larking. ​
My Tactics and whys
I've scheduled time for practice into my daily and weekly schedule. No practice, no progress.
I do, as assigned, my homework. I'm paying for their expertise and experience. 
​I transcribe tunes weekly. Learning tunes is the key to being a musician. Those that know the most tunes win.
​​I'm building my jazz solo vocabulary. Learning to speak without an accent, or worse just talking gibberish.
​I use a metronome. ​No time, no hope.
I spend a few hours a day listening to music, paying attention to drummers in particular. Also, I keep the motivational fires burning by listening to drummer interviews on drummers resource, reading drum magazines and books, and checking out instrument reviews. A key component to keeping up enthusiasms over the decades this will take. (I'm eight years in with the drumming)
I only hang with musicians who share my dream of proficiency. The power of association.
I work on my dynamics and sound all the time because I play mostly in smaller venues playing music with a big dynamic range.
​I record all rehearsals and carefully listen back. I don't believe you can fix things you aren't aware of.
​​I jam twice a week or more with musicians who can play and kick my butt.  Out of the studio and onto the stage. I compare the studio to basic training, the stage is combat with live ammo.
I network like hell every week with an eye to the future.
​I take time off to recharge the batteries. ​Avoiding burnout and enjoying and growing my marriage is priority number one. Yes, before music. 
​I play often with much younger musicians to keep me from compliancy and catching the "old fart syndrome".  Youngsters dream of the future not the idealised past. A great antidote to keep "old fart syndrome" at bay.
I fixed my sleep problems (I love my cpap machine). ​
I exercise to stay in shape. I'm 58 years old, not 20.
​I constantly visualise success, which is to play drums with musicians I admire in the Jazz, New Music, Improvisational, and Americana scenes in Toronto and surrounding areas. I really believe I can do it.

Now ask yourself: What are your goals, strategies, and tactics for musical success?

Best, 

David Story