What have I chosen?
My initial assessment was me performing Come Together by The Beatles, a song I enjoy playing because it is one of the songs from my Pop & Rock Grade 4 book I am currently learning from. This song is challenging because the sheet tells me to improvise my fills. After all, making fills that sound vastly different and still fit the tune is difficult, at least to me. Though I messed up once during the breakdown (see 3:42), the rest of my fills were clean and executed well. The original song is linked below, but this version is not the one I am used to listening to.
I like this version of the song, but it feels too soft to hear everything properly, so I can’t distinguish toms between each other. Because of that, I use a much more distinguishable version provided by Jack Young. I like this version more and use it for practice because I can clearly hear and see what’s being played (thanks to the scrolling notes).
What went well?
I have a strong grip on the intro beat, and my rhythm flowed well for most of the song. I could play the notes clearly and cleanly, without mistakes, and the dynamic was kept the same throughout the song. The use of improvisation shows my ability to creatively think of fills, and my ability to play them cleanly (save for one certain fill) makes the song more interesting than before. I display a good understanding of the flow of notes. I could easily switch from verse to chorus, showing I am comfortable playing blue-sy, funkish songs.
What could I do better?
I have a few criticisms about my technique and improvisation skills, which I want to touch on – primarily my improvisation, which I’m not very good at doing after a few fills. I think that my fills began to get a little more ‘simplified’ as I reached the final section of the song, going from a R,R,L pattern around the kit to doing six hits on the snare and floor tom to finish the piece which makes the ending feel a little lackluster. I especially think after my second fill in the chorus that, I could perhaps play what I feel is best instead of trying to think ahead and plan for the outcome, only to fail and get a split-up fill that doesn’t sound very pleasant. I don’t think repeating the same fills for the chorus showed much creativity. Still, I want to break out of the habit of safety fills and habits to improve.
I think my posture should involve me slouching less. I usually tense my muscles and lean too far forward or back when I play drums. In this play, I leaned too far, which hurt my back and perhaps caused me to slip up at certain points during my performance. This is a bad habit that I need to break, and another habit I need to work on is driving my foot too far into the bass drum pedal, causing the beater to be constantly against the drum. I feel I use too much force and don’t give my leg room for it to hit the drum and bounce off freely, so changing the distance away from the kit helps.
Overall, my performance was okay, but I have much to improve. but I am determined to keep improving and honing my skills.