Welcome

Hi! Welcome to my blog. I am brand new to this so hope you will encourage me in my new pursuit of blogging by posting a comment to help me keep going. I think this is all going to be a bit of a journey so hope you might find something that will interest you. I have long had dreams of having something in print and this seems like the best way to go about it...and it's free!!
The only writing I have ever really done is a shopping list every now and again and I always manage to lose that on route to the supermarket so it's never done me much good.

So, here's to blogging and here's to maybe making a few new friends through it.

Rachel.

Thursday, 17 January 2008

In pursuit of new skills.

You know when something strikes you as being a really fantastic idea and then as soon as you've done it you realise it was indeed a truly NOT fantastic idea but it's just too late?????

We bought our son, who is 10, a drum kit for Christmas. HE is thrilled. We are trying to be encouraging and supportive. Actually he is really good and to his credit very committed to practising for quite lengthy periods of time on a regular, indeed very regular, basis.

Tonight he decided that his lovely mother should learn a rhythm. Now, I play the guitar. I'm not brilliant but I can bash out a few worship songs for church and sing loudly enough to give a good lead.

(Actually there is no louder singing on this earth than at a gathering of clergy, all of whom seem to believe that they alone are responsible for leading the singing even when there is a music group and worship leader there. Honestly, you can take a vicar out of a pulpit but you can't take the pulpit out of the vicar....or something like that.)

Anyhow, I love music and have always believed myself to have some kind of sense of rhythm but I now believe I have deluded myself. Drumming is really, really hard.

All I had to do was cross my hands and do 8 beats on the high hat (a cymbal), do 1 beat on the snare drum at the third beat and do a stomp (is that a musical term?) on the big bass drum on the 7th beat followed by an 8th beat on the snare while continually banging the high hat.

Got it? My son seems to do it with incredible ease and I cannot do it at all, much to his disgust, especially as it's the easiest piece in the book. I am obviously a total failure!!

He has told me to spend tomorrow practising while he is at school. He says I am to be perfect by the time he gets home....no pressure there then?!!

Still, I bet I will practise. I am so frustrated at not being able to do it that I can imagine I will dedicate tomorrow to the pursuit of rhythm. And I must be more encouraging. Drummers in rock bands can earn so much money and if I am nice to him when he is rich and famous he will hopefully keep his father and me in the style to which we'd like to become accustomed!

Take care.

Love,

Rachel.




2 comments:

Celly B said...

I played percussion in our high-school band, but I was hopeless on the drum kit. I tried to stick to the xylophone as much as possible! Best of luck to you and your son in your new pursuit!

Julie said...

Rachel, I love the drums. I have a djembe (gym-bay) drum that my Bible study group bought me for teaching them "Captivating" I still have yet to learn how to play it.

I see you are in England. My daughter just got to England. She left Georgia on Thursday and arrived early morning Friday at Gastwick Airport. She is doing a 5 months missions with YWAM, Holmsted, in Cuckfield. We are still trying to learn where that is.

Anyways, she says she loves England. You can read about it on my blog if you like.

Thanks for sharing your heart. I am new to blogging too!

Blessings,
Julie