James Brown. Funky Drumming.

Over the past week or so, I've found myself in an obsessive James Brown phase. I realized that, for some dumb reason, I had never bothered to really learn any of the essential JB grooves. After writing some of the drum parts down, I figured I might as well learn the corresponding bass lines as well. Closely listening to the bass and drum parts made me recognize how deeply funky and in the pocket the drums and bass are on these tracks.....hardly a unique revalation, I know. Anyway, Clyde Stubblefield and John "Jabo" Starks make these beats sound slick and effortless on the recordings, and I found that it was more difficult than I thought to make them sound "correct" (not that I succeeded in doing so). The jazz school grad in me initially wanted to turn this into some academic analysis of which 16th notes contain the most funk, so that I could create a fool proof funk algorithm........I quickly realized that would be wack. Super wack. So, I just decided to  do a lot of playing along, on both bass and drums, to just absorb the feel in a more organic way. I made a split screen video of me playing both parts together.....excuse the terrible filming and amateur iMovie editing. Here it is:

And here are the transcriptions. Have fun with them.

Ari Hoenig Stuff: Part 1???

I've recently been listening to a lot of Ari Hoenig. Those familiar with Ari's playing will already know about his mastery of complex rhythms and modulations; I've been trying to figure out and internalize some of that language. I've also been trying to remind myself NOT to play wacky rhythmic devices all over the place, which is tempting when you're thinking about them all the time. Anyway.....on Ari's 2011 album "Lines of Oppression", there is a fairly short track aptly titled "Rhythm". This track features only Ari and pianist Tigran Hamaysan on beatbox/vocalizations. They play a rhythmic "head" together, and then trade 4s for a bit, and then play the head again, which segues right into the following track, "Rhythm-a-ning" (more on that later). The head they play together is very rhythmically dense, and full of odd groupings of 16th notes/metric modulation, and I was having trouble keeping track of the time throughout it. I recently was away visiting my grandparents for about a week, and I took advantage of this time away from the drum set to transcribe the head and internalize the rhythms. Here is the 16 bar head (the transcription is "mostly" accurate, sometimes it was difficult to tell exactly what Ari was playing, because of the simultaneous beatboxed drums):

 Above is an audio excerpt of the head, and below is a video of me playing it.

Tricky stuff. It became easier to feel and memorize when I started to notice and hear the longer odd patterns and groupings, instead of thinking of it all as random offbeat 16th note stuff. Anyway, this track is immediately followed by an interesting rhythmic arrangement of "Rhythm-a-Ning". Here is the transcription of that melody:

The last A section is actually the Dizzy Gillespie tune "Wee", hence the title. I transcribed this because when I first listened to it, I kept getting thrown off at the bridge. They phrase the bridge melody in long groups of 5, starting on the last beat before the bridge. SO KILLING MAN. Anyway, there's a lot of stuff to think about and digest when it comes to Ari and the amazing musicians he plays with. Ari also has a few instructional books out, perhaps my next post (if not a house project thingy) will be a "part 2", with some more Ari stuff that I've been working on from those.

How to play jazz......FASTLY

Maintaining uptempo swing (quarter note ≥ 300 bpm) for an extended period of time can be very challenging. Doing so successfully requires a good, relaxed technique, especially in the ride cymbal hand. The perils of playing of trying to play fast without being prepared for it are illustrated hilariously by Bill Cosby, a drummer and major jazz fan, in this amazing clip from the Dick Cavett show. In my opinion, this should be watched (memorized?) by everyone who aspires to be a jazz musician. It is that important.

In a previous post about hand stuff, I discussed a technique called throw-catch, or push-pull. This is a technique I've been working on since I was first introduced to it college, and that I find very useful in a variety of situations. When I play double strokes, I use this technique to play two strokes with one motion. However, it can also be expanded to encompass 3 notes, as in the jazz ride cymbal pattern, while still utilizing only one "up and down" motion.  I embedded a video of the incomparable John Riley demonstrating how this technique can be applied to the uptempo ride cymbal pattern. The most important thing to remember is that its very important to stay fairly loose and relaxed, regardless of the specific hand technique you are employing. Playing with a lot of tension, while trying to execute something as strenuous as the uptempo ride cymbal pattern, can lead to repetitive stress injuries (tendonitis, carpal tunnel, etc) over a long enough period of time.

Although maintaining a consistent ride cymbal pattern at fast tempos is essential for uptempo playing, there are plenty of other fun and interesting things to practice that integrate the rest of the drum set. One good exercise is to practice all four permutations of double strokes played between snare and bass drum (snare-snare-bass-bass) while maintaining the ride cymbal pattern and foot hi hat on 2 and 4. This isn't terribly difficult at a slow or medium tempo, but it can be tough to play very consistently at fast tempos. Once you become comfortable with the permutations on their own, try to sequence them all in a row without stopping. Here are the four permutations notated, with ride cymbal and hi hat included.

 John Riley's book Beyond Bop Drumming has several pages of snare/bass drum combinations to be played while maintaining the jazz ride cymbal and foot hi hat pattern.  I've found those exercises to be very beneficial, and I still practice them fairly regularly. Any of the exercises I've mentioned so far can also be practiced with the hi hat playing quarter notes, like Tony Williams often would do. Here's a video of me playing one page of the uptempo exercises from Beyond Bop. Normally, I repeat each phrase twice, but I play them one time each in the video for the purposes of demonstration. I go through the page twice; first time with quarter notes on the hi hat, second time with 2 and 4 on the hi hat. There are many other ideas and concepts you can integrate into your uptempo practicing; try to find inspiration through listening and your own experimentation. One example is to try and use odd groupings of notes in your comping-this can be both a mental and physical challenge at first. In the following clip, I demonstrate playing through all 4 of the permutations I previously mentioned, and also play the 2 permutations of alternating single stroke 8th notes between snare drum and bass drum (snare-bass-snare-bass, etc). After that, I mess around with a few variations of accenting groups of five 8th notes, trying combinations with both bass drum and snare drum. Notice that I keep the ride cymbal pattern consistent the whole time; I feel that it is important to practice the exercises this, although you certainly can vary the ride cymbal pattern when it comes to any performance context.

A new roof. An old deck. A light.

A few weeks ago, I completed a major home repair: A new roof on the back of my house! Keep in mind, I'm using the term "completed" liberally. The new roof is perfectly functional now, but there a few a details that are still awaiting completion. There is an old addition on the back of my house that has a very low-slope roof, that was leaking and in serious need of replacement.

The old roof. Note the high tech blue tarp.

Roofs with low slopes are more prone to leak, because water does not run off of them as easily, and any seams in the roofing material are more vulnerable to any wind-driven rain. Because of this, you can't really use shingles, like you normally see on a roof; you need to use larger roofing material, referred to as "roll roofing".  When researching and planning, I decided to not only replace the roofing material, but the actual wood structure, the "sheathing", of the roof itself. Now that it's done, I'm glad I did this, but the process of replacing the sheathing was extremely difficult and labor intensive. The first, and most difficult step, was tearing up the old roof. The old rolled tar roofing material came up without too much trouble, but tearing up the old sheathing was tough. My sister Jordana and I demolished and replaced sections of the roof at a time, so that would still have some roof surface to work on.

Jordana tearing up old roof/being a beast

Our process was as follows: tear up 4 foot wide sections of roof (which includes the old tar stuff, the old sheathing, and all the nails), add plastic "baffles" to improve airflow above the fiberglass insulation, nail down a new piece of sheathing. As the roof became crowded with junk, we would carry down bags of demolished roof to the backyard, and every piece of new sheathing was carried and hoisted up from the rear deck onto the roof. Our bodies were very sore after the first day...I felt old. For the new roof sheathing, I chose to use a product called "zip sheathing", which is a typical sheet of OSB (a sort of "particle board" common in new home construction) that has an extra water resistant layer on the top.

ready for sheathing

 If you read my first blog post about the construction of my drum shed, you might remember that I felt very disturbed when my partially completed shed was rained on repeatedly. I feel that this past trauma influenced my decision to purchase this water resistant building material. Before I continue, I feel that I should mention that, for this project, I bought a framing nail gun. I was a little hesitant at first because it wasn't cheap (even though I bought it used on eBay), but once work began, I was quickly reassured. It is amazing. It makes work go ten times faster. It looks cool. It makes a loud sound. What more could you ask for?

fully sheathed roof

Once all the sheathing was nailed down, my sister and I (basically all my sis on this one) taped over the seams of each sheet with special super amazing ultra sticky special magic sealing tape. Seriously, the stuff had extreme properties of adhesion. After the sheathing, it was time for the new roll roofing-I used a product that had 3 layers, called Flintlastic. The first layer is rolled out onto the roof, and simply nailed down with small roofing nails. The (optional) middle layer is rolled out, but then stuck down, like a big sticker, to the first layer, and the final top layer, the cap sheet, is laid out the same way. It doesn't sound very complex, but it was definitely a pain in the ass. There were a lot of small things to get

first layer nailed down

right: all the rolls had to be overlapped properly, and the ends of any roll can't be within 3 feet of each other from layer to layer. Also, the cap sheet required a significant amount of roofing cement for the overlaps, which I discovered is a horribly smelly and sticky (essentially impossible to remove from skin. I had am experienced friend recommend dousing the affected areas with GASOLINE) substance. My very clever and resourceful girlfriend Nicole devised a solution of warm water, coconut oil, and dish soap which helped me get the material off, while retaining most of my skin. I'm very glad it's done now, and I'm immensely satisfied to know that I have a roof that should last at least another decade and a half! Although, as with most projects I've done in this house, I end up discovering more problems. In this case, as the structure of the roof was exposed during demolition, I became aware that there were definitely some structural problems the old addition. It appeared that the original (possibly undersized) rafters of the roof had been pulling away from the main structure of the house for sometime, and that someone had tried to correct it at a later date by doubling up, or "sistering" new rafters onto the old ones, with varying degrees of success. Well, whatever. Can't deal with everything at once. THROW THAT FEELING OF DREAD RIGHT INTO THE TRASH CAN.

the cap sheet done!

 During the demolition of the old roof, I threw some pieces of wood off the side of the house, and they smashed the exterior light outside the door of my basement apartment. I don't normally do any electrical stuff (scary), but I did manage to successfully (it turns on! what could possibly be wrong) replace the old light with a new heavy duty one that is significantly more awesome.

an awesome light

cleaned, sanded and sealed deck 

The deck on the back of my house was looking very bad, and if left as it was, probably only had another year or two left in it before replacement became necessary. I cleaned a lot of junk off the deck, including huge piles of leaves.
If you'd like your deck to rot, I suggest you let piles of leaves sit on it for years. After clearing off the deck, I bought a deck cleaning product, and sprayed the deck with it, using a regular garden sprayer.  After the deck dried off, I did a lot of sanding with a hand held orbital sander, over a few days. After replacing two rotted boards with new pressure treated 2x6s, I painted on a semi-transparent waterproofing stain. The deck looks and feels much better now, and will be weather protected for a several more years. I feel pretty good about it. More drum related stuff next time! I'm thinking exercises and techniques for playing uptempo (300+bpm) jazz time. Yes? Stay tuned!

Hand stuff. Pad stuff. Old snare drum made pretty again.

A few weeks ago, I was in California, taking a vacation with my girlfriend Nicole, and also visiting my grandparents. During this trip, I put together and wrote my first and previous blog post, about the construction of my drum practice shed. While out in California, I obviously had no set of drums to practice on, only my trusty pad. So, while in the process of publishing my first post, I stumbled upon an idea for my next post: pad/hand stuff! Woo! The drum that I'm playing on in the videos below is a cool old WFL snare I fixed up. If the badge dates on this page are accurate, then my snare was made between 1948 and 1952.

I got this snare for super cheap at a thrift store when I was in high school, and forgot about until sometime last year, when I decided to make it playable again. The snare had been painted with some sort of flat house paint, and my first task was to strip that stuff off. To my surprise, as I was peeling and scraping to old paint off, I discovered the awesome white pearl finish underneath! Unfortunately, It was too damaged to keep, and I peeled and scraped that off as well, down to the bare wood. I ordered a new wrap, the closest thing I could find to the original, which was this beautiful white pearl finish from
 Jammin' Sam drum wraps. The original hoops were in poor shape and out of round, so I ordered some stock Gibraltar triple flange hoops, and some new 12 strand Puresound snare wires. When I bought the snare, it had no throw off, so I searched and successfully found a period appropriate, 1950s nickel throw off, with WFL engraved on it. I polished the remaining original hardware, put a fiberskyn on top, and it sounds and looks great!

 I don't have a vast array of pad exercises that I work on, it's basically the same few things repeated ad nauseam. My basic warm up routine, that I begin most of my practice sessions with, is as follows.


1) Free strokes. I set my metronome around 55-60 bpm, and play through the first column of page 5 of "Stick Control", so that the 8th note=55-60. The physical mechanism behind this motion is explained well by Jojo Mayer in his DVD (in the chapter titled "Gladstone-Freestroke Technique", and also demonstrated masterfully by John Riley in this youtube video:

2) "Push-Pull/Throw-Catch" motion. I've seen this technique referred to by several different names, but it's all the same idea. I use this technique all the time when I play: I use it to execute double strokes, and also when playing the jazz ride cymbal pattern. Once it becomes subconscious and part of your muscle memory, this technique, for me at least, tends to just happen naturally when playing. I start very slow, and speed up through a few subdivisions. I also practice this motion with my hands unison, and separately. As you can see in the video, I can eke out 32nd notes (with the metronome at quarter=60) with my right hand, but not really with my left.
3) Fingers technique. This is really the only time I turn my hands fully into French grip when playing on the snare; I find that this positioning of the hand/wrist makes it easier to manipulate the fingers. I play 16th note triplets with my hands unison, and then I split it up into 32nd note triplets. I go back to the unison 16th note triplets so that I can switch which hand I lead the 32nd note triplets with.
4) Freaking out. After going through my routine, I like to just play for a minute or two, without thinking too much. I try to just let my hands "go", hopefully putting some of the previous techniques into spontaneous use. Important: Shake out your hands before the "spaz" portion of practice. Here's a video of me demonstrating all the elements of this pad warm-up. This is very condensed, when I do this in practice I usually take about 30 minutes-I typically watch something online as I do it to entertain myself.

In addition to this routine, there are two other things I periodically will add to my hand/pad practice. First, I like to occasionally read through something from the classic snare drum book, "Modern Rudimental Swing Solos" by Charley Wilcoxon. Many great jazz drummers have practiced material from this book, and it's full of hip rudimental stuff that can be adapted to the drum set. During my ten days in California, I worked on a solo called "Swinging the 26". I'm not sure what the number "26" has to do with anything...perhaps the Rhombicuboctahedron was Mr. Wilcoxon's favorite Archimedean solid. Perhaps he liked to run marathons. No one will ever know.  There are some interesting and fairly challenging phrases in this solo, and here is a video of me attempting it:

The other thing I occasionally add to my hand practice is a cool "Moeller" exercise that was shown to me by master drummer Steve Fidyk. This exercise uses page 5 of "Stick Control". It's a bit difficult to explain in writing, but I'll try to make it clear with this explanation, and a brief video. Each written sticking becomes 3 notes, so that a "R", as in "right hand", would become RRR, using a whipping "Moeller" motion. So, this:

Becomes this:

Now, you can go through all of page 5 of Stick Control this way, using a whipping Moeller motion, and you can try different accent placements, for each different partial of the triplet (first, middle, or last). To make the exercise a little more interesting, and challenging, you can "fill in the spaces" with your left hand, so that you get 16th note triplets. For this exercise, you'll want leave out the last 16th note triplet, so that this:

Becomes this:

However, when you have the same hand in a row, as in double strokes, you do not omit that last 16th note triplet, creating a continuous flow of 16th note triplets. Here's what double strokes (line 3, on page 5 of Stick Control) would look like, interpreted this way.

Like with the simpler version, you can practice this with the Moeller accent placed on the first, middle, or last triplet partial. It sounds complicated, but when once you try it, this exercise starts to make intuitive sense pretty quickly. The most important thing to remember when trying this exercise, is that you are executing the whipping Moeller motion correctly, as opposed to simply playing it as fast as possible. Hopefully this video will help to make sense of the exercise as well.

So, that's it. Stay tuned for my next post! Hint: it's me replacing my roof.

Building a practice shed

My first blog post! My goal is to periodically update this blog with posts pertaining to two subjects; home improvement/DIY projects, and drum stuff. A bit about myself...I am a drummer, a few years out of college, and I play (mostly jazz) gigs and teach around the Washington D.C area, which is where I reside. About two years ago, my mother passed away, and my younger sister and I inherited the house we grew up in, putting us in the unusual positions of being homeowners at the ages of 17 and 23. We have a charming and unique house, but like most older homes, there is an endless amount of issues, repairs, and maintenance that must be addressed. I am new to all of the trades that are involved in home improvement, but I've enjoyed learning, and I find the work to be very satisfying/deeply frustrating/physically painful. This first post will cover the construction of a shed I built in my yard to practice drums in (a shed-shed?!), so it will be something of a mix of both subject areas. First, I'll detail the construction of the shed, and then I'll wrap it up with a short video of me actually playing some drums in it.

foundation materials

the foundation laid out

floor frame, mark II

The first step was laying out a foundation of 16 concrete blocks (4 rows of 4), laid out over some thick plastic sheeting topped with gravel to keep plants from coming back. One principle I've been slowly learning is that everything is more tedious, complicated, or difficult than you think it will be. I found that to be relevant for even this first, “simple”, step. It took several more hours than I originally imagined to get all of these blocks perfectly level with each other, in order to provide a flat surface for the shed. To level the blocks, I dug them all into the soil at varying depths, to account for the very slight slope/general unevenness of my yard.

easy walls

hard wall

Once the foundation was done, I had the first half of my lumber delivered from a local lumberyard. I didn't order it all at once, because at this point I really had no concept of how long this project would take, not having built any sort of structure before. To determine the amount and type of lumber I needed, I spent hours researching basic shed and building construction, and then planned it all out in a notebook. I built the floor frame first, using pressure treated 2x6 lumber. Because of my carpentry inexperience, I made a few rookie mistakes during this initial step. First, I spaced the wood framing members incorrectly, and I did not use nails that were rated for exterior use. Because of this oversight, the exposed nail heads were covered in red-brown rust spots after one day in the rain. After a bout of obscenities, I dissassembled the whole floor and put it back together correctly spaced, with exterior hot galvanized nails. I then closed in one side with pressure treated plywood, which would eventually be the bottom of the shed, when the floor frame was flipped over onto the blocks. Before flipping the floor frame over, I assembled the frames for all four walls, using the upside-down floor as a sort of construction platform. Framing out the openings for the door and windows took careful reading of a few different webpages, before I finally reached an understanding of how to properly do it. Not everyone is born knowing what king studs, jack studs, and trimmers are, OK, internet how-to article writers?! Use some gosh-darned pictures. Or at least a helpful illustration.

fluffy stuff inside the floor

completed floor

this required help

With all the wall frames ready, me and a few friends lifted the floor frame up, and set it down on the blocks, with the open side up. I filled the cavities with batts of fiberglass insulation, and then closed it in, using 3/4” CDX plywood as my subfloor material. After this, the walls went up, again with some help from friends. Although I did try, I could not simultaneously balance a 12 foot wall frame and nail it into the floor (and yes, I did drop the wall, attempting this). The next step was to enclose the frame with building wrap, which helps keep moisture out of the interior of the building, but also allows moisture to escape from the inside out. Installation is fairly simple; the material is wrapped around the building, from the bottom up, and them the seams are taped. It might look familiar-nearly all new houses are built with this stuff.

building wrap

too much math necessary

 After all the Tyvek was up, I began working on the roof. This was the part of the shed that required the most detailed planning prior to construction, because of the exact angles and measurements involved. I found a very helpful website that assisted me in planning and visualizing how to build the roof; all I had to was enter in the dimensions and the roof slope that I wanted, and I was provided with the angles and measurements, and even a printable template to trace the angles to be cut onto the rafters. I think I would have been more equipped to

make these sort of calculations a decade ago....at age 25, geometry class and the pythagorean theorem seems fairly far off. I attached the ridge beam (the piece of lumber that travels down the center of the roof) onto posts at either end, nailed all the cut rafters to the beam, and then used hurricane ties (metal clips used to protect

window #1 installed

roofs from strong winds) to secure the them at the bottom.

amazing girlfriend
 Nicole Saphos helps out

Before the sheathing (the wood panels that will serve as the exterior wall) could go up, I had to prep the window openings by adhering flashing tape all around the corners, to help protect against water infiltration. Once the openings were flashed, I caulked around the openings, and slid the windows in. The window installation took longer than I wanted, because of circumstances that were surprisingly not caused by my own foolishness. One of the original two windows I ordered was broken right out of the box, and it took several weeks for a new one to arrive. Unfortunately, my local home improvement center (rhymes with “foam repo”) forgot to actually order the window, which is a necessary prerequisite to receiving said window. Finally, I was able to install the second window, and put up the sheathing. I used T1-11 plywood siding, which is a fairly cheap, but durable siding material that comes as a sheet of 4'x8' plywood with grooves in it, to make sure it looks cool.

Once the siding was done, I was able to install the door. I bought steel pre-hung door, meaning that it comes ready for installation, already in a door frame. The door installation was fairly straightforward, except for the “shimming” part. For those not in the know, “shims” are small strips of wood that are used to make things fit tightly, or to adjust with alignment. However, the actual correct usage of these enigmatic “shims” is something a mystery to me. Why are we shimming everything? Why can't we make the rough opening for windows and doors the actual size of the window or door, and not include any shims? Is there some secret shim cartel that is forcing the hand of helpless carpenters everywhere? Do shims go on all sides? Nobody knows.

door and roof sheathing installed

adding window trim, and
tar paper on roof

After the siding was completely up, and the Shim Illuminati appeased, I progressed upwards. For the roof sheathing, I used 5/8 thick OSB boards. Before I was able to completely finish putting all the roof sheathing up, my shed had to endure several days of heavy rain. Everything was completely soaked, and a significant amount of water pooled on the floor. I was pretty bummed about this, and I used my wet-vac to removes puddles of water inside several times. After everything dryied off for a day or two, I started to feel a bit better. I reminded myself over and over that this happens to homes under construction all the time. Still....it was a little traumatizing. IT'S MY DRUM SHED, NOT SOME REGULAR JOE'S HOUSE AND IT HAS TO BE PERFECT, OK? Once the roof sheathing was up, I had to figure out how to enclose the area under the overhang of the roof, referred to as the “eaves” or “soffit”. This was trickier than I imagined, and I think this is sloppiest part of the finished shed. I had to make some difficult cuts with a circular saw and jigsaw while standing on a ladder. in retrospect, I CLEARLY should have planned it all out more exactly beforehand, and cut all the pieces safely on the ground.

just like a puzzle..

many pain

With the roof sheathing and eaves finished, shingling the roof was the final step in making the shed weathertight. Before I began, I added metal drip edge along all the edges of the roof, and stapled down tar paper over the roof. After watching several instruction roofing videos online (there seemed to be a bunch of different methods for laying out shingles), I reluctantly got up on the roof. For the most part, laying down the roofing was not difficult, even a bit fun. Sort of like laying out a big, easy puzzle...where all the pieces are the same....and the puzzle is on a roof. However, there was one major bummer that accompanied finishing the roof; the extreme pain that was inflicted upon my hands. Roofing nails are very short, and that made it very easy for me to repeatedly hit my fingers with a hammer. I even had to sub out a gig with the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra at the last minute, after I hit two fingers so hard that I couldn't play at all that day.

weatherproof!

more fluffy stuff

 To finish the inside of the shed, I put in fiberglass insulation, hung drywall, and put carpet on the floor. I stapled the batts of insulation in the walls, and just sort of sat the the insulation on top of the ceiling rafters. All of the small areas around the windows and doors were filled with spray foam insulation, a substance that I discovered is close to impossible to remove from one's skin. After everything was insulated, I hung drywall on the ceiling and walls. Unless you have a drywall lift, or some other kind of support, hanging drywall on a ceiling is extremely difficult without a helper. I managed to hang one panel by myself, using a highly unstable lift comprised of a ladder with paint cans on top.

this isn't safe at all

I enlisted some help from friends for the final two ceiling panels, and I was able to hang all the walls without assistance. I chose to leave drywall unfinished, meaning that I did not paint the drywall, and I did not cover the seams between panels or exposed screws with joint compound. In my limited experience, finishing drywall properly is both very frustrating and unattainable. I always end up applying way too much mud, which leads to an excess of drywall dust everywhere, as a result of the sanding process. For those who don't know, drywall dust is the absolute worst, most annoying, microscopic, supernatural substance in the entire known universe, and I wanted to avoid dealing with it. Perhaps at some point, I will finish out the drywall, but for now, I don't mind the utilitarian look at all. The final step, before I was able to move in my drums, was to lay carpet. I went to the Depot, purchased an 8' by 12' foot section of the cheapest indoor wall to wall carpeting, and it laid over some foam padding and carpet tack strips. I finished nearly all the drywall and carpeting over the course of one swelteringly hot day, and it resulted in a nasty sweat rash on my chest.....the final lesson I learned was to always wear breathable clothing when working in high heat.

just napping

the finished interior

done!

Building the shed was a lot of work, much more than I expected, but it is finally all done (except for a few finishing touches of paint on the exterior)! My drums are set up inside, and I have been practicing in it nearly every day for the past few weeks! It is immensely satisfying.....and also very hot. I snuck an extension cord in through a window, which I use to plug in a lamp and a fan, which does help a bit with the heat. Now, this overview of the construction of my practice shed makes the whole process look a lot more streamlined than it actually was: I made a lot of mistakes, and figured out a lot as I went along, mostly by watching youtube videos. I hope that anyone reading this didn't find it horribly boring, and I also plan to include posts that are focused on drumming/music (drumming is obviously not music). Below is a video of me playing for a couple minutes in the shed. I'll be posting more in the near future-please feel free to share this blog with others!