Drum School & Reflective Decision Making

Last weekend I attended a music education conference in Winnipeg. One of the presenters at this conference was Dr. G. Foote. I attended two of his sessions and came away with a lot of applicable information. During his one session on the rhythm section he discussed an application called Drum School. This app is seemingly the perfect tool to help students learn the drums. Drum School is a database of different grooves, practice techniques and exercises, instructional videos on various beats and techniques, and it only costs $5.99!! Drum School allows students to learn how to play the drums through both recordings and notation. When learning individual grooves the app allows you to isolate the different limbs, add a bassline, and even control the tempo that the recordings are being played at. This was one of the tools that Dr. Foote had explained in order to get all of us attending the session to learn how to teach the rhythm section instruments as well as learn how to play them.

Check out the Drum School App here: http://drumschoolapp.com/

On the way back home from the conference my car pool stopped by a music store to pick up an instrument that had been in for repair. I began to talk to one of the men who was working at the store about playing a rhythm section instrument. He told me about this wicked deal that they had on for basses and I almost took him up on the offer. The only thing that kept me from buying the bass was the fact that I knew that it would be an impulsive buy based on what I had heard from Dr. Foote earlier that day. So I ended up going home with no new bass but simply with a desire to one day pick up the bass if for no other reason than to be able to play on the weekly worship team.

After having a couple days between the present and this conference, I am wondering if I made the right decision in not taking that deal on the bass. I have made it a rule that if anything costs a significant amount of money, or if there is a large decision to be made in my life, that I must sleep on it for at least one night before making the decision. In the past this rule has always proven beneficial, however, since this experience I have began wondering if this mentality will one day hinder me. If one day I will be faced with a decision that may seem as though it is not urgent but then ends up being exactly that. I haven't arrived at an answer on that one just yet. For the time being, I am quite happy with my reflective and contemplative approach to important decisions but this experience has brought a little bit of suspicion into my thoughts. This is the beginning of a lesson for sure but I haven't quite yet arrived at a conclusion yet.

Lesson for this week: Drum School is a really cool application and I should take up a rhythm section instrument.