Joel Rendall

(pic by Zander Sherman)

I felt like blogging just for the hell of it, but this is pretty useless, since nobody actually knows about this blog. Well, I know of at least ONE person who might read this.

It turns out that I am glad I made the decision to work for myself this summer doing computer work. I am making more money than if I was still on the payroll – which was my goal.

It honestly doesn’t seem like I’m going to work when I wake up in the morning. I can leave whenever I want, and I don’t have to feel apologetic for taking time off. And this summer, I can actually spend time recording and practicing music. Seriously – I am NEVER working ever again!

I’m also playing lots of gigs (drums). On average, I have about 4 gigs a week: A steady contemporarish rock gig, plus 3 different local jazz groups (background swing, bebop, and good ol’ corny dixieland stuff). I find that the more I study music, the more the genre lines get blurred. Everything that I practice can apply to any genre, and I enjoy playing each style equally. It’s all about attitude, right?

I am learning to relax more when I play. I generally have good technique when I practice, but in the past, my hands tensed up when playing in front of an audience. Now I feel like I’m finally able to relax and notice my body while playing, which is helping to close the gap that exists between my skills in the practice room vs. live performance.

I’m having a great summer and am learning lots about myself… but damn am I looking forward to going back to school!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Personal Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.