Inspiration
Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 3:50 pm
Dear diary,
In the spirit of inspiring others with my own inspiration, I will continue to pour out these little monologues about personal growth and the growth of our local study group. We've recently acquired "Ritz" who was my closest friend/teacher's original drum teacher. He came back from NY a year ago; being dissapointed with the NY lifestyle, and preferring the Boulder way of life, he has gotten back into the Afro-Cuban drum and song practices with his old group - ours. Back when he was teaching Eric, I was still heavily into playing didjeridu and making my own didjeridu CD. So, I really never got to know Ritz. I had always heard that he was really cool, a great guy, good energy, amazingly adept musician, and great singer. Now, after having spent many hours and 5 or 6 days studying by his side, I now know what others meant when they gave him all those accolades. Definintely a great guy who brings a positive can-do spirit and attitude to the music! It sure is great to have him show up and become a foundational pillar with our constantly revolving group..
Last year we lost Dusty to his move to NCarolina.
We've also recently acquired a guy named Thom from Greeley. He's a music - percussion - professor at CU Denver, and plays in several orchestras. His big focus is Bata. He has studied mostly with Mike Spiro. The guy has amazing chops on bata, and an impressive depth of knowledge of calls and responses to practically every toque and orisha. Yesterday, he picked up the Iya several times and had Ritz and Dave on the other two drums, and ran through several salutes and toques. We had the bata in on the rumba a few times and spiced up the mix quite nicely.
He is obviously a great resource, and we're just scratching the surface of what he has to offer at our rumbas. Ritz, Eric, and I are planning on beginning a Saturday morning series of bata lessons which he will teach at my house on Oct. 4th. In the meantime, he's getting some good stuff from our repertoire, and we've gained yet another enthusiastic accomplice in our rumba studies.
We're playing at Dave's place in Rawlinsville, and out in our local park on Saturdays. Everyone is getting better all the time!! We're getting better at listening, finding spots to make conversations with whatever instrument we're playing, and we're learning to sing on parts we couldn't before..
Last week, we had many different people comment to us how good we are sounding, and how much they appreciate coming to the park on Saturdays. I guess the added benefit of practicing in public is that it provides a community service.
I hope that this inspires others to share their music and play the music with their hearts.
Dave
In the spirit of inspiring others with my own inspiration, I will continue to pour out these little monologues about personal growth and the growth of our local study group. We've recently acquired "Ritz" who was my closest friend/teacher's original drum teacher. He came back from NY a year ago; being dissapointed with the NY lifestyle, and preferring the Boulder way of life, he has gotten back into the Afro-Cuban drum and song practices with his old group - ours. Back when he was teaching Eric, I was still heavily into playing didjeridu and making my own didjeridu CD. So, I really never got to know Ritz. I had always heard that he was really cool, a great guy, good energy, amazingly adept musician, and great singer. Now, after having spent many hours and 5 or 6 days studying by his side, I now know what others meant when they gave him all those accolades. Definintely a great guy who brings a positive can-do spirit and attitude to the music! It sure is great to have him show up and become a foundational pillar with our constantly revolving group..
Last year we lost Dusty to his move to NCarolina.
We've also recently acquired a guy named Thom from Greeley. He's a music - percussion - professor at CU Denver, and plays in several orchestras. His big focus is Bata. He has studied mostly with Mike Spiro. The guy has amazing chops on bata, and an impressive depth of knowledge of calls and responses to practically every toque and orisha. Yesterday, he picked up the Iya several times and had Ritz and Dave on the other two drums, and ran through several salutes and toques. We had the bata in on the rumba a few times and spiced up the mix quite nicely.
He is obviously a great resource, and we're just scratching the surface of what he has to offer at our rumbas. Ritz, Eric, and I are planning on beginning a Saturday morning series of bata lessons which he will teach at my house on Oct. 4th. In the meantime, he's getting some good stuff from our repertoire, and we've gained yet another enthusiastic accomplice in our rumba studies.
We're playing at Dave's place in Rawlinsville, and out in our local park on Saturdays. Everyone is getting better all the time!! We're getting better at listening, finding spots to make conversations with whatever instrument we're playing, and we're learning to sing on parts we couldn't before..
Last week, we had many different people comment to us how good we are sounding, and how much they appreciate coming to the park on Saturdays. I guess the added benefit of practicing in public is that it provides a community service.
I hope that this inspires others to share their music and play the music with their hearts.
Dave