Personal Development Learning skills.

Jack Badby
Mar 10, 2021
11 min read

Updated: Mar 12, 2021

Introduction.

This blog is a overall summary of my personal development follow my development over the weeks and maybe learn something new along the way, I merged all my work into one blog to see If it was a more effective way of keeping myself on task, if by the submission date there are certain videos missing from the blog It's due to internet problems since uploading one video takes a good 3 hours and i'm currently adding all respected videos to onto wix at the same time to avoid any unwanted data traffic during English, Maths and Music lessons throughout the week the week but without further ado let's begin.

Week 1 Assigning myself a skill & preparation.

Week 1 introduction.

This week Ryan tasked us with finding a skill to learn and not to get confusing this with development logs these personal development logs are strictly about learning a new skill each week so let's get started.

My thoughts on this task.

Though the task isn't necessarily bad I wish that it could be implemented into our Development logs and though It's not really a irrelevant excuse to not do any of these tasks it is a relevant thought to bring up since It can be seen as if I'm repeating myself after completing each weekly development log, then creating a entirely new blog post to talk about developing a skill when they could be a nice combo as one blog post instead of separate ones, talking about my personal development in the same piece of work will give me more incentive to compare my new skill to what I've talked about in my development log giving them longevity and allowing me to apply my passion into one big post without feeling like I'm back tracking.

What my goals are.

Looking.into the skills and techniques on Google and comparing the amount of skills to the lack of time I really have I guess that I'm probably going to be able to do Five techniques out of the eight I need to develop since I already know quite a few of these skills/techniques. The reason why I say five is cause a margority of the skills/techniques are either on my level or just challenging enough to learn in a week with my equipment and the disadvantage of being a slow learning, but I do aim higher than five and maybe i'll be able to achieve all eght skills/techniques.

The plan for next week and the future in general.

The list for learning the skills goes in the following order and the video links will be what my first reference to learning these skills will be based on and though I don't have my kit I still have my sticks and simply hitting the stick on a solid surface as irritating as the noise is It's my only option until I find a alternative.

The to do list:

Week 2 - Triple Stroke Roll.✓

Week 3 - Flam.✓ - too easy

Week 4 - Single Paradiddle.✓

Week 5 - Drag Ruff.✓

Week 6 - Single Drag Tap.✓

Week 7 - Ghost Notes.✓

Week 8 - Skill analisis.✖

Week 1 summary.

Though I don't have a specific skill for this week I am beginning to study each and everyone of these skills as of the end of this wednesday and if the plan changes for these techniques and i change my mind on learning them I'll come back to this blog post and change the list so I ain't subverting expectations. Next week I'll be leaning the Triple Stroke Roll and will be explaining why I picked it.

Week 2 The Drags More Complexed Sibling The Triple Stroke Roll.

What's new?

This week I'm dedicating my time to the everything in three and taking on a simple challenge in the sense that I'm combining two things I know a strokes the more complexed sister of the drag and triplets making it a new skill to use onstage. though this triple stroke roll may be seen as a basic skill it is one I never particularly learned in school so I guess it's simple enough and a new combination I haven't used before now.

Have I achieved my goals By the end of this week I have achieved quite a lot without my drum kit surprisingly though this skill wasn't exactly my most challenging I've ever learned it is one I feel is necessary to get right since you can't build a skyscraper from top to bottom, it takes time and requires patience to get done.

Luckily I have finished learning this technique without it being a burden on my mind I completed it with ease.

What's teaching me?

Video evidence

How did well I develop my technique I spent last week tapping away on my desk collecting evidence of me learning the Triple Stroke and some of the videos consisted of me making mistakes especially with the ealy video when I was making the mistake of doing double strokes instead of triple strokes but after discovering the tutorial videos linked above I began to understand were exactly i was getting the Technique wrong and began to correct myself, so yeah it seems I spent most of the week practicing double strokes but lets consider that warm up before advancement.

My improvement this week Well as said I'm getting good at double strokes and though it may seem foolish at first reflecting on it it's a good practise or warm up before rehearsals that I need to look into for the next time I use my kit since learning this technique has In a way helped me develop a new way of warming up and a interesting way to open a song with a triple stroke roll intro so it'll be good so see if that'll become useful onstage.

Has my skill developed at a satisfactory level? I believe so though at the end of the video you may hear me mumble to myself that it was a awful attempt it's still relevant to my development as a musician and the only way to learn to do better is to self critique whenever possible cause It implants a mindset in your head to always to go for gold and not silver, so i'm going to say that this week yet productive as all hell the technique is not yet done.

My most challenging stage of development. Distinguish a double stroke form a triple stroke was difficult though I can do a triple drag I believe that's cheating and wouldn't be beneficial to my development so getting my hand sot push the sick down the one extra time to make the double stroke a triple stroke was the most challenging.

What's next?

The flam is next yes this is not a joke join me on week 3 to allow me to explain why.

Week 3 Back to basics with the flam... I'm not joking

What’s new?

I'm a Idiot... no wait that's not new. This week can finally avoid wacking my desk with son sticks now and finally hit a proper drum without worrying about damaging anything important to me except my reputation to the neighborhood since my kit is in the living room with basically no professional soundproofing except my sofa, some pillows and my green hoodie over my kit so that's nice.

Other than that I finally have been able to play my songs without the hassle of trying program my drums on Logic in my room and I can finally move around a proper drum kit, so while I was on my kit it occurred to me that I'm a awful drummer and need to give up since I was missing out on simple fills I was effectively choking to quote Eminem. It occurred to me that in the time between the last time I played the drums and this Wednesday I had lost my touch so this week while practising fallin and a message to you rudy I'd go back to the basics to get my swing back and also give me time to continue to develop my Triple swing along side the flam, though the flam is nowhere near a new skill to me it's definitely a necessity to add flair to this terrible week since losing my competence on the drums, so this should be a nice easy task to complete and then i'll follow up next week with something new if I end up developing the triple swing to a satisfactory level.

Have I achieved my goals By friday this week I have full comprehended the triple swing and most importantly the flam though this week hasn't been full of challenge I've finally managed to establish myself with on the drums, with the triple swing and of course the flam, so you I can tick off two weeks of skills to learn on my list.

How did well I develop my technique Well initially I was so focused on getting the songs done but I did manage to perform these skills on my kit without a lot of effort really after a good practise session I feel as if It boosted my confidence and allowed me to record the results without mistakes here is what I achieved.

Video evidence

(the follow video shown is re recorded due to corrupted files.)

My improvement this week To be honest I feel as if this week wasn't exactly productive other than me finishing off learning the triple swing and obviously the flam, to be completely honest this week ahs been that stressful I needed to take myself down a peg for the personal development stuff and allow myself to finish off all my other tasks first before moving on with a new technique so that should explain my goofy attitude towards learning the flam and completing the triple swing.

Has my skill developed at a satisfactory level? Despite the distractions my learning has been pructive and my progress has paid off with a successful completion of two task though on was mainly a way of easing off my stress the other one was serious and Is effective Technique to know when I comes to warming up and performing different versions of a techniques on the drums.

My most challenging stage of development. Mainly staying focused during my practise since I alway am trying to be mindful and respectful for my neighbours while playing and that was what was causing me to choke while playing the fear of playing too loud... hm sounds like a song name.

What's next?

alongside doing the triple paradiddle I going more basic though effective skill to know when doing rolls the single paradiddle.

Week 4 The Divorced Single Paradiddle

What’s new?

Well nothing much how about yourself? Yay more drum roll techniques this week I got to work on a new technique the single Paradiddle It's a common technique used by all established drummers all over globe and is one of the essentials when learning the drums which I only found out this week, anyway the paradiddle has around 40 variants and 5-6 of t them are essential to a drummer's career in the music industry.

Have I achieved my goals Though the paradiddle is a standard technique it is a effective on so I spent the past four days trying to parfet it and I have also been trying out it's veriasions to see if learning the single paradiddle has affected the defaulty of learning the others

What's teaching me?

Video evidence

How did well I develop my technique This technique was easy thought it's variety was a thing that gave this technique more content so think of this week more of a overall completion of all forms of paradiddle instead of just one simple task of learning the single paradiddle I also learned a multiple bounce roll along with fitting in some time with doing some double strokes and it seems that I am getting better at them.

My improvement this week I've overall learned to smoothly differentiate my left and right without confusing myself and the therefore am going to continue to learn more types of distinctive paradiddles.

Has my skill developed at a satisfactory level? easily this technique was a strong learn with some time needed to truly get is so I wished I did this before the learning triple swings and but then again learning threes did help with the R,L,R,R, & L,R,L,L's cause it's effectively a less amped up triple swing in a certain sense.

My most challenging stage of development. Getting past the fact I needed to Go R,L,R,R instead of R,L,R,L and adding the heavier accent to the First R or L.

What's next? Next week we move onto a drag duff.

Week 5 Drag Ruff.

What’s new?

After expanding on the single paradiddle I started to think about my favorite technique the drag so I've decided to learn two drag alternative techniques to see if I can improve on the drag overall.

Have I achieved my goals

Though the drag in general isn't new to me using it this particular fashion is, I'd never really thought about utilising a drag in any rolls or on the hi-hat before so though this wasn't a challenge It was a fun experience that's helped me to expand on something I already know.

What's teaching me?

Video evidence

How did well I develop my technique

This technique was simple at times though using my right hand to do a drag was not exactly easy at first though I did get the hang of it and now can alter between both hands while playing.

My improvement this week

Learning this technique was a interesting experience though It was a expansion over a technique I knew so Improving on drags overall was pretty easy lest to say it did take time to work out how to effectively do a drag with both hands but I got the hang of it.

Has my skill developed at a satisfactory level?

I believe so I was initially at a good level anyway but spending that extra time on perfecting using the skill with both hands has really boosted my confidence with this on.

My most challenging stage of development.

Developing a smooth beat with this new technique but obviously in the end I did manage to find a smart inventive way of implementing it into skills i'd use while playing the kit.

What's next?

It's the best thing I've ever learned the Single drag tap

Week 6 A Simply Complexed Single Drag Tap.

What’s new?

I'm a God! Holy **** I'm a incredible drummer this technique Is a piece of Apollo's Pie... hm sounds like a song name, anyway this technique is simple to do as long as you understand drags and since I was born with a piece of Apollo's power I can't get this wrong, sonically reading the name of the technique I thought all it was essentially was just a typical drag but then I realised It's a drag with extra step! who would have thought?

Have I achieved my goals

I have learned to do the 8th note version of this Technique extremely well and have managed to get a good idea of what it takes to do other versions of this technique.

What's teaching me?

Video evidence

How did well I develop my technique

Extremely well though doing a drag with my left hand was a bit uneasy at first after few hours of practising I'd mastered it as show in the evidence video above.

My improvement this week

Leading with Left hand for drags has become a walk in the park for me and I think this can help with the improving all the problems I have leading with my left hand.

Has my skill developed at a satisfactory level?

I'm going to say this has skill has definitely been developed successfully.

My most challenging stage of development.

Leading with Left hand as always put me off throughout my entire experience while drumming and it's kind of got on my nerves and never really tried defeating that weakness till now and don't get me wrong it was difficult but now has been overcome.

What's next?

To be honest I can't really see this one maybe somebody should call the ghostbusters oh wait they are already here!

Week 7 I Ain't afraid of no ghost notes!

What’s new?

I spent this past week on developing ghost notes using the following video as reference while learning and though it wasn't easy I did find it fun learning how to properly play ghost note correctly though there is room for improvement so hopefully I can expand on it in future.

Have I achieved my goals

I spent all week getting used to using this skill on my kit and though it was long and confusing at times I did manage to perfect how approach hitting those ghost notes instead of making them present I forced myself to make the quieter and It's really helped me with disciplining myself on the kit instead of making everything I play one loud noise and more a methodical technique.

What's teaching me?

Video evidence

How did well I develop my technique

Though challenging at first since I only had limited time to practise them I did manage to work out a nice effective way of performing these notes, not just as a quite,light hit on the drum I gave it a more sharper sound to allow the snare ghost notes to be there but not at the same time.

My improvement this week

Though getting the recording done for this was difficult since I had such little time I did manage to get a satisfactory video recorded for my blog proving my progress this week.

My most challenging stage of development.

Practising these note were probably the most difficult since I hadn't really had the proper amount of time to practise them.

What's next?

I'm going to analyze my work and explain my thoughts on this whole batch of work.