The Grind
It is now 24 months since I decided to learn Bleed by Meshuggah on the drums, as a beginner drummer. This is a totally crazy project, because it is arguably one of the most difficult metal songs ever written. It is also one of the best, and a personal favorite. I can now play all the parts of the song one by one, in somewhat lower tempo. It took almost two years to just understand the riffs. But now the next phase begins, which I call “The Grind”. It is the final push to connect all riffs together and bring the tempo up to the original speed. And paradoxically, this is the easiest part of the whole process!
So, what do I mean by “The Grind”? Basically, it is simply endurance practice. The song is several minutes long and the kick drums work as a water-cooled machine gun. They never stop. I recently noticed when I was grinding a specific part of the song over and over for more than two weeks, that I could not get it to work more than occasionally. I know that a huge part of the reason is my mind. If I cannot relax and fully focus, playing the song is completely impossible. The only times I can manage to play the song is when my mind is present. But when you feel that ache starting to burn in your thighs, the sign that you are running out of stamina, I instantly loose my focus and mess up my playing. And then I’m mentally “done” until the next session. I now believe that the only way forward for me is to focus on my technique for a couple of weeks or months. If I build some muscle and endurance, it will be a lot easier to focus.
And here comes the best part with The Grind: It is extremely easy! The main difference between learning the riffs and The Grind, is that learning the parts are extremely cognitively demanding. And at the same time as you are pushing your brain to the limit, you are working the kick drums faster than ever before. What I will do now is to simply start my metronome and practice a continuous 1/16th kick drum sequence, as fast as I can without messing up, for 15 minutes. And then I will slowly increase until I get it all the way to 230 bpm. Well, maybe not for 15 minutes, but at least for the duration of the song would be nice. This requires close to zero brain activity. It is just 1/16th notes all the way. However, even though the pattern is easy, it is still critical to focus on the task at hand and be present. Focus on the technique and on how you work those pedals. By keeping yourself at the limit, or a little bit beyond the comfort zone, you will not be able to let your mind drift. If I notice my mind start to wander off, maybe that is a good sign? Maybe that means it is time to crank up the metronome a little bit more?
Regardless of what song you are learning or what instrument you are playing, you can never escape the need to practice technique. Everyone must do that. You need to acquire the tools needed to solve the specific problem at hand. Do remember that playing a song and practicing your technique are two completely different things! When you practice a song, you use techniques that you already know. When you are practicing technique, you are using a technique that you do not know. Yet. That is the principal difference for me, and it is critical not to mix these two up. Do both of them, in proper doses. That is the fastest path to success.
Another thing that I have learned in my seven years of daily 15 minutes of practice, is that the best time to do it is in the morning. I have tried and evaluated every time of the day, and no matter how I look at it, first thing in the morning is the best by far. If you practice directly after you get out of bed, your mind is a blank slate. Empty. No thoughts or ideas have awakened yet. And that is one of the reasons the morning is so good. It is a lot easier to focus. The second reason to do it early is to just get it over with. It is not fun to do the Grind. About 95% of my sessions are really bad. And once in a while I enter the state of flow. That’s why the longer you wait in the day, the more of a chore it will feel. Because the probability that you will play “bad” is extremely high. And you know it. But that is not a valid excuse not to pursue something that you love. Just go and get it. Keep showing up. It is impossible to fail if you never quit. It is just a matter of time.