Travel Time!

It's the most wonderful time of the year where we take to the roads and skies to visit family and friends in far off destinations. Food and good cheer is plentiful, shopping is required, and a home without a full compliment of percussion instruments becomes our temporary residence.

For the better part of my professional career, I've spent a lot of time on tour. In other words, frequent trips in vehicles and airlines, long weeks spent in hotels, and countless hours away from a rigid practice routine. With the travel season upon us, here are some ideas I use to continue pushing the ball forward as a percussionist while away from home.

In the car (for long commutes... but of course, please be safe!):

1. Egg shaker and/or bones practice. Put on your favorite driving music and practice patterns, alternative accent patterns, hemiolas, and tone color changes.

2. Practice Solkatu. Learning and reciting bols is a great use of drive time. Develop a new counting scheme that you can apply within your own practice and teaching.

3. Listening. There are countless recordings we all should spend more time listening to. Something I've taken to recently is listening to a jazz standard to memorize the head and absorb solo ideas (as well as memorizing solo phrases). Then, play an Aebersold of the standard, sing the head, and of course, sing solos. It's a great ear training exercise, focuses your attention on chord progressions, and expands you vocabulary of ideas.

On the plane

1. Writing. I find flight time to be perfect for writing exercises, creating practice spreadsheets, and forced time to reevaluate my goals.
2. Reading. There are so many books I want to read/reread but rarely slow down enough to partake. A long flight to the east coast is ideal for reading. Here are a couple of musts:
Talent is Overrated
The Savvy Musician
The Musician's Way
The War of Art
3. Podcasts. An outstanding opportunity to get caught up on Tom Burritt's great podcasts, Percussion Axiom TV, as well as my favorite inspirational podcasts by TED. Check them out!

In the hotel/guest house/guest room

1. Naturally, all of the above work in this situation.
2. A small practice pad and a pair of sticks. This is a no brainer, but you should never let a day go by without drumming. My small Vic Firth practice pad has traveled with me to three continents and countless states in the past three years. A small metronome is easy to travel with as well. The lists of exercises to practice is endless, but here are some favorites:
Stick Control
Rudimental Arithmetic
Polyrhythms-The Musicians Guide
3. A pandeiro, riq, or small tar. The volume of these instruments won't bother the neighbors while the weight makes packing and traveling easy. The course of study for these instruments is immense, but don't be afraid to dive in.

These ideas are by no means exclusive and I'm always looking for new ways to evolve my travel routine. Please share your traveling practice routine!

Happy Holidays!

Visit my website at www.jameswdoyle.com