I'm mostly through the big stretch o' drumming, and over the eight days, I will have set up and torn down my whole drum kit no less than six times. It is interesting to note that the two paying gigs in that stretch came on maybe half a rehearsal, while the other playing days this week were taken up just preparing for other projects that have far fewer performances scheduled. This hit me as I subsequently hit a wall Thursday night at a rehearsal, which happened to be one I would have liked to have skipped to go see OK GO at Metro, but it still felt mostly superfluous even without me wanting to be somewhere else.

Completely slagging group rehearsals is not entirely a fair comparison, though. The Ripleys have a fairly defined set list, and I was just subbing on the gigs. So the rules are different than for the other projects I'm in. I learn the tunes on my own, we bash through some in a night, and go. But there's still a certain "just do the work and get on with it" mentality that I think could be applicable elsewhere. My overall view of rehearsal is that once everyone learns their parts, you're mostly done. Some repetition is necessary, obviously, for both individual and group muscle memory, but it doesn't need to be excessive. Then again, there's a learning curve for any group, and you'll usually know when you hit that stride where knowing the material becomes a non-issue.

The Ripleys experience has also done wonders for my self-esteem, in spite of playing "Brown-Eyed Girl" and "The Joker." What I take for granted is that, as a straight-up rock drummer, I'm really good. My confidence problems only surface when I try to push into other areas, or compare myself to friends in town who can play circles around me. I've realized in the past that I don't actually need to be as good as some of these guys to do what I do, or to do what I'm good at, but it hasn't ever actually snapped into focus as strongly as it has since both starting with Foxide and nailing these two shows to the wall this week.