You know what makes a good player? Playing in time. But I'm through with the cold, calculated tick-tocks & beeps of a metronome. I have since moved on to a drum machine. Seen here is my Zoom RT123, the most fundamental drum machine Zoom has to offer. A long time ago, I used to jam with friends but it was the era of anti-guitar, otherwise known as grunge (it got me puzzled, those blokes were anti-guitar but they still have guitars in the band- darn). You know what people like to do when they jam? They do covers. I don't. So there we have it, the meeting of direct opposites, the chemistry just wasn't happening. Friends prefer Nirvana & Stone Temple Pilot numbers, they would throw in Black Sabbath & Iron Maiden occasionally but I was heavily into Emperor, Marduk, Mayhem, Satyricon, Darkthrone, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Death & I don't even wanna play like my heroes, I just listen to them for inspiration. I don't like & don't wanna play other people's music, I wanna create my own; it's about learning & application but people don't value learning, they wanna go with the flow so I flowed the other way. I stopped playing with people, I play with machines & I couldn't be happier.
I don't see my RT123 being plugged in too much lately because all the drum stuff are playing in my head, they are there, I don't need to hear its extension through an amp. However, the challenge has always been to vary the tempo & play my stuff in different timing, this is an important ingredient to learning & everyone who is musically inclined should devote time to get acquainted with time. So two days ago, my RT123 was dusted & plugged into a small practice amp just to get my timing thing going once again. We should strive to make every playing experience a learning experience.
