09/29/2015 – The Praying Mantis
The other week I had a pretty fateful experience involving myself and a praying mantis. Being 26 years old and a year from completing my undergraduate degree, I have been antsy over the past few years seeing very close high school friends graduate and have high levels of success in their given fields of work. I have a tremendous amount of respect for all of my successful friends and one day I wish to join them in the overall realm of successfulness.
I had a pretty rough few weeks last month with a lot of self doubt; asking myself a lot of questions about whether or not I would ever make it as a full time musician. Practicing four or more hours a day is good but it eventually got to a point where I was expecting to see an immediate pay off, which is never the case. It is a scary thought on how hard it is to make it in the world of music today and this eventually got to me.
Some time during that week, my lovely girlfriend asked me if I wanted to go hike and get out of the city on a mutual day off. We decided to go to Eldorado Canyon right of highway 93 here in Colorado. We kicked around a bunch of ideas about where we could go hiking and eventually ended up going to Eldorado Springs. I find it interesting that we could of chosen anywhere in the state and we chose a place where we would eventually come across my spirit animal the praying mantis. .
About a mile onto the path, a praying mantis landed on my shirt. I was wearing a white shirt and she jumped right onto my chest where she was very clearly visible. I had never even seen one of these creatures, and to be honest with you I didn’t even know these critters existed in the US, let alone a state like Colorado. I guess I always thought of them as a mythical creatures that don’t reside on this continent.
As she sat on my shirt she eventually put her hands together in a praying position. I actually ended up trying to get her off of me because I felt the power that she possessed and felt like I wasn’t ready to accept her message.
My girlfriend and I began to kick around ideas about what this all meant and what the spiritual meaning of this was. We did some research on the way home and here is what we found.
“Praying Mantis landing on your body is a sure sign Mantis is and always has been your animal spirit guide. Recognize her, acknowledge her message and power.”
I found this notion interesting because I have always wondered what my spirit animal is and what kind of meaning that spirit will carry. Some people think this kind of thing is cheesy but I fully believe that we are all connected to all beings in this world no matter how big or how small.
“Accordingly, the praying mantis symbol chooses to present itself to individuals when they have allowed their busy schedules to overrun their intuition, silencing their internal voice and throwing their equilibrium out of balance. The praying mantis always comes to us when we are internally craving peace, quiet, and calm in our lives,” (Bostwick, pg. 2).
Susan made a very good point to me after we researched all of this that, everything happens for a reason. Here’s to that praying mantis, my new praying mantis pendant, fate on that day for us to cross paths, patience, and to finding my own inner peace.
07/17/2015 – Summer So Far
May – Ever since my recital was over, I’ve had the chance to take the foot of the gas slightly and enjoy summer. So far, its been absolutely great. I started off the summer in late March by traveling to Wisconsin and Minneapolis to go to Infrasound Music and Arts festival to play a White Robot set which included some live percussion. The festival was ranked one of the top bass music festivals in the country this summer and it was an honor to get to play there. After the festival I got to spend a little bit of time in the twin cities, Minneapolis and Saint Paul, in Minnesota. I had a really great time up there and got some top notch cheese curds and ice cream.
June – In June, Spectacle had our try out for Arise Music and Arts festival Boulder, CO. We just found out last week that we got a spot at Arise, which I’m extremely excited about! This festival is growing quick and has a great reputation in the Denver area. I simply cannot wait. We play Friday from 5:15 till 6 on the StarWater stage for anyone who is going 🙂
I also did a White Robot set with Timbales and Bongo about halfway through the month at Cervantes OtherSide in Denver, CO. I really enjoy playing live with that project because I can take everything I’ve learned as a percussionist and use the electronic music I have created as a backdrop for my percussive playing.
Sitting In – I’ve also had the opportunity throughout the summer to sit in with a few bands around town. Fancy Sauce and Intuit were very welcoming with open arms when it came to me playing with them. I sat in with Intuit in June at the 1up on Colfax for two tunes. There was a drum section at the end of one of the tunes and it was nice to be able to of known what was going on in that setting and able to jump right in on the jam. I have an old friend in that band so it was special to be playing with them. Fancy Sauce kicked off their tour here in Denver, CO last weekend and I was lucky enough to be able to sit in with these guys for their whole set! These guys are a funk cover band and absolutely kill it. They take funk classics and aren’t afraid to put their own spin on it.Good luck on tour guys! I also was called to play some cajon (box drum) on a classmates recording at Augminished studios here in Denver, CO. It was a singer songwriter piece and the recording went smoothly. All these experiences were great and I got a lot of compliments how my percussion really helped tie the group together. It truly is the cherry on top of your hetty ass sundae.
July – Since then, Ive settled into a pretty solid practice routine in which I work with Spectacle once a week for four hours, and once with my percussion teacher, for four hours as well. I’m ok with not playing shows all the time, as I know that is coming soon in my career, time off and time to relax is always nice.
My percussion teacher, along with a few other students, has guided us more so into the African traditions that are part of the Afro-cuban traditions. I’ve been wanting to learn about this branch of this genre of music for a long time. The picture below are three checkeres, which are essentially plastic gourds with netting and beads on them. This style of music started when people took gourds and hollowed them out and wove beads around them in order to create a rhythmic instrument. These ones pictured below are just easier to get a hold of and harder to break than a real gourd. Each gourd produces a different tone and has a different basic pattern; each player uses these patterns and improvises in certain spots, in order to converse with the other gourds. I know that I am going to be playing a lot of checkere this upcoming semester in preparation for my recital in which I will be singing and playing at the same time.
August – Coming up – Looking ahead, the rest of the summer should be good. I’m still going to be meeting with my teacher and fellow students each week and practicing with Spectacle as well. Work of course consumes a lot of my time unfortunately but hopefully that will soon change. I’m playing Arise Music Festival with Spectacle AND Intuit the first weekend, going to Massachusetts to spend time with the family for a week and then I’m right back in the thick of school taking 21 credits and two Afro-cuban related ensembles. Its going to be a busy one but I can’t wait.
To make it all even better – I just got my first teaching job, with 5-10 year olds in an after school drumming program. This is something I’ve been trying to get into for a long time and I honestly can’t wait. Knowing me I’ll fit right in with those little tricksters. My playing this summer and following my career path has also been accompanied by some awesome outdoor time with my sweet sweet girlfriend, and seeing some awesome shows in the area as well. Life is good – Its been a good summer – so far.
07/05/2015 – Spectacle
I wanted to take a moment to give everyone a run down of a electronic act I’m a part of called Spectacle. Michael Mahan started Spectacle about a year ago. In October, he decided to level up by getting some live musicians to play. Michael chose me to be a part of the group as the percussionist along with violin player Jess Borth. To say the least I’m honored to be playing with these cats and I know this project is going to go somewhere!
Together, the three of us make up the Spectacle live band! Things have been going in the right direction for this project as we are being contacted by promoters around town and getting booked for festivals. Heres to more Spectacle crew! Below are links to our music, check it out!!
05/06/2015 – My Musical History
My history as a musician goes pretty far back. From a young age, probably around the age of seven, I began playing piano. I liked it, but I wasn’t captivated by it. Around the year 2000, I began complaining to my mother about not liking the piano very much. She told me after that given year of lessons I could choose whatever musical instrument I wanted, that instrument I wanted to play was drums.
From there, I saved my money and purchased my own drum kit; playing drums in my room whenever I had the chance. I would practice along to my favorite funk, rock, and jam band recordings and try and emulate the players I was listening to. These players being guys like Jon Fishmann, John Bonham, Chad Smith, etc. I feel like this was a good way to learn at an early age because I was setting a high standard that I wanted to be playing to.
I was in a three piece jam trio back in Massachusetts called The Dancing Head Orchestra. We played locally around MA before we all went our separate ways for school.
I’ve taken lessons from three teachers throughout the course of my studies along with studying from countless books and instructional DVDs. Most recently I have taken the plunge into the world of Afro-Cuban drumming. It is amazing how deep this music goes and how important the drums are in this style of music. One of my main upcoming goals is to take all of these hip Cuban rhythms and apply them to the genres that I enjoy, like funk and rock.
Stay tuned for more on this site including, links to music, tutorials, written history on instruments, and more!
robbrandonpercussion.com 