An Eye Opening Experience

I was bored yesterday and decided to blindfold myself for a few hours to see what it would be like to be blind. The first thing I noticed was how big everything seemed when I couldn't see. I had to move very slowly and carefully to avoid banging into things. I found open doors to be particularly dangerous as it's possible to walk with both hands out in front of you and still get hit in the nose by the edge!

I did some piano practice. I'm trying to become more familiar with the keyboard and basic harmony theory. I found it very difficult to keep track of what I was playing without the usual visual cues. I feel like practising in this way will help to internalise the process.

So what has any of this got to do with drums? Well, I also managed to find my way into the drum room. The first thing I noticed was that things weren't exactly where I expected them to be. I often have trouble deciding where to position drums and cymbals. The problem is that I'm so used to adjusting myself to play whatever kit I'm behind that seeing where things are actually gets in teh way of knowing where I'd like them to be. While blindfolded I found it much easier to pay attention to how everything felt. The right seat height, the height of the snare drum, where I wanted the toms, it all seemed more obvious when I was paying attention to how things felt rather than looked.

I went to hit a tom. It was pretty much in the right place, but when I felt the end of the stick touching the head I realised I was very close to the right side of the drum. Hence I decided to move the tom to the right a few inches to compensate. Admittedly it's not the easiest task to adjust positions and angles while blindfolded, but I think it's better to keep the blindfold on than to peak. Perhaps you could get someone to help adjust your kit as you point where you'd like things to be.

I had a good blindfolded practice session then managed to navigate my way back downstairs. When I came to drum the next time I couldn't believe the angles I'd left my cymbals at - it looked very weird, but it played fine. Give it a try - you might find some new insights into your playing.