November 24

(Still ignore the timezone error)


Actually got asked to rehearse twice this time. Never argued, though I never did ask why. Anyway, less familiar pieces to go throw this time, but I think I managed well. No more than one mistake that comes to mind. I've never been too smooth with double strokes, but I think I've figured them out this month. Overall, that seems like an improvement.

October 27th

(Timezone still incorrect)


It went well this time. Got rehearsal sorted out and got there on time. I don't think I got any worse in terms of technique, but as usual there's room for improvement. The songs were actually familiar for once, so I kept up with the beat well, and I didn't slip more than once on the day of the performance. Videos have never worked out all that great on this computer the last few years, but if I can get a new one I'll try to film something. In the meantime, I guess it's more still shots.

New Semester (2013-2014)

(I realize that the title of the blog isn't all that accurate anymore, but for some reason it won't let me change it this time, so we'll have to leave it at that. The timezone on the timestamp is probably also messed up, if it shows up.)

So here I am on my church worship team again. The groups got rotated around again, but I've known all these people for a few years now, so it's not too hard to get used to. Now that it's the third year in a row, I've noticed that I've had a few instances of unpreparedness. Forgotten music, forgotten drumsticks, couldn't arrange a good practice time and couldn't attend, etc. I have my group on my contact list now, and I plan to at least get the practice times arranged properly. Trying to reorganize my room so that I have a place to put music that I need later as well.

Personal technique can use some improvement as well, of course, but that's always a given goal to work towards, and getting a feel for it comes with time. Besides, the leader thought I did pretty well on such a short notice.

An Evaluation on My Success

A word and evaluation from the leader of my team, in table form because that's the way it was written when I received it (making tables in Blogger is not easy):

	Observation and Comments
Nathanael gets together and organizes practice times effectively, as well as planning the flow of the performance and other details (e.g. tempo and beat).	Nathanael has been punctual every time. He’s a good listener and teammate as he always attends to others’ suggestions. From his performance over the last 12 months, I can say that Nathanael is willing to cooperate with different people.
He does not feel nervous about speaking to other team members and sharing his thoughts.	Nathanael doesn’t speak much. He usually speaks to one or two particular teammates who have been working with him for a long time. His volume is low. Sometimes, teammates may find it a bit difficult to understand him.
He makes effort to prepare for the worship and participate more in the team.	Absolutely agree. Although he doesn’t speak, from his performance during the worships, I can say that Nathanael does pay a lot of effort at home in rehearsing the songs. This is because we can always find that his performance is much more fluent than we first practice.
He ‘experience’ the joy of ‘serving’ God.	Agree. One of the indictors is that he smiles more than before during the practice. Occasionally, I can hear what he plays is a bit different from what we have rehearsed. I would say that’s because when he plays the drum set, he experiences the presence of God and the joy of music.

It would appear that I have improved on all but the speaking portion, which has always been a personal difficulty of mine. I'll probably keep serving on the team, and I plan to work on this.

Note: The post timezone is still off, but the date and time is fixed.

Early Spring

[I just noticed something weird going on with the post times on the older posts being from the wrong timezone, making all of them set to some random early time in the morning, but they were all pretty much written in the afternoon. I'll probably fix it if I can figure out how]

I said once a month, but we had a special sermon on the week my group is normally in charge of, so now it's actually been two. I was just a bit late to practice this time due to heavy traffic, but it seemed everybody just arrived too. The first few minutes wound up with me trying to troubleshoot the sound output of the drumset, so I had to go ask someone else what we had planned, since they seemed to have agreed on something beforehand. The performance went pretty smoothly, as usual. I still made a few mistakes, but nothing serious. Several of the song's were new, like last time, so again I was surprised how well I followed the music. One piece was very familiar, and was relatively easy, however.

More photos available than expected, too:

Into the New Year

Things seem to be going smoothly compared to last year, and the scheduling is a lot more consistent this time around, so I expect to be able to update once a month at least. I was actually a bit early to practice this time. I managed to put in some of my opinion on the song flow and the tempo we should go at. The performance went pretty smoothly as well. I think I made fewer mistakes than last time, if at all, and considering the fact that I've never even heard of three out of the four pieces we were playing before I think that's quite the achievement. It's hard to match a beat to something you're not that used to, you know?

Anyway, it seems the other camera worked this time, so I have a photo: