Goals: Short/long term, circumstances, career, lifestyle etc

[willyz]

It's true. Between rent, car payment, insurance, and various other bills I consider an additional renting of a rehearsal place to be a bit of a luxury.

But alas, that's why it's a goal.

[electrizer]

I've given up on trying to become even a semi-pro drummer. My practicing is on and off, I'm old (and I feel old ). However I do have a lot of musical ideas as a composer and a drummer. I used to have that prog-metal band back in Poland which was very close to my heart and as soon as I get back there for good I would like to bring it back to life and make it a fully blown act combining music and performance. Even if I can afford recording only one album, I want to focus all of my efforts on that.

In order to achieve it I want to get a shed (which I agree is necessary) and practice. I've always wanted to have good double bass technique and be able to play crazy stuff there so this is what Im going to focus on. Also getting my groove/timekeeping solid and learning new fills to expand the vocabulary. I'm also taking piano and music theory lessons to develop as a composer.

I've always wanted to create a prog concept album which would involve much more than music, and that would be some guerilla street art, performance, something relatively fresh in artistic terms but also something to help myself get noticed by a bit wider audience and not rely on more traditional means of acquiring publicity like gigs, reviews, facebook, twitter (which Im not going to forget about but I want people to get talking about what I have to present). But that's when I get back home. For the moment it's practicing time

[Matthijs Ament]

My 'break' came in 2008 when I was able to buy a 'business unit'. I use this place for teaching, shedding and rehearsing with some of my bands. I should have done that earlier but to buy some real estate over here in Holland is very expensive. I paid €80.000,- including tax and other costs to get 68 square meters of space. Having a place where you can play on your own gear at times that fit your schedule is a major goal. If you want to be/stay a working drummer you need to practice a couple of hours every day.

[Odd-Arne Oseberg]

Having a place where things are always set up is a great luxury. Having been a guitar player most of my life, where that's not really an issue, I've really missed that since I started playing drums.

Since I moved to my home town I've been able to use a room in a school that they shut down, just 300 m from where I live, for free. It's not completely isolated, but I've used what pillows and blankets I have to spare and it's far enough from anything else to not bother anyone. I used to have all my books, DVDs and stuff there too, but I've come to appreciate a clean and open place to practice so I've moved most things that aren't in continuous use back home.

The ultimate goal is offcourse to have a recording studio at home, where I can record or go practice on a real kit at any time I have a few minute to do so.

If I lived in a city I'd probably share a practice space with a couple of bands. I work in the evening when is probably when they'd want to practice maybe a couple of times a week. So a space like that would be available most of the time for $100-200, which isn't much here.

[bstocky]

You should definitely teach. Charge the student if they don't give 24 hours notice before cancelling. If they don't show up you get paid to practice. Plus, you never know when some kid will surprise you with something they want to learn. The first time I heard of Porcupine Tree was from a student mentioning them. I knew who Gavin was, I had a book of his for years but I didn't know he was playing in a popular rock band. Same thing with Meshuggah, a kid asked me if I could play Bleed (Hell no) and then I started listening to more of their stuff.