Chris Leone

• 31Jan

  January 31st - 100th Post!!!

  Aimachi No Comments

  Today was one of, if not the most productive day I’ve had of the New Year. I was up by 10 am - early start - and was in the drum room by 11 am to do some moderate overhauling on the bass drums. That sounds contradictory - is middlehauling a word? According to spell check, it’s not. But you get my point. The plan for the day was to do a complete head change of the bass drums along with adding 4 new air holes to each drum.

  I wanted to do this job right for several reasons. Most importantly, this is not my equipment. Aimachi has put their faith in me to physically drill holes (approx. 1 cm in diameter) in the shell of their bass drums. Among the things that could go wrong are the damage of the outer shell - important for esthetics - or worse, the cracking of the drum shell itself which would be a very, very big problem. The purpose of drilling holes is to improve the sound quality of the drums so the better job I do, the better our drums would sound (ideally). And finally, if you’re going to do a job, DO IT RIGHT!

  Right??!

  I took it slow; I planned ahead; I measured twice and cut once. I’ve been fortunate to have some great mentors over the years - namely my Dad and Grandfather - who taught me how to work with tools and wood and I put that all to use today. I got better as I went and I always thought about safety (the drill I was working with seemed industrial in strength). After that, I put a protective metal casing through the hole to protect it and make it look nice. These were sent over from America by our drum manufacturer just for this purpose.

  I was really happy with the way it all turned out. The combination of the air holes and new heads should make our overall sound quality go way up. The one caveat here is the heads are not yet tuned as high as they should be - they need a few days to stretch - and the new heads are black which are notorious to have bad sound quality. We’ll know in a few days if we want to stick with them or not. In the case of the latter, we have some new white heads I could change out in half a day. The one cool thing about the black heads is they look sweet.

  5 bass drums = 10 news heads and 20 new air holes. I became pretty efficient as I went along but still finished at 7:30 pm having worked for nearly eight and a half hours straight. I was faint with hunger by the time I was done but having missed lunch, I didn’t feel guilty about having double portions.

  Uichi - the “assistant director” of Aimachi, my contact before I came over here, and the Japanese native with the best English - came up to me after rehearsal and commented on the new heads. I assured him once they get up to pitch we’ll have a better idea of the sound and then I showed him the air holes. He expressed his gratitude for everything I am doing for Aimachi. Not only the bass drums but also helping with the rehearsal videos that he said are proving to be a big help for the designers back in America. I really appreciated him saying that. Not because I am searching for recognition, but because I am doing something that is helping people and improving this program. That really does mean a lot to me.

  I’m feeling good tonight.

  

  Tags: Aimachi

• 28Jan

  Monday 1-28

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  Today I woke up at 1 pm.

  I could have slept in even later if I wanted, but I thought I should finally get and up “be somebody” as my roommate Keith would say. We drove Bret to the airport at 3 which meant a visit to Starbucks! I was pretty hungry so I took a chance on a bagel place in the food court of the airport. I already conceded any possibility of getting a real bagel (if you can’t find one south of the mason dixie line, chances are you won’t find one in east asia) so I went all out with teriyaki chicken bagel sandwich (it was a tossup between that and the yankee burger - not really). Say what you will, but this thing was good! Part of that might have something to do with me sleeping through breakfast AND lunch, the other part….well…..it was probability the meal skipping thing mostly. But it sure was tasty.

  We came back and I took it easy the rest of the day by watching the rest of Prison Break - one Fox’s many TV show dramas I like to refer to as “high octant soap operas.”

  After that, I put in a DVD of WGI finals from last year. This is the same competition we will be performing at in Dayton in April. The main reason I did this was not to see the groups we will compete against, but to see everything else. The crowd, the color of the stairs in the aisles (yellow), the curtain behind the performance area, the facade of the stands - everything. I’m doing this so I can begin visualizing myself and the rest of the drumline on the performance floor; but not only visualize us there, but to visualize us performing a fantastic show. It is said that top performers are known for “visualizing their success” before they ever perform or compete. One of, if not the greatest disadvantage this group will face is that we only compete our show twice. Friday the 18th for prelims and Saturday the 19th for finals. The crowd, the sounds, the smells, and everything else will be new for us. The more I can personally begin visualizing my own success, the more I can begin to become comfortable in that state and subsequently, the less foreign all those sights, sounds, and smells will be.

  I can already see these two shows being very emotional for me as they will cap off an amazing time and experience in my life. It goes without saying, but I want these two shows to be amazing.

  And they will be.

  C

  

  Tags: Aimachi

• 26Jan

  Saturday 1-27

  Aimachi No Comments

  Today was productive! I’ll start with that, because I don’t always get many of them when I’m here.

  We spent nearly the entire day in rehearsal taking advantage of the time we’re getting with our drumline arranger, Bret Kuhn. The basses had some good time to ourselves as well as time with the rest of the drumline and pit. Every day I’m getting more and more excited about this show.

  One of the greatest experiences I’m having here is the experience of running bass sectionals. We’ll get anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours by ourselves. We’ll always spend some time warming up our hands and then spend time on new music and/or cleaning old music. I’m always trying to think of new exercises that will get us to think about the same thing a different way, an exercise to help solidify basic fundamentals, or something that just challenges every member in the line. I think what helps keep me going (even when I have two hours to fill) is the level I’m used to setting for myself. Anyone who knows me close knows I will keep trying at something not only until I can do it, but until I can do it right repeatedly. This ranges from throwing three consecutive strikes in the driveway to playing one bar of music over and over until I KNOW I can play it perfect (and fyi, I never think I get there). Anyway, my point is I never feel content. I’d consider this one of my greatest strengths as well as one of my greatest weaknesses. It helps me strive for perfection (strength) but I’ll never feel like I get there - or anywhere close to that. Usually I feel quite inept (weakness). The way this translates into teaching is taking that high bar I set for myself and applying it to the whole line. I’ll never feel content about how we play our music, so I’ll always have stuff to work on. I’ll always try to think of new ideas that may be the solution to one (of many) problems we’re having. Besides this aspect of running bass sectionals, I’m also learning a great deal about time management and group goal setting. I’m so used to only pushing myself, but now I’m learning how to do the same with a group. These are skills I know will apply sooner rather than later down the road. I’m excited for that.

  Well, it’s very late and we have an even longer day ahead of us tomorrow so I should get to bed.

  Thanks for checking in,
  Chris

  p.s. Sorry about the several grammatical that are probably littered throughout this post. I’m a little too tired to think straight…

  p.p.s. Wait, does that contradict everything I just talked about.

  

  Tags: Aimachi

• 25Jan

  Friday 1-25

  Aimachi No Comments

  11 Months until Christmas!

  I decided I wanted to do something with my Friday instead of sitting around Aikiyo, so I hopped a train into Nagoya city. Just me, my ipod, a copy of Reader’s Digest to read, and my thoughts.

  My plan was to go back to the department store with the expo I told you about yesterday. There were a few more things I wanted to check out. I was able to take my time walking around and watch everything get made. I even decided to buy a couple of gifts. Whether or not they’re for you, well, you’ll just have to wait and see. Funny enough, after buying one item, the guy threw in a small bouquet of flowers as he knew it was going to be a present. So here I am now walking around with a bouquet of flowers in the middle of Nagoya City. In my attempt to be suave, I walked up to a random girl on the street and gave them to her.

  I walked around for only a little more after that. I accomplished what I came to do so I decided to the explore the area some and then get back on the train to Handa City.

  I got back in time to sort through a few e-mails (I don’t get many these days; hint hint) and then it was off to practice. Another good rehearsal. Getting some good work done.

  Today, Saturday, will be an all day rehearsal - same with tomorrow. I’d prefer it if I wasn’t feeling under the weather but I’ll just have to suck it up.

  Days around here are cold, but no hints of snow. What’s the point of cold weather if we’re never going to get any snow??

  C

  

  Tags: Aimachi

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