Need advice for 17 year old drummer who has lost her mojo.

[elocs]

My goddaughter lost her drums last June due to behavioral problems at home (she has been drumming since she was 11 and it was a very good DW drum set). She eventually got some drums (a cheaper set) back a month or so ago, but now she is all mad and frustrated to tears because she has lost her mojo, she can't play like she did before. So it is all her parent's fault since she cannot play because they took away her drums (like they knew ahead of time this would happen and they did it anyways). She is mad because she can't play and she can't play because she is mad.

We have all tried to tell her that this is something that is not uncommon to many artists, even writers suffer through writer's block. Does anyone here who is a musician have any personal experience with losing your mojo, being unable to play as well as you once could or not having the inspiration? There is 17 year old kid here who is ready to explode about it and she claims that none of us knows what it is like since we are not musicians. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

[MilesColtrane]

1. The physical aspect of playing an instrument is not like riding a bike.

The muscle memory and coordination you need go away if you stop playing.

Just tell her to put in an hour or two of practice every day. (And you might tell her to practice with a metronome, or click track, because a musician's sense of time also degrades unless it's periodically reinforced against an accurate source.)

[elocs]

2. Thanks for your reply. We have told her to keep on trying and to keep playing.

She seems to believe that after months of not playing that she should have been able to restart at her same level and so she is totally frustrated that she cannot and seems unwilling to put in the time to work through it. She does have a drum teacher and has had the same one for many years and he has given her more exercises to do. As I said she has the expectation that her playing level and ability should immediately be where it was 6 months ago.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. At Her Age, It's Unlikely She Would Immediately Regain Her Chops

If someone who's been playing for 30 years quit for a few months, it would be realistic to take only a week or so to get back to their skill level.

But, she doesn't have the muscle memory built up in this amount of time, and at her age her muscle structure changes every month or so. So, she just has to learn her new body responses and that will take some time.

I know at her age it is hard to be patient, but that's really the only answer.
The Professor

[GReedDiamond]

3. What is/was her situation...

...either before she lost the DWs (that's what I would call a tragedy), or now, with the lesser quality kit?

Does she work with other musicians - meaning is she in a band or jamming with anybody?

Perhaps collaborating with others will inspire her to get her chops back up...?

I know I tend to perform better when I'm working with the band, cuz I don't want to hear any crap from 'em (and, oh yeah, they "inspire" me too).

[elocs]

5. Her DWs are put away in storage because she was going through a time of smashing things

because she cannot deal with her emotions. She was in a garage band for a couple of years starting when she was 14, but they were never disciplined enough to learn an entire song and it was mostly just fooling around in her basement. Her mom and stepfather have always been helpful being very inviting an allowing them to practice in the basement whenever they liked. I bought her the DWs 4 or 5 years ago, a very good drum set that ran about $2500 and she should have for years and years. We didn't want her throwing a tantrum and smashing them.

She had gotten into another band about a year and a half ago, but it was with guys who were 22 so that aspect became very problematic. Her mom had a talk with the guys and explained about how she was only 16 at that time so they would understand what the deal was, but it didn't do any good and one of the guys glommed onto her (a 22 year old with a 16 year old high school girl) and the problems really started when her mom put her foot down and said "enough". That's when the temper problems really started.

In September my goddaughter smashed the screen on her mother's large computer monitor because she was so mad and just had no life without her drums. In spite of that her mom bought her the less expensive (but not cheap) drum set in the hope that would set her right (also, in buying that drum set mom was able to get a guitar thrown in to send to the brother and other troops in Afghanistan), but now she claims she has lost her spirit to drum and does not have the talent level she had 6 months ago and so obviously it is her parent's fault since they took away her DWs.

Her age is a very big factor in getting with a band which could actually play dates. All of us have gone many miles in trying to help her out, but her behavior is always the fault of someone else. We have also encouraged her, as well as her drum teacher, to keep on practicing and trying, but what do adults know and we just do not understand.

[TrogL]

6. I had to start from the ground up

I was away from the pipe organ for 5 years and lost my peddling and all pieces I had memorized.

I got it back by practicing the fundamentals (in my case pedal exercises) and then it all started to come back.

For a drummer, I'd just get her basic beats back, re-learn how to keep in tempo and not rush, then gradually bring in the toms, crashes and whatever other hardware she has lying about. Playing along with your favourite pieces helps.