Hello comrades and welcome to the fourth improvement megathread of June! 
As usual, some discussion ideas:
- Do you want to share something you’ve done in the previous week? Everything counts, nothing is too small.
- Do you have any plans or goals for next week?
- Do you have any streaks? For example, “sober for one day.” Feel free to post your streak every day in this thread.
- If you don’t have a continuous streak, did you manage to abstain from something for a day or more?
- Did you come across some useful information or resource that might help others?
Poster caption: Friendship forever for the happiness of nations!
Good luck with your goals! 
I’ve been successfully avoiding a lot of junk food since I first got added to the roll call but I still haven’t cut it out completely which idk how to really do. The last time the weather was good I went running again and kept pace, with how hot it’s getting I don’t think I’ll be able to do it consistently though unfortunately. I have that picture on my phone so I won’t need to worry about finding some app though. I’ve been keeping good progress with music and I’m a bit closer to finishing some things I started months ago. I’ve been shifting between content with progress but disappointed that I didn’t do more.
I also need to focus on sleep more because I’ve been very tired during a few points in the day for a month or so.
I scheduled and attended three appointments and I only had a tiny breakdown one time! 🥳
lessgo
I had a gig yesterday, it went well except for Gloria’s Step. Gloria’s Step is a Bill Evans tune that is 20 bars and is one of those circular tunes that don’t have a big turnaround chord at the end of the form. It’s very hard, the pianist didnt play at all so we were lost the entire time.
Bill Evans Live in Tokyo - Gloria’s Step: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xptW6BKyYzk
I felt like my time was really good, focusing on the quarter note is really a game changer time wise I realized. I now realized I hate when I hear someone play the swing beat for 10 minutes straight, it’s not musical also the time can drift because of the subdivision not being consistent. There’s some heavy discipline to be able to play the traditional swing beat masterfully.
I’m getting some tendonitis in my heel and I’m sure it’s from all the bass drum comping exercises I’ve been doing.
Practice
Technique:
[ ] Left Foot Ankle 120-115BPM 10m. It’s amazing how it just clicks! My goal is to get the ankle technique down to 100BPM and then not do anymore footwork for awhile.
Brush Technique:
[ ] Quincy Davis Sheet 200BPM 10-20m. I have a comping sheet from the educator Quincy Davis that I’m working up to 220. I feel almost done with this. My big issue is that I can’t practice on a real snare drum, because one particularly whiny pro-israel neighbors and landlord, and I’m noticing that what I’m working on isn’t transferring 100% to a real snare drum. Very frustrating.
[ ] Ballad Permutations, big circles. 10 m 50BPM. Play big circle in left hand, play all rhythmic one note permutations in right hand.
[ ] Figure 8 Ballad Pattern into Big Circle Comping (The thing I’m doing above) . 10m 50BPM. Very challenging to get back into the pattern cleanly regardless of where you are in the beat.
Microtiming Studies:
[ ] Click on middle. (Comfortable ride pattern first) 110m First two triplets in hand, I get spun around as I go faster.
Playing in Three
[ ] Play in three. 80BPM. 10m. All permutations from sheet.
Rudiments between bass drum and left hand
[ ] KKLKLLKL 80BPM. 10m Start the pattern off the upbeat.
Transcription:
[ ] Transcribe more Roy Haynes.
Listening:
[ ] Gloria’s Step
[ ] Miles Davis - Milestones
Creative:
[ ] Play phrases on 4 and + of 4.
Deep Tune Learning:
[ ] Blue in Green
https://youtube.com/watch?v=r_aLRah4Y-4&t=698s
[ ] Gloria’s Step
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xptW6BKyYzk
___
Also I want to lose five pounds before my vacation in two months. I want to lose ten but I don’t think that’s realistic.
2 pounds a week is the maximum weight loss that can be sustainable and healthy, so it’s def possible if you work on eating a balanced diet and having even just light exercise.
https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html this calculator is pretty good and gives you a rough estimate of daily caloric intake to maintain ur weight or lose .5, 1, or 2 lbs/week.
Hmmm i dont know if i can do 2 lbs in reality
I had a pretty darn good week! I saw a sleep specialist and scheduled an at-home sleep study for early July, and saw my GP and got prescribed a new muscle relaxer and it’s actually working! 😁 Also obtained a bike last Friday, so have been a lot more active recently, and that has helped me a lot, physically and mentally.
I’m really stoked. This was my first week after coming out of a really, really horrible funk of depression and burnout. I’m just doing a lot better, and it’s so refreshing after a full month of non-stop lows.
Shitty week but I endured most of it. Went for walks most days. Met friends. Drank a reasonable amount. Managed to get out of bed on good time today. Obsessed about my crush.
roll call:
If anybody else wants to be added to the roll call, just let me know
A bit of a letdown this past week, at least relative to the previous two. Went jogging a couple of times and to the gym just once. To make up for it I did walk as much as I possibly could though. Had one day where I walked a total of 10 miles and a couple others at around 5-6. So not a completely lost week.
This week I have decided look into developing systems. I have seen a lot of productivity hustle-grind bros talk about developing systems to build habits and they aren’t 100% wrong. For the most of the year I have just been kinda freestylin’ without any real structure. Which is fine, but my goals and ambitions have grown quite a lot these last seven months so I think going forward I’m going to build a non-hustlegrind system that helps activate myself and actualize (that sounds so goddamn corny) towards the stuff I want to do. It’s going to take time, probably several different iterations but I think I need to develop a system/schedule to get myself where I want to go.
The O.R.C. System would be
Observe - Observe what I’m doing, good or bad, productive or leisure
Record - Write it down in my journal and planner
Change - Change what I’m doing so I can obverse and record different things in the future
The first was “buy” a planner, mostly because I needed something with a calendar. Something I can physically write in and see time progress. I already journal but I don’t really do it regularly so using a planner to just plan my days at the start and chronicling them in my journal at the end of the day is my first step in my building my system.
I’ll build and expand into the future, but I think keeping it as low-tech as possible and use the systems that have worked in the past is probably the best move. Computers and digital stuff is nice, but dudes throughout all of history have used pen and pad to improve themselves so I’ll try to do the same.
I don’t really proclaim my big bad goals anymore, I think it’s best for me just work today them and report on milestones or worthwhile updates. So I’m just going to keep my head down and focus on the process, and learn to love it (again sounds like corny dudebro hustlegrind nonesense but it’s true)
Went to a low-key, friendly jam session last night and it brought into focus what I need to work on for piano.
What’d you play? What do you need to work on?
This week my goal was to resume tracking nutrition and make sure to get enough calories. I managed to succeed, I tracked my nutrition almost every day in Cronometer and ate at maintenance.
Other than that I didn’t get much done since I spent most of my free time watching the Euro football championship lol. It was a good time. I’m rooting for countries that have better (less dogshit) politics.
Next week my goal is the same as this week - tracking nutrition and hitting my calorie goals.
lets go, i want to watch the euro too.
i love world cup but i never watch anything else. seems like euro and womens world cup are def the other tournaments to watch
Sobriety streak continues to day ~60. Another get together with friends came and went successfully. I’ve got a pretty big hang out at a friend’s lake house coming up that I normally get really drunk/high at as a yearly thing so the thought is there to have some fun with my friends and drink/smoke. But also, I’m curious to see what the weekend would be like sober for the first time so if nothing else I’ll try it this year without anything.
I’ve started some light exercises and am really enjoying how my body feels and responds to exercise now. It feels like everything is working better. Coupled with my digestive issues all but going away and my diet vastly improving, I’m feeling better than I have in a very long time.
As for plans and goals, I’m planning on picking up some dumbbells soon and actually starting to lift again. I was initially going to stick with bodyweight stuff but I did a deadlift and I remembered how much I enjoy picking up heavy things. My home gym plans are coming together. I’ll also be picking up a rowing machine for glorious back gains
