Drum Lessons

I realized my last couple of blogs were more focused on the "realities of life" and I neglected to mention a big milestone for Jake. He started drum lessons again a few weeks ago! It's something he's been wanting to do ever since he had his aneurysm. For a long time, he wasn't ready because his left hand and arm weren't recovered enough. He simply couldn't hold the drum stick for very long without his wrist dropping and didn't have muscle control for the up and down movement that comes from the elbow. Over the summer, his OT made him a wrist brace that gave his the wrist support and had a little pocket to hold his drumstick. He's been using it in band at school and it gives him the support he needs so his hand doesn't get as fatigued just holding the stick.  

Once school started, he didn't have the stamina to add an after school activity. To be honest, his stamina may not be quite there yet (he had to skip his second lesson last week because he was too tired), but we decided he needed it for his emotional well being. As I've talked about many times before, drumming is really important to Jake and I thinking getting to take lessons is a sign to him that he is really healing. Todd called and talked to his old instructor and he was excited to have Jake back, they had a really good connection before and we thought it would be good to have an instructor that he already knew. We were so pleased he was up to the challenge of teaching Jake in a slightly different way. 

I was so excited for them to get home from his first lesson and hear how things went. I was a little worried Jake would be frustrated since his skill level wasn't where it was when he had to stop taking lessons, but he came in the door grinning ear to ear. All they did was work on one drum (not the whole drum set) and focused a lot of having the left side copy what the right side was doing to keep an even beat. The thing we've noticed is Jake tends to use more of his whole body when he is hitting the drum with his left hand, you can see that in the video. At his lesson this past Monday, they were finding the longer he practices, the more relaxed his left arm gets and he's able to get closer to the basic up and down from the elbow. I think it will be awhile before he has the wrist movement he needs, but these are the first steps.  http://youtu.be/mpAOy9VWTi4

By far, the best thing to come from this is how it's affecting him emotionally. He's excited to go to lessons, practices without being reminded and it's something he really enjoys.