It was exactly month ago today that I started this blog, two days after officially starting the MA course. What have I learnt over this month? Well I’ve started to take a step back and analyse my playing and my practice. This has been helped tenfold by the reintroduction of instrumental lessons with a great teacher. I know where my own strengths and weaknesses are, and I know what I need to do in order to improve on those. But sometimes I think it takes someone else to look at your playing and show you the bigger picture. What I have come to realise in learning to play an instrument proficiently, is that the further along the learning path you walk, the bigger and harder the steps become to take. Progressing through graded exams, there is always a clear focus on what the next step is. But once you get past that, you realise on drums for example, the smallest change in articulation or stick technique can change the groove from sounding good to great. I think I’ve known this for a good while, but it is only when you really try and do something about it that you actually realise it. I think that I have made good progress for a month’s hard work, and I’m sure that I’ll progress throughout the year. All in all, I’m chuffed with how it is all going, and I’m enjoying researching, working academically and trying to improve what will ultimately take me a lifetime to master.