Back in 1997, I wasn't drumming much. I had a set of almost-new congas sitting in my room, and I didn't feel right playing them inside the apartment. I wasn't in a band, I wasn't playing with anyone. The last lesson I had was over a year prior, from a teacher who spent more of the lesson hour showing me cool stuff what I could (eventually) do if I learned the basics of what he was teaching.

I was also listening to an obscene amount of Brazilian music at the time, including the Lenine and Suzano album, Olho de Peixe, still one of my favorite albums. Marcos Suzano's pandeiro playing was phenomenal - and on that album you can really hear some of the amazing things he does with rhythm (not just pandeiro, but all manner of random instrumentation). I resolved to learn pandeiro.  It was portable, incredibly versatile, and perhaps more importantly, not so loud that I could practice indoors.

I went to Haight Ashbury Music determined to get a DVD or book and a pandeiro. Except as I was asking the guy behind the counter about this, someone came up and started talking to me about Brazilian rhythms. This was Ken Campagna, who was excited to learn I played hand drums, and invited me to play along with his samba group (predominantly for dance classes).

I played with Ken and learned a ton about Brazilian music.  I went to Brazil, and brought back drums, including a pandeiro. I had the obligatory 15-minute "thumb-fingertip-heel-fingertips" lesson, but that was it. I joined a band and my conga playing took off.  The pandeiro was crushed in band-loading-for-a-gig adventure; I eventually bought another one at Haight Ashbury. And that also sat in my closet for a couple of years.

This year I determined I would learn to play the damn thing for real. Again I returned to "static sources" - i.e. the web, and realized that I while I could easily learn the patterns, there were subtleties of the playing I was missing. So I dug around for a local pandeiro teacher, and found Robert Wallace of TotalRhtyhm. Last week I had my first real pandeiro lesson.

First things first: What a revelation. I was (of course) doing it almost completely wrong and heading down the road to injury (score a big one for real-live teachers who watch out for technique). Also, I was relieved to know my pandeiro was unusually heavy, and no, that stress in my left hand wasn't because I was a wimp. And I was absolutely excited to return home and practice the samba and partido alto.

Except - second things second: This is completely different for me. The right (playing) hand incorporates sideways movements of the thumb and a cupped-hand flip gesture, all unknown to my dominant hand. And the left hand - oh, that poor overworked left hand, gripping and muffing and rotating, all these small gestures I'm not used to at all.

So here I am, absolutely excited, immediately grokking the new rhythms - and stumbling like a 6-year-old in high heels as I try to play. One thing I tell the students in my street drumming class is that at some stage when learning a new rhythm, your brain will say, "Sorry, I'm full, I quit" - and no matter how slowly and carefully you try to play, you will just continue to mess up. Except the next time you come back to it, you will have leaped forward in your ability to play that rhythm.

Unfortunately, this knowledge was no consolation for me - I was hitting that "Brain's full, can't play anything right" stage so quickly, so early.... I would be very frustrated if I wasn't so excited. It's just a reminder to be humble and take it step by step..

Yeah, that's it. Dammit. Tomorrow is another 15 minutes, then another, then another.  Long and slow is right.  Sigh....