Hiking and practicing

I went for a hike today to clear my head,  I took a frame drum and started working on different subdivisions. I was walking at an even pace and each step was a quarter note. I worked on everything from eigths to triplets, sixteenths to sixteenth not triplets, 5 over 1,  5 over 2, etc, and I improvised all sorts or permutaions while I walked. There is a small stream with a little waterfall in the back and I made a seat out of some rocks.  I wanted to breathe in the negative ions from the water.  I sat there and worked on different rhythms for about a ½ hour.  Really enjoying keeping the groove deep while morphing different combinations.  It felt great to practice this way for a change, away from the drumset and yet the stuff is very much a part of drumset playing.  I felt a deep connection with the rhythm,  I was playing lightly and really feeling the pulse in my body, with the stream in the background,  it was very cool.  The moral for me, the work I have had in the past month has kept me really busy in my studio to the point where I neglect to take a  break and get outside.  Today solidified it, the need to balance and ground myself.  I’d recommend trying it to anyone looking for an alternate mode to exploring rhythm.  You can pick up an inexpensive frame drum and it gives you the ability to take your rhythmic  exploration to go. Plus there’s something very primal and the connection to your body really deep to play a drum directly with your hands, without sticks. It seems to internalize the rhythm in a very direct way, and you bring this to your drumset playing when you pick up the sticks again.