Keeping Mentally Sharp at 70 and Beyond Part One: Keep Playing that Rock and Roll!
As I'm now entering into my seventies, I’m well aware that for myself
and my contemporaries, there will be some “normal” age-related cognitive
decline; I myself experience situations where I can’t think of the right word,
can’t remember somebody’s name, or I lose stuff that I seemingly had right in
front of my eyes just a few seconds ago.
All of this is annoying to say the least, but I’m thinking that maybe we
can slow this “normal” state of affairs a little bit, maybe with some new ways
of thinking. Caveat; I’m not a
neuroscientist, I’m not an MD, I’m not a psychologist or psychiatrist, I’m just
a guy that’s been alive on the planet for seventy years, and I’m hoping to be
on this side of the grass for as long as possible! So, as I’ve been “slowly”
(ha, ha, ha) thinking about this, I’m going to share some of the things that
I’m planning to do, in order to keep as mentally sharp as possible, for as long
as possible, even though I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed to begin
with! But we gotta work with what we
have, right? Now, of course having good
genes helps; fortunately, my dad Leif lived to be 87, and he was lucid and
pretty much took care of himself until he passed away, maybe with the exception
of his last few months. So, I can only
hope that I will follow in my dad’s footsteps, at least regarding my mental
health!
So, a couple of weeks ago, I was watching the 42-year-old
Chris Hemsworth, the Australian actor of Thor fame on the show Limitless
learning to play drums as an exercise to improve cognitive function and
memory. Supposedly, the act of using all
four limbs in a coordinated fashion engages both sides of the brain
simultaneously, which can lead to stronger neural connections, since the left
side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. Well, no wonder I’m soooooo smart, having
been banging around on things since I was 12!!!!!! Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha! 😊 (By the way, to qualify that statement, you
can check out my two blog posts For the love of music, drums and life-long
friendships, parts one and two).
All levity aside, I think research is pretty clear that
playing any musical instrument can improve cognitive development, release
dopamine, reduce anxiety and / or depression, and can just be outright
fun! So why drums in my case? Well, we didn’t have any musical instruments
at home, but when The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album came
out in 1967, Ringo’s playing touched something primordial in my soul, and like
millions of kids all over the world, I wanted to play the drums. Using only an old chair, a Ludwig practice
pad and a pair of sticks, I would play along to Sgt. Pepper’s for hours. I would also practice playing on my thighs
with my hands to learn new beats, and of course always listen to music.
So fast forward almost 60 years to 2025 and I’m still
playing, and I’m probably playing more now than I ever did! Of course, it helps to be in a band that
constantly work on new songs, practice at least once per week, and plays live
pretty much every month. But the
biggest change for me has been just the sheer number of new songs that I had to
learn in order to join our current band Smack Dab. In September of 2023, my neighbor, friend and
bandmate Kent Richards sent me this list of songs that I never played before in
a band:
Stuck In the Middle (Jeff Healey version), Change My
Ways (Mike Zito), I Need You Tonight (Bonnie Raitt version), The
Thrill Is Gone (BB King/Tracy Chapman), Remedy (Black Crowes), Red
House (Jimi Hendrix), Gimmie Three Steps (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Shine
(Collective Soul), Can't Let Go (Lucinda Williams), Born On The
Bayou (Los Lonely Boys version), Gimmie One Reason (Tracy Chapman),
Big Mouth (Mike Zito), Dani California (Red Hot Chili Peppers), American
Girl (Tom Petty), The Well (Marcus King), Interstate Love Song (Stone
Temple Pilots), Pride & Joy (Stevie Ray Vaughn), No Angels (Samantha
Fish), You Can't Always Get What You Want (Luther Alison version), and
Bridge of Sighs (Robin Trower).
Combining that with working on stamina, I spent a lot of
time in my little drum practice studio (aka The Drum Cave) out in my garage,
getting the songs from YouTube and playing along with the tracks. Of course, since then we have added a bunch
new songs, most of them songs that I never played until I joined Smack
Dab. Also, let's not forget the mental stimulation one gets from just hanging around other people, and being part of something that is a bit outside of ourselves. Being in a band has all the classical, corporate definitions of a team, and any band goes through the Forming, Storming, Norming and hopefully Performing aspects of team work, to end up with a functioning unit. So, go out and form or join a band!
So, playing drums for me has three components; a) my own
practice at home in the Drum Cave, where I learn new songs and refresh the old
songs, b) practicing the songs with the band and c) playing live in front of an
audience. From my viewpoint, playing
live is worth at least three practice sessions, since when playing live you
gotta listen to the band, and if the song changes when you play it, you gotta
go with the flow! (Of course, the more
we play live, the better we get, and we have less “Train Wrecks”, situations
were one of us forget where we are in the song, and the rest of us just gotta adjust…).
Also, when I practice
by my own in the Drum Cave, I try out a bunch of different things; like Rob
“Beatdown” Brown stresses in his drum videos, if you are constantly playing
what you already know, then you’re not learning anything new! (You can find Rob “Beatdown” Brown at his
YouTube channel “@RobBeatdownBrown”).
Good advice for sure; one of the things I practice a lot is
“open-handed” playing, where I use my non-dominant hand (my right in my case
since I’m a lefty) to play the high-hat, and my dominant hand for the snare
drum. If nothing else, this builds
strength for the non-dominant hand. I
also try a bunch of different “drumless” YouTube tracks (tracks where the drums
have been removed from the song), in order to work on my time and playing “in
the pocket” (something that I will / must continue to improve for the rest of
my drumming days).
So, to give you an idea of what it takes for me to learn a
new song and eventually play it live with the band, I’ve compiled a little
sampling below, all samples including the “three legs of the milking stool”; practice on my own,
practice with the band and play live! By the way, there are no guarantees that all three versions will sound the same; sometimes when playing live, sometimes you gotta go with the flow!
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Shine by Collective Soul, played three times; first in the Practice Cave, then practicing the song with the band, and finally playing the song live in front of an audience:
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Hard to Handle, the Black Crowes version, played three times; first in the Practice Cave, then practicing the song with the band, and finally playing the song live in front of an audience:
Jumping Jack Flash, Smack Dab Practice.
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Play That Funky Music, the perennial dance hit played three times; first in the Practice Cave, then practicing the song with the band, and finally playing the song live in front of an audience:
Play That Funky Music and Honky Tonk Women as a bonus, Drumcam with Smack Dab at the Rib Joint in Dana Point, CA on 10-12-2025.
Spooky, the Atlanta Rhythm Section version, played three times; first in the Practice Cave, then practicing the song with the band, and finally playing the song live in front of an audience:
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