Alright, so today was all about diving headfirst into what we’ve been calling our “trio duro” session. And man, it lived up to its name. It was tough, really tough.
Setting Up and Kicking Off
We got together at the usual spot, dragged our gear in. I plugged in my guitar, tuned it up, feeling pretty optimistic. Dave was setting up his drums, tapping away, and Sarah was getting her bass levels right. We exchanged nods, like, “Okay, let’s do this.” We decided to tackle those three new pieces we’ve been avoiding because, well, they’re hard. That’s why we dubbed this whole thing “trio duro” – tough trio, tough tunes.
The Grind Begins
We started with the first one. Bam! It was like hitting a brick wall. My fingers felt clumsy, couldn’t quite nail the faster runs. Dave was trying to keep the beat, but there were these weird time signature changes that kept tripping us all up. We’d get through a few bars, and then it would just… fall apart. Someone would rush, someone would drag. It was messy. We’d stop, look at each other, maybe laugh a little, then try again. And again.
The second song? Even worse. This one had some really complex harmonies and the rhythm section had to be super tight. Super tight. And we were anything but. I remember one part where the guitar and bass are supposed to do this intricate call-and-response thing, and we just sounded like we were arguing musically. It was a proper mess. Dave actually threw a drumstick at one point, not in anger, more like pure frustration. We all felt it.
- We tried breaking it down, bar by bar.
- We tried playing it painfully slow with a metronome.
- We even tried just humming our parts to get the feel.
Some of these tactics helped a tiny bit, but honestly, it was mostly a slog. My brain felt like mush trying to concentrate that hard for that long. You know, you practice on your own, and you think you’ve got it. Then you get together, and it’s a whole different beast. The “duro” part was definitely hitting home.
Little Breakthroughs, Sort Of
After what felt like hours, probably was, we started to find little moments. Like, a tiny section would click. For maybe five seconds. And we’d all sort of light up. “Hey! That was it!” Then, of course, we’d immediately mess up the next bit. It was like two steps forward, one and a half steps back. Or maybe three steps back sometimes.
The thing with this “trio duro” stuff isn’t just the technical difficulty. It’s also about listening. Really listening to each other. And when you’re struggling with your own part, it’s hard to give enough attention to what everyone else is doing. That’s what we really had to force ourselves to do. I had to make myself stop focusing so much on my fretboard and actually connect with what Sarah was laying down on the bass, and how Dave was accenting things on the drums.
Wrapping Up a Tough One
By the end of the session, were we ready to perform these songs live? Absolutely not. Not even close. We were tired. My fingers were sore. I think we all had headaches. But, and this is a big but, we didn’t give up. We wrestled with that “trio duro” and maybe, just maybe, we landed a few punches. We identified the really, really problematic spots. We kind of have a roadmap now for what to attack next time.
So yeah, it was hard. It was frustrating. It was everything “duro” implies. But walking out, even though I was beat, there was this weird sense of accomplishment. We faced the hard stuff. We didn’t conquer it, not by a long shot, but we battled. And that’s what practice is all about, right? Especially the “trio duro” kind. We’ll be back at it. It’s a challenge, and for some reason, we keep coming back for more.
