We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bella Sera . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bella below.
Bella , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I think the biggest question I get asked is how I got to the level of playing that I’m at today. My biggest advice to a drummer that’s just picking up the sticks is to forget everything you’ve been told. Don’t study the paradiddles yet, don’t open a book yet, don’t start correcting yourself yet. The first lesson I ever learned when I started was how to love playing. My teacher taught me the basic rock beat everyone learns, and then he would play guitar and sing over my beat. Every day at home I’d put on a pair of headphones and i would obsessively play to my favorite songs. And to this day, I still make sure to include doing that in my practice routine. I think a lot of people when they start drumming want to immediately be the best, and play the most technical advanced ideas. If you don’t learn to love playing first, then you’ll never love what you play. Just play. That’s all. When you want to become more advanced you’ll realize that your song choice has already started getting you to a more advanced level.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Bella Sera and I’m a Drummer,song writer, and sound engineer. I’m 20 years old and have been drumming since I was 5 as well as writing and recording since I was 14. I perform in multiple bands like; Hot Whips, Tough On Fridays, Evil Eye, and other various Texas bands. I’m also a studio drummer, you can hear me on records for various artists like Lord Juni Starblanket & the Knight Lights and Her Modern Orchestra. Currently I’m studying drum set with Arthur Latin, drummer for Harry Connick Jr., as well as studying Sound Recording Technology at Texas State University.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is when someone says they related to a song that I wrote/played. The whole reason I write music is to figure out ways to help people relate to a feeling they can’t put into words. I want to help people feel like they are never alone, even if they feel like no one else understands them I hope to help them feel like someone is there to listen.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I’ve had to unlearn a lot of lessons in my experience. The biggest one was being terrified of making a mistake while playing. I remember when I would play in a Jazz band or in a lesson I would focus so hard on trying to play everything exact and perfect. I did master that, but at the cost of a crucial element of music. Feeling. Humans make mistakes, that is part of the human experience. Humans make music, so music includes mistakes. I remember when I was younger, while I would practice independently, I would get so angry at myself when I would make a mistake. I’d stop and start over, and repeat until it was perfect. This made practicing so frustrating and not so enjoyable. Then one day I decided that every time I made a mistake I would smile and keep going. This completely changed my playing. Now when I play in public and make a mistake, I actually smile or laugh and instead of feeling horrible about my mistake or thinking about it for the rest of the performance, I move on. I didn’t recognize it for a long time, but doing that improved my feeling. I think the ability to make a mistake and tie it into the song to where it sounds intentional is much more impressive than memorizing and regurgitating. The irony in this though is, most of the time, listeners don’t even realize you’ve made a mistake in the first place.
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