Why and How did you start to play the drums?

[djarrett]

For each of us, there are many factors that enfluenced our desire to become a drummer!

Why did you become a drummer?

[felix stein]

Well, my grandad got me a skin drum from africa when I was a little kid and I used to bang on that. But it wasn't more than a toy. I wanted to play drums in grade school but my parents said I had to play piano. So I played for a few years then quit of course.

 

Jr. High came around and there was this cool kid that had a drumset at the talent show. And I really wanted to play it after the talent show but he wouldn't let me. My parents still would not let me get a kit.

 

So by the time I was in High School I was at my friend's house and there was an old drumset in the garage up on the rafters. I'm like "who's drumset is that?" and he's like "Oh, it's my brother's...he don't play it any more you can have it." So I got this thing home...I was 16 at the time and used to play that piece of shit all the time...I had to hold the

snare in my lap and I had one crappy mounted tom tom and a junky camber or Krut cymbal that was bent to hell. My parents were pissed but it was better than smoking pot all the time I guess.

 

My grandma got really sick shortly there after and when she was in the hospital she told my dad to get me a drumset with some of the money from her estate. She was a great lady...he was a dick when it came to music- but got me the drumset anyways.

 

So it was all over then. He came back with a tama swingstar set and real paiste cymbals. I played and played from then on out. Joined the marching band, played in college and was even a professional for almost two years. I have slowed down alot...I guess I got burned out and really did not dig playing anything commercial. I never really had the contacts or the right band at the right time either. But I'm starting to get back into it again. I'm 35 now.

 

Thanks

Felix

The token Jew

[Brenton Trott]

I always wanted to play but didn't get around to it until I was 25 (the urge just wouldn't go away)

 

One of the big things for me was the amount of really bad or just plain boring drummers that were around. I am only talking locally here. In the late 70's early 80's I used to go and see a lot of live bands and I used to watch the drummer and think, "why doesn't he do this" or "he should have done that there".

 

I always felt I could do it better, finally I decided to give it a go. On my 25 birthday I signed up for lessons (slotted in between two kids of 9 or 10) and the rest is history.

 

I'm 41 and still play regularly, now it seems there is a huge amount of young guns out there that are really good.(should have started when I was younger)

 

I love it though

Brenton

[iDoDrum]

Neil Peart hooked me. A friend of mine loved Rush and would play their music constantly. I had never heard drums play such an important part in a song. I found myself studying the drum part of each Rush song I heard. I decided that I had to learn how to play like this guy. I have never achieved that lofty goal, but I have enjoyed drumming.

[Rader Ranch]

i couldn't stand the smells that come with playing a brass instrument...

[felix stein]

All my friends were Rush freaks in high school. Then I went on an anti-rush kick for awhile. Now, when I hear Neal's playing...it's like, what an amazing talent! He taught me the 3 stroke ruff and doing "quads" in rock. That shit sounds so cool. I'm on an AC DC kick now LOL.

[aframe9999]

My brother, who is 14 years older, had a band that rehearsed at our house. The drummer would leave his kit set up in the basement. I would sneak down and start banging during the day. There are pictures of me at about age 3 behind that kit.

 

As I got older i would steal this guys sticks and set up all the pillows from the couch on the floor in the shape of a kit and put on ANY record and try to play with it. Tony Bennet, Englebert humperdink, Johnny Cash or whatever my parents had. Finally when i was about 9 i got my first set from a garage sale and practiced every day after school with the condition that I always practiced piano first. My parents figured that understanding and playing piano would be the basis of any music i learn down the road. They were right. 22 years later, the rest is history.

 

Interestingly enough I've never played in a 'real' band as a drummer. I started playing guitar when i was about 14 and that really has been my main instrument professionally. The drummer I play with now is WAY better than i ever could be. But I still love to 'make the skins dance' whenever I get the chance.

 

------------------

Andrew

 

My Band:

http://www.encoreentertainment.net/rockcandy.htm

 

This message has been edited by aframe9999 on 03-29-2001 at 12:48 PM

[lockbody]

I've just recently bought my first kit this March. I'm also a guitarist (21 years, this year) but, I've always thought drummers were the stuff. So this year, at age 35, I bought a Yamaha DTXpress kit. I wanted to buy an acoustic kit however, even though I live in a house in the "art" district of the city, without a basement, a live kit would not go over very well, although it has been tolerated in the past. So, digital it was! For me, the benefits of digital are great:

 

1. Wife doesn't have to listen me learn how to play.

2. Sure makes it easy to drop a part into Cubase (I also own a VSTi drum synth, A0 Audio DK1 so I'm not limited by the lower-cost DTXpress' limitations.).

3. Makes it easy for the band to come over and write songs.

4. Gonna buy some add-on triggers so next band I record also gets a midi drum track at the same time.

 

I have no allusions about becoming the next Neil Peart, however, I practice almost every day, focusing primarily on keeping a steady beat at this point. The drummer in my band is constantly showing me things to practice (a plus, of course), as does the singer in our band, also a drummer for another band. In fact, he turned me on to one of the coolest drum recordings I've heard to date. The name escapes me but, it's a sort of "headcutting" record with Max Roach coming out of the right speaker and Buddy Rich is coming out of the left (or vice-versa). Max Roach definitely lays the smack down on Rich on this recording. Listening to stuff like this sure makes it hard to just go "boom-chick-boom-chick"!

 

Bob

[Steve LeBlanc]

Cardboard boxes were cheap and portable...my Dad was a professional musician so we (my brothers and I) were always around music. I first got serious about Piano because my mom wanted me to play Carnegie Hall.

 

Later I got really serious about drums for two reasons.

 

1. because I wanted to be like my older brother who shreds http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif.

2. Marching Band was the only thing in High School that interested me.

[Dwarf]

I was hooked at age 5 when I saw a drummer on a Canadian kids show. It took me until I was about 12 before I got some sticks and then I started playing on pillows in my bedroom. I had no illusions about getting a kit because my family didn't have a lot of money and we lived in an apartment -- hell, the pillows were too loud for some neighbours! :-)

 

I took music in high school so I could have access to a drum kit and things took off from there. I joined the army reserves at 17 and bought a kit (Tama Swingstar). It's been a progression of bands since then. I still wish I would have had a place to practise at home while a teenager - I might have had better feet.

 

Btw, while writing this I had to chuckle at the memory of me at 12 trying to play pillows along with Deep Purple's Fireball - what I lacked in ability I sure made up in guts :-)

 

--

Rob

[clockwirk]

started banging on pots and pans when i was two http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

parents got me into piano shortly after that from which i eventually got a degree. I always had friends who played the drums though, and I always thought that if i wasn't a pianist, i'd play the drums. i learned some basic beats growing up. then in high school, i joined the pit of the marching band to play marimba and vibraphone since i knew keyboard theory. That got me practicing some basic rudiments. I kept my practice pad and have worked at it off and on up until this year (i'm 25)when I was able to play relatively consistently a couple of times a week with some guys. I bought myself one of those practice drums sets with some pads and fake cymbals hooked on to a tubular frame to practice on. It lets me work on some stuff, but doesn't feel like the real thing.

I've always loved listening to drummers though. I'd buy albums just for the drummer, which I thought was weird because I didn't play at the time. Just always been fascinated by them. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

This message has been edited by clockwirk on 05-13-2001 at 08:07 AM

[djarrett]

Originally posted by Rader Ranch:

i couldn't stand the smells that come with playing a brass instrument...

 

There is nothing I love more than a squeeler trumpet player. One of my best buds plays trumpet for Lyle Lovett (check out the Live In Texas CD ... MAN! Whew!) and has also played for Wynonna Judd and others. I also think a soprano line in Drum Corps (especially when so in tune that you hear the perfect pitched overtones!) is a chill bump experience. But Radar, ... I am with you. WHAT *IS* THAT SMELL!

DJ

[djarrett]

A great topic for the newcomers.

DJ

[djarrett]

Re-check the original question.

So many folks start for different reasons.

DJ

[Drumlooney]

Well I started out in church, there was no one to play the drums and my dad asked me to play, I did'nt want to play the drums I wanted to become a bass player. But from the first moment I pick up a pair of sticks and did a simple 4/4 pattern I was hooked. I did'nt take the drums that serious until I got to college, there were some amazing cats that were doing things I did'nt think were possible to do, that's when I was introduced to Jazz, Fusion, Southern Gospel, Funk, I was giving CD's of weckl, chambers, alex acuna, etc. All that opened up a whole new world for me and I started exploring and listening, appreciating every drummer I saw and heard, everyone has something to offer on the kit, It's up to you to take it and make it your own. From there I started listening to latin Jazz, all those albums my dad use to play and I hated, now I love them, groups like Irakere, the late Tito Puente to name some. I love music, all music it's the one thing I know I'll be doing till I die.

[Tedly Nightshade]

I'

[Tedly Nightshade]

I'm sure I did the primal pots&pans thing.

In 7th grade or so a friend of mine took up drums in the school band (I played trumpet, mmm, I love the smell of valve oil in the morning), and we spent a lot of time doing rudiments on the hallway bells with sticks, and learning to spin them theatrically. He got an old Zildjian ride cymbal that I used to hit and then listen to from one inch or less, mmm.

The trumpets in the band are right next to the percussion, so I spent a lot of time bantering with these folks and observing them. We both had a lot of long rests to count.

My older brother played in punk bands (gtr), s there was often a kit around, which I would bang on. Then in high school I got suspended from school for about 3 months and they sent me to this place where all the suspended kids from the whole San Francisco Unified School District were all put in one room without supervision, for a half day each day. I don't know what they expected, but I went home quite baked each day and headed to the basement, where I would strike each part of the kit just so and bathe in the heavenly resonance. TONE captivated me long before I could play a basic beat.

Then I played guitar in bands for years, and of course would play with the drums around the edges, and trip on the rainbow patterns in the oil filled snare heads.

I had the great fortune to play with two remarkable drummers, with super light touch on 60's ludwig kits, who had incredible human rhythm, very funky and dextrous and totally into the form of the songs and making them sit up and chirp. I despaired of finding another drummer like that, so I set out to become one, and now 6 or 7 years after getting my own kit (everyone thought I was nuts, I was so good at guitar and bass and just beginning on drums), I'm that drummer.

Ted

[djarrett]

You go Ted!

 

Deep down, ... I think all musicians have thought about being drummers ... at one time or another!

DJ

[Lee Flier]

Well part of me has always wanted to be a drummer, because I love the sound and feel of drums more than anything (and I do play some, always have had a natural sense of rhythm and I probably tap and bang on stuff as much as drummers do).

 

But ya know, I prefer to believe in the magic of drums, so I don't want to know too much about it firsthand. So far as I'm concerned, drummers are a primal force of nature, with powers not entirely understood to me. But that's just fine - I'd rather be carried along by the power of the drums, like I'm a surfer and the drummer is the wave. Obviously the surfer has to know a lot about waves, and understand them intimately, but the surfer is not, himself, the wave. The wave is far more powerful, which is what makes it such a thrilling ride for the surfer.

 

Well I realize that this thread isn't about why you DON'T play drums, but in my case I felt this needed to be explained.

 

--Lee

[Tedly Nightshade]

You're far from alone in needing a surfable drummer- John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, all depended on having a force of nature to ride.

Ted

[Salty Tonk]

I played drums in Jr. High band,Got into some trouble in school and was kicked out of band.Started playing guitar a few years later and have played in all kinds of bands since then.I started writing some music about 10 years ago and started building a home studio about 3 years ago(a work in the process).Anyway about a year ago I ran into a guy I went to high school with at the grocery store, he asked me if I had any guitars or amps I would be willing to trade for a set of drums.I took him up on it and traded him a Les Paul copy(memphis) and Holmes ss half stack for a Pearl 5 piece with a Zildjan hi-hat and a 18" Z crash(I have added Z ride and cowbell and 10" splash and some hardware). I brought it home and my wife and kids fell in love with them and I hardly ever get to play them cause they are always on them.lol.It has really been great not only do I have another source of inspiration as song writer, I have written a couple of songs starting with the drums ,but also it is so cool my family has gotten involved, my kids have always had a cuiosity about music but my wife has always been afraid to try until a got the kit.I think We'll get a set of congas.Later James

[where02190]

I was about 9 and liked to beat on things.....still do

Once the agression started to wear off I took up guitar, and some 3 decades later I play both electric and acoustic, alittle bass and fiddle. drums are still my first love, and among all the other instruments I have collected I have two kits here in the studio, and vary my styles as I vary my kits. Some weeks I'm playing 4 pc and others I combine both kits (purchased with this intent) and rock out.

[nhcomp45aol.com]

After watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan in feb 64 I got the Meet The Beatles album and started playing on shoe boxes(dad was a shoe salesman)andI had an old erector set from the 40s which had large metal panels and long thin angle iron type pieces. The panels were my cymbals, the angle iron my sticks. About two weeks later my parents bought me my first drum set. A cheap but useable four piece from Lafayette Radio where I used to hang out to drool over all the electronic and audio gear. I was 9 at the time and still do studio work frequently today although I play bass in a band. Paul.