Re: Why I play drums
Call me crazy...but I think in my case it's something hidden away in my DNA. Like a lot of kids, when I was little, I whanged away on pots and pans using Lincoln Logs as my first sticks (for those outside the US or too young to know, these are a toy wooden building set, with components styles to look like the logs of a log cabin). As a 4th-grader, I took part in a flutophone class (again, for those unexposed to this, the flutophone is a plastic horn used to teach youngsters the basics of playing an instrument). At the end of the semester, the teacher took out a different band insstrument each day for a demonstration. This was in 1964, and I can still tell you that one day he took out a blue sparkle Ludwig 5.5x14 and played some rudiments on it. The batter head was broken, so he flipped it over and played on the snare head. When he played, the rhythm and sound of that drum stirred something in my soul, and I knew that was what I wanted to do. Try as I might, I have been unable to escape it's grip on me ever since. Guess I didn't really try all that hard.
Fast forward into adult life. Still gigging for a part of my living. My Grandfather on my mother's side did some family history research, and found an ancestor who was a snare drummer with the Continental Army in Massachusetts during the American Revolution. Recently, a bass-player friend of mine (always the drummer's best friend!) returned from a history-based vacation trip to the USA's east coast. During his research, he found a list of names and duties from the Continental Army in Pennsylvania. On it was a man with my less-than-ordinary last name who was....yep...a drummer for Washington's army. Was it some kind of genetic memory that was unearthed in that 4th grade music class?
Why do I play now? Well, it's just part and parcel of who and what I am. I find that I am happiest and most comfortable when I'm behind the drum kit. Drumming gives me a feeling of purpose that isn't always so clear in the other endeavors on my life. My drumming won't save the world, but it will make it a more pleasant place to be for a few hours on a Saturday night.
Play on...
RT55  |