Hello everyone. My name is Joe. I am 55 years old and I live in beautiful Vancouver, BC, Canada. Like most of you here on this forum, if not all of you, I too am a drummer. I have been playing the drums since I was 10 or 11 years old.
I was born into a musical family. On my dad's side of the family, there were quite a few professional musicians. My dad was a professional drummer who played most of his career in the Detroit/ Windsor area. Some of his brothers played as well and an uncle in Detroit was a fine respected jazz pianist.
My dad started teaching me to play the drums when I was 11 years old and I studied with him for 5 years, then started playing professionally when I was 16. My first exposure to playing in public was when I would go on gigs with my dad, and he would let me sit in and play at set during the course of the evening. I did this for quite awhile until I started playing in my own bands. I played many styles of drumming from rudimental drumming in a Scottish Society Club to playing other types of events such as weddings, private parties and other social clubs. I played a lot of different styles of music from rock to jazz to polkas to latin and more. You name it and I probably played it or at least attempted to play it! hehehe.
As well as playing the drums, I studied music in school from the 4th grade right through high school. While in high school I played in the school orchestras but didn't play drums. Instead I played trumpet first chair until I graduated. I took private trumpet lessons also. Therefore I gained a solid musical foundation which also helped me be a better drummer.
My first set of drums that I called my own were a cheap set of tin cans called Coronets, if my memory serves me correctly. I couldn't afford anything better at the time. I was used to playing my dad's Rogers drums with the Dynasonic Snare, a beautiful metal snare drum. I don't think I have ever played a better snare since, although I know there are better snare drums available now, but back then that was one great drum to play. Thinking on it now. I was privileged to learn how to play the drums using such a high quality set that my dad's Rogers were at that time.
My real first good set of drums was a set of Tama Imperial Stars. I bought that kit in 1976, sort of a 20th birthday present to myself. It was a 5 piece set with a metal snare also. The drums were bright Canary Yellow. They were a great set of drums to play too and the quality was top notch. I used Ziljian cymbals also. In my opinion, there is not a better professional drum made today than Tama drums. I would gladly endorse them if Tama asked me to.
Anyway, I could go on and on here but we don't want this to turn into a book, so I will end this here. I just want to say thanks to everyone on this forum for allowing me in and I hope to contribute somethng of value from time to time, and maybe get something of value in return as well.
Take care and happy drumming everyone!
Tama Joe.
Linear Mode
