Learning to walk again - Lemmy.World
I started playing when I was six. My mother would work in a bookshop attached to
a church in a rural town nationally known for its meth addictions and annual
flooding. While she did that until 6pm, I would venture into the church and play
on the drum kit, keeping me amused and her not having to look after me knowing I
was fine so long as she could hear the drums. We got out of that town and she
bought me a beat up Pearl kit at a garage sale for $300 which was HUGE money for
us then. She managed to set me up with lessons with a jazz drummer, that turned
out was a bit of a national legend, for $13/hr, and we’d travel almost an hour
to get to him each week. Edit: Oh, at this point, the dollars in this post
aren’t USD. If you’re from the US, half it. One day I bought my kit with us
because he was going to teach me all about tuning. He saw the state of my kit
and we spent the day fixing it. Not only did I learn how to tune, I also learned
how to fix the action of a kick pedal with a leather belt and two nails—still
runs like that. He got me new heads from his shop, taught me how tape deadening
works, and that I needed a new radius rod, but he didn’t have one. I was about 9
then and the music store in my town were blown away that this kid walked in
knowing what that was, the type I needed, and ended up heavily discounting me a
new stand. Then they helped us even more by heavily discounting a beginner pack
of Paiste 506s and second hand stands for those I was missing. After a few more
tweaks here and there—like getting a front skin for my bass—I finally had an
actual kit four years after picking up the instrument. I was able to play
properly at home and not just practice with what I had. The only time I got to
play a “proper” kit was at school or at lessons. I sheepishly asked to join the
school band and was accepted. I did not know that all the years prior of
practicing, practicing, practicing with the minimal busted shit I had, while
being taught jazz—being all about making music out of thin air—quickky got me
recognised. Young kid, out of no where, played really well and uniquely. So I
also got drafted into the church band and did that for years. Often I’d bring in
my old beat up but now rejuvenated kit for it because to me it just sounded good
and I knew it inside out. Fast forward to 19, I moved to a city. I had no where
to set up my kit in share houses. I dragged it around with me but would be in
apartments never allowing the noise. A decade after, it got to the point people
knew I was a drummer, but no one had ever heard it. I accepted, I was no longer
a drummer. I was someone dragging around a kit no one ever heard played. Last
time I looked, that $300 garage drum kit is now worth $35K to the right buyer to
Pearl vintage seekers. I almost sold it a few years ago, but just couldn’t. It’s
been 25 years since I played before I forked out for a TD-27 eKit a few months
ago. I’m not emotional at all but actually cried on the way home as the
realisation hit me. I was finally going to get to do the thing I always loved so
much. Boy was I in for a shock. It wasn’t just that I could barely play
anymore—the brain knew what to do but just couldn’t and the limbs were even
worse—pkagung on an electric kit was SO weird and SO hard to setup to come close
to feeling like acoustics. I used to be able to do so much and so well, but it
was all gone… Time to learn to walk again, one step at a time. It’s funny. I’ve
tried to learn other languages, I’ve tried to learn guitar, but never do. But
drums, I can sit down for hours practicing drills, paradiddles, time signatures,
tweaking stool positions and the layout. It’s a thing I genuinely enjoy and
therefore know I’ll enjoy it more putting the hard yards in. I don’t know if
it’s the meditative state, the flow, or the jazz influence of just jamming well
with other musicians so they all feel empowered to also send it to new levels,
but it’s something, or all of it. It’s just overall haoppiness, whatever it is.
So as I start learning to walk again on this eKit, with no one to play with,
I’ve been humbly going back to basics. But these days I get to removr drums with
AI and play along rather than fuck around with an EQ to only remove punch. Where
I would once play Dude Ranch all the way through, I now can’t fathom how I did
that halfway through the first track. I’ve started again at my roots; lots of
rust to get off, just pick some tracks I think would sound better with a drummer
rather than a machine or samples, and just get the muscle memory slowly coming
back. Here’s my status in rehabilitation as I learned how to record WAV to SD on
Saturday. Just wanted to play and groove. It’s not much, but I am happy. That’s
what this instrument is all about. I hope this inspires anyone returning or
anyone starting. Don’t just tap your foot, let it all out. Drumming is dancing
that lets everyone else dance ♥️
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h-Obe8VxRxi2s8LWsJYcYQw8EdvT9rVl/view?usp=drivesdk
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h-Obe8VxRxi2s8LWsJYcYQw8EdvT9rVl/view?usp=drivesdk]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/123Nn86vwF5dOvRNUdYETITjC0zEfhQXt/view?usp=drivesdk
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/123Nn86vwF5dOvRNUdYETITjC0zEfhQXt/view?usp=drivesdk]
Also, if anyone can suggest a smart way to share personal audio other than
GDrige, please…