Leaving it all on the field

[CC Cirillo]

My weekly jam session with players who are light years ahead of me. I have no idea why these guys tolerate me and I really, really would like to do something musical with them.

They may be hearing that intangible in your playing: heart, soul, a groove that swings and holds them like a mother rocking an infant.

 

[Mapex Always]

Attempts , things falling apart, stopping, starting again, passion returning, starting over again and again, progressing. I may not have natural talent, but I continue to bring my humanity and lack of guile. Innocence.

Phase 1. In junior high and high school, I was perennially the fifth best drummer—so I didn’t even think of trying out for stage band. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get better, everything fell apart.

Phase 2. Right out of high school I played for a couple years in bar and wedding bands. At least I was out there doing it. My passion was rekindled.

Then took a break for college. Then came back for about a year and stopped again next because I had a family young, went to law school at night. My desire to drum fell apart because life intervened hard and I had to provide and become a grown-up immediately. The flame went out.

Phase 3. Fifteen years passed. Started up again in a cover band and then an originals funk band for about 10 years. My passion was rekindled. Gigged a lot. Recorded twice. What I noticed in this Phase was I became a better listener and stopped worrying about being the fastest or the best, and started playing for the song, studying what made people move. Bandmates started referring to me as “musical” but ultimately I didn’t feel respected.

The more they looked at “success”, the more my confidence wavered. Looking back, my touch was terrible, but my style was emerging.

Started a second family and stopped.

Phase 4. Started up again, and really took a deep dive into making the song feel better. My passion was rekindled: a conflagration. Played in a cover band, and an originals band that allowed me to check off some bucket list items: playing larger venues, creating original music and getting paid, and recording in an old school studio onto tape. The originals band are all players much younger than me, some had never played in a band with a drummer, so I had to be the rock and foundation. We had presence. Suddenly my maturity and lack of selfishness in playing for the song had a lot of value. I’m respected and dare I say loved. My touch and feel improved.

NB: During Phases 3 and 4, the majority of my playing life, I was unable to play drums at home.

Phase 5. Everything falls apart during the pandemic. I rent a studio and for the first time since high school actually shed. My passion is rekindled. I’m progressing. I’m diagnosed with cancer, twice. I keep playing. A sense of soul enters my musicality. Every note has value.

My man , tell me your well please ? …. Praying

 

[Matched Gripper]

I wish I could play jazz. I love listening to it but could never get the hang of it.

Yes you can! IMO, learning to play jazz will do more to improve your rock playing than just about anything else. My favorite rock drummers were jazz drummers or at least had some training in jazz. You can hear it in their playing. They can make rock swing.

 

[CC Cirillo]

My man , tell me your well please ? …. Praying

Yes, thanks so much for that inquiry…. I am progressing, gaining strength, and learning to live and respect the Sword of Damocles.

 

[Malc]

I started playing at 15, stopped for over a decade when I was 35 and through a complete series of chances I've been playing again for almost 3 years
My drive is that playing live again has dug me out of the rut I'd gotten into with my life. On paper, my life was great, wife/ kids/ house/ dog/ job etc. But,if I was brave enough to have actually sought a professional diagnosis, I'm pretty sure I had depression.
Through getting involved with my current band I've started doing something for me, which in turn gives a better me back to my family.
Sorry to get a bit deep, and wish my answer could have been the chicks!

 

[Tornado]

I started playing at 15, stopped for over a decade when I was 35 and through a complete series of chances I've been playing again for almost 3 years
My drive is that playing live again has dug me out of the rut I'd gotten into with my life. On paper, my life was great, wife/ kids/ house/ dog/ job etc. But,if I was brave enough to have actually sought a professional diagnosis, I'm pretty sure I had depression.
Through getting involved with my current band I've started doing something for me, which in turn gives a better me back to my family.
Sorry to get a bit deep, and wish my answer could have been the chicks!

I really feel this one. Getting back to playing out with people has been a nice mental reset.

 

[DamnSingerAlsoDrums]

I've always wanted to be a drummer, instead I did the whole band frontman/songwriter bit for about 20 years. Never had a day job: wrote songs, performed and otherwise got lucky enough to have music as my only source of work and income for all of my life so far.

A few years ago I got asked to join a "5 lead singers who switch instruments" kinda band and I got to put what meager skills I had holding up a beat to good use (awfully at first if I'm being honest) as I inherited the throne position for the majority of our set.

Then that project somehow sparked interest left and right and it took off, against all odds. So what had started as a "Lets do a few fun gigs for friends and families where we pretend we're a band" morphed into a "We'll put our respective careers on hold to give this a serious go" scenario.

I've had no choice but to actually learn to play the instrument semi-convincingly. This goal isn't yet totally attained but I'm slowly but surely inching closer.

The pandemic brought its share of new challenges and weird perks such as having to record tracks on an album by myself.

The global grinding halt and me living alone at the time meant I've had almost infinite time to rehearse, research, woodshed, learn how to place my mics and gain stage my stuff almost like a (air quotation marks) PRO. I've had a blast playing and recording all of the drums except on 1 track on our pandemic album.

Drums and drums-related stuff have kept me relatively sane through the last 2 years. And it has brought me tremendous joy and excitement. That joy and excitement keeps me going to this day (we just got 2 other months worth of gigs post-poned due to Omicron hitting hard in our area).

My moments behind the kit, wether by myself in my living room, or on stage during the short windows where we were allowed to play for audiences, have been by far the moments I was the happiest.

Everything about this drums thing is still new to me. So the "flame" is still burning strong and the candid elation of bright and shinny beginings is very much intact.

 

[michaelg]

For me its sound and I guess it always has been really.
I love the sound of acoustic drums/cymbals and I truly love music that feels good.
If I can play something that makes the music feel special, it becomes spiritual and I get off on that.
Music is my religion.

The world makes so little sense most of the time but music that feels good does make perfect sense.
Its logically the best way to pass the time IMHO

something like that.

 

[Tornado]

I've aired out my mid life crisis here before, so I won't belabor it again, but after almost 22 years in tech, I find no meaning in my work anymore. I've climbed that mountain as high as I want to. I never thought that would happen. I loved my career. In another year, I'll have stock grants that vest that could pay off my mortgage on a house that's way bigger than I need. I'll never upgrade. I have a decent amount of money in retirement accounts for my age. I'm finding it very hard to stay motivated to keep climbing that ladder.

Drumming is the only thing I have right now that gives me a satisfying creative outlet. It's satisfying to work on something and be able to apply it at a gig. It's working with my hands. There's a soul nourishing thing that happens when you are physically performing work with your hands. Or maybe other kinds of work are soul sucking. I think I'd enjoy farming.

 

[MrDrums2112]

Love of the instrument is what drives me. This history, the playing, the drum show community I am involved in, the people I have met along the way.

 

[mydadisjr]

 

[Steech]

I've aired out my mid life crisis here before, so I won't belabor it again, but after almost 22 years in tech, I find no meaning in my work anymore. I've climbed that mountain as high as I want to. I never thought that would happen. I loved my career. In another year, I'll have stock grants that vest that could pay off my mortgage on a house that's way bigger than I need. I'll never upgrade. I have a decent amount of money in retirement accounts for my age. I'm finding it very hard to stay motivated to keep climbing that ladder.

Drumming is the only thing I have right now that gives me a satisfying creative outlet. It's satisfying to work on something and be able to apply it at a gig. It's working with my hands. There's a soul nourishing thing that happens when you are physically performing work with your hands. Or maybe other kinds of work are soul sucking. I think I'd enjoy farming.

I hear you. I’ve been in tech for a while too and drumming is one of the only things that I’m passionate about anymore.

 

[Steech]

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I’ve been using this very same technique for years, thanks for sharing this here!