Worst decision you ever made related to drumming.

[ppfd]

Quit playing and haven't really picked it up again.
Not taking my lessons seriously when I was younger. I had an awesome teacher.
Still buying gear and haven't played in years. Got everything I need except the kit!

 

[Cauldronics]

Took a 17yr hiatus.

I think about where I could be at right now if even kept up with it on a practice pad & learning fundamentals and theory over those years.

Yeah, actually this one sticks in my craw. How good I could be if I remained diligent about practicing...

 

[swarfrat]

BUT - I've always wondered since then how far I would have gone if I had taken the plunge that day.

Given the number of folks who've "made it" that are still (or were when they were living) doing side jobs.. I'd say you probably made a wise decision.

Imagine picking up the phone, dialing 911 and saying "Somebody get me a doctor!", And DLR shows up to load you in the ambulance.

The fact that you even know who "DLR" is from just his initials, should make anyone quake in their boots who has aspirations of supporting themselves for an entire working career off an industry that thrives on the blood of fresh victims. Especially if you're talking about an instrument which is virtually always a supporting instrument and unlikely to result in writing credits.

 

[Tornado]

Yeah, actually this one sticks in my craw. How good I could be if I remained diligent about practicing...

I think most people can go down that path if you let yourself, including myself, but I really have to look at where I am today and just say I've got no regrets. I think that's part of what it means to be happy. You can look back and see all the failures, missed opportunities, lost time, wasted effort, and then realize you wouldn't change a thing because every one of those things played a role in where you are today.

 

[Cauldronics]

I think most people can go down that path if you let yourself, including myself, but I really have to look at where I am today and just say I've got no regrets. I think that's part of what it means to be happy. You can look back and see all the failures, missed opportunities, lost time, wasted effort, and then realize you wouldn't change a thing because every one of those things played a role in where you are today.

I agree and there's a level of my drumming that I'm happy with and wouldn't change anything about what got me here. However, for most artists and musicians who would call what they do a passion, they know they'll never reach their full potential and that's a big part of what keeps them going. A drummer who feels like he has nothing left to learn might as well quit playing. So why do Vinnie, Dennis, Minnerman, etc. keep playing? Or maybe it's better to ask in this context, why they keep practicing.

 

[bassanddrum84]

15 years ago I walked away from a touring band with record deal on the table. It was during the pop punk emo hardcore scene. Victory records. I walked away from that band because they did bar gigs on weekends off and never payed me. Owed me 2500$ at the time just had my babies had to quit my job to play with this band. Now that I type this I don’t consider it a regret.

Couple years prior my hardcore metal band toured for two years straight 275 shows in a year playing festivals touring with other band etc. got offered a deal through tooth and nail and myself and the guitar player walked away.

 

[Obiwandrumobe]

taking up drums

 

[Cauldronics]

Taking in my sister as my roadie for an eight-month tour after she got kicked out of the house. Every dude was clawing their way at an attempt to have her. She was nothing less than a musician's and concert-goer's catnip. It got so bad I went to a pawn shop and bought crappy wedding rings, staged a phony wedding and stashed photos of it in every case to show. Even that didn't work on occasion! On a few shows, right after the last song, she'd run up the front of the frigging stage and jump on me wrapping herself around and landing a nasty kiss on my lips. I fell over a few times. Really pissed me off. The bands and their crews never suspected anything! One time she had shared a blunt with the bassist's wife and muttered it was our 5-year wedding anniversary. The band's and crew's girls dolled her up like a Motley Crue trophy-girl. We had opened for Molly Hatchet. She did her usual stage run and crashed head-first into the drums to the wildest ovation I've ever witnessed by any band! Molly Hatchet's people were mighty pissed-off! Hollywood could never have dreamed of such a scene! The most regretted drumming moment in my life!

Whatever man! I love the story! haha

 

[dale w miller]

I guess it's the frustration of not being able to play other drummers' kits, or them not being able to play mine without switching the drums around. I also play guitar (badly) lefty. I'm "mixed-handed" meaning I do some things righty and some things lefty (not to be confused with ambidextrous which is being able to everything equally with both hands) so I think if I'd had a teacher and or pushed myself when I was 12, I probably could have learned to play righty. Then I'd be able to use the swivo-matic tom holder on my Rogers kit I'm over it now, but when it comes to drums (and most instruments) it's a right handed world.

I throw, kick, bat, lift something heavy, all left handed, and write, eat, play guitar & drums, use a hammer, right handed.

 

[cruddola]

Whatever man! I love the story! haha

Absolutely true. We were asked to leave the band that night. They even had our hotel stay cancelled. That gig haunted me out of two gigs.

 

[dale w miller]

taking up drums

It’s been a blessing and a curse.

 

[dale w miller]

That's a shame. They're a good band, or at least they were. I kinda lost interest in them after their 2nd LP, but I still hear their debut "The Rhumb Line" now and then. Love their Kate Bush version of Suspended in Gaffa!

I think as cool as it could have been, it would have brought just as much heartache. Because there’s 24 hours in a day and 23 hours is simply hanging out, 95.8% of being in band is simply hanging and no matter how good the 4.2% on stage is, there’s going to be a disconnect with the players no matter how easy going I am. I’ve been there too many times.

 

[Neilrush88]

Not too serious, but I sold Ferro-manganese Steel Sonor 14X5 Snare made Germany (mid 70'), I still miss that sound.

 

[Cauldronics]

Absolutely true. We were asked to leave the band that night. They even had our hotel stay cancelled. That gig haunted me out of two gigs.

Didn’t mean to appear like I didn’t believe the story. Just showing my appreciation for it.

 

[GiveMeYourSmallestSticks!]

It seems most of us have the same regrets; taking time off (10 years), abandoning lessons as a kid, failing to adequately protect our hearing, selling or mistreating my gear, etc.

While those are all true for me, I try to live without regrets. Looking forward instead of backward, and trying to be a better person tomorrow than I was yesterday. Perhaps because of this, my biggest regret related to drumming is letting my ego get in the way of my learning and playing. Whether it was feeling competitive with other drummers and trying to one-up them with better chops, or thinking I was good enough to play in a band and that lessons wouldn't help me, or feeling like an invincible teenager who didn't need hearing protection, every regret I have related to drumming comes down to a lack of self-awareness and an inflated ego.

I can now honestly say I'm a better player than I've ever been, but also more humble than I've ever been (maybe this bragging casts some doubt). Still, I try more than ever to check my ego at the door, and to live without giving myself even more to regret.

 

[cruddola]

Didn’t mean to appear like I didn’t believe the story. Just showing my appreciation for it.

Thankyou, I was known to have "That Roadie" for a long time. Lucy lost her overly under-boobed three-inch long t-shirt to a bass drum spur after spilling me off the riser and the guitarist over ripping it completely off. She calmly took an exceedingly long bow sporting only an equally long all frontal and a$$-out ragged jean-skirt that had worked it's way up around her belly-button to an endless sea of people. YIKES!! It was her first and last time ever with dope of any kind. It pains me to even write this. Every once in a while she'll come over wearing that ragged strip of denim over her nasty yoga tights just to water me off. Bruce Crump was the only one to have the balls to autograph it. I have another painful one with Lucy in Dublin, but that's another story, LOL. Good drumming to you, Cheers!

 

[blikum]

Turned down a gig with Dave Wakeling from the English Beat. I was doing a lot of sessions and was busy with a tribute band and just had a kid and didn't want to be on the road. Looking back, I kind of regret not taking the gig. I try and have no regrets, but this might be one.

 

[NobleCooleyNut]

I should never have quit Piano lessons . It would have given me a better understanding of melody and song form that would have benefitted my drumming . I can still read music fine but playing a melodic instrument is great for drummers .

 

[Rhythm Block]

Arguably, it was taking up drumming in 2004 after a 37 year hiatus. Truth be known, I enjoy my work as a consultant and consider it to require a lot more creativity than drumming. In fact, I like it so much more that I came back out of retirement to reignite my consulting career full time in my 70s. Probably not the answer the OP was expecting

Music accepts as much creativity as you're willing to invest in it. Marrying creativity with the basic functions and expectations of a gigging/recording drummer is one thing (which requires a separate brand of ingenuity in and of itself), but gigging and recording aren't the end all be all of playing an instrument.

 

[drawtheline55]

I would say, sticking with a band where the singing is ok, I auditioned for a band in the late 90s, got the gig we did many shows and did a CD, all originals, they were very good songwriters and the playing all around was very good, they could have had hits. But from the 1st song in the audition I said to myself...."gee I dont know.

Here is why, I play in a band where we go in the summer on an island off the coast of booth bay harbor Maine. Great spot

With this band I have played with people who have been on Gold Albums, Platinum Albums
and even a nine time grammy nominee. Really top players and musicians.

The one thing that is constant is our lead singer/guitar player.....HE HAS GOT IT
and is a better singer than those named above......I play WAY BETTER behind his singing.
He carries the tune....like when you hear it, you just go Yeah.

So it aint me and my drumming, its his singing ability

So what I have learned, ok/solid drummer, bass player guitar player and a really top singer
you will get gigs.

Have top flight/world class musicians in a band and ME singing, crickets, the phone will never ring