What got you started playing drums?

As a kid i played in pillows and later on every drum kit i could get my hands on,not that they were many,i am a self taught amateur and now i am starting again with teacher to get it right.As they say they cant put it in you and they cant take it out.
 
The piano - played that in 1st & 2nd grade. I liked hammering the keys to make it loud and kinda naturally migrated to playing a snare drum in concert band ~3rd grade. It was one of those late 70's Acrolites. Didn't realize how sweet that snare was back then! Eventually, I took buckets and pots and pans and made a "drumset". It was all downhill from there...
 
I have a cousin that showed me som live footage of Iron Maiden when i was maybe 10 years old or so. Back then, and still, Nick McBrain is awesome! I wanted to be like him behind the kit hehe.
 
Kind of a custom here that, if you want, you take theoretical music classes (and singing classes) from the age of 6. Then, when you turn 8 you can start an instrument. I chose drums and percussion and have been following class ever since.

Music is something that runs in the family, so there was no doubt I was going to take music classes - and play an instrument.
 
In my school district you couldn't be in band until fifth grade but you could be in orchestra in second so I played violin to start. I was good and ended up in quite a few regional orchestras and stuff. I would spend my Saturdays at rehearsal and spent nearly all my time turned around trying to see what the drummers were doing. EventuAlly in eighth grade I switched and then I got caught up in high school drumline. A buddy of mine was into Dave Matthews and I fell in love with carter as a player and he really was how I found my way behind a kit.

Another buddy of mine who was the best drummer I've met was taking lessons from the guy who taught Chad Sexton of 311. Once I got into that realm I got a more formal appreciation of not only what a local guy like Chad was doing but introduced to artists like Gadd and Erskine.
 
My father was a professional musician that never did anything in his life but play music. When I was two years old one of his bands used to practice in our basement. I gravitated (Or so I am told) to the drum kit and the guys in the band thought it was funny, so I kept doing it. Eventually I could play some and my Grandfather bought me a sweet ludwig red sparkle kit that I was too young to appreciate.

My father tells me I played on stage within a few years and took me to a studio where I ended up on some obscure recording that absolutely has no existence anymore.

The guy that was playing for my father at the time was a Bonham guy. Same hair, mustache, same style of playing. It was Ludwigs and a speed king from day one for me and his influence led me right into John Bonham.

Once I was old enough to join, I was in the school band and played drum set in the yearly school thing in my first year and that just fueled my fire even more because no one had ever done that before. I went on through marching band and played everything I could before losing interest to football and girls. My music teacher was a great guy and encouraged me to go to Berklee.

I took influence from the drummers from James Brown, Rufus, the Jeff Beck Wired stuff, Tony Williams. Stuff that felt good to play to me and was a contrast to my huge Bonham influence. That stuff all got me, or kept me going. I have had successes and failures and times when I dropped off altogether... but a lot of things made me start playing again.

I would say overall what made me start playing time after time again was just a love to play drums.

Sheesh, didnt mean to make it so long ;p
 
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By the time I was 8 I was already setting up mock "drums" and playing to my records. Music lover at a very you age - Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Zeppelin, Rush, and eventually the greatest moment in the history of rock - Van Halen 1978. I was playing it all on drums, wingin' much of it on guitar. This was all from 10 years old to about 19. Never took lessons. It never crossed my mind.

Something that is incredible to me today, is that in the first ten years after I got my first kit, it never occurred to me to upgrade anything! I just played. In ten years all I added to that cheap, prehistoric 5 pc kit was another cheap abused bass and a couple toms (I needed more pieces for Rush tunes!). I never bought a better kit, quality cymbals, good pedals.

This $400 entry level Yamaha I own now is top of the line compared to that old thing I learned to play on.

Anyhow, there was a long break from drums as I dove into guitar from the late 80s to about 2008. Not the same sad story with my guitar gear.
 
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So it was in school basically. I grew up playing a lot of sport, so I considered myself pretty coordinated.. I also learned a bit of Trumpet and Piano before Drums, so music and rhythm weren't foreign to me. But, when the time came in school when we were shown a few simple beats on the drum kit, I struggled. One of my good mates, who was extremely uncoordinated was much, much better than me (Absolutely great guy.. But could not catch a beach ball..Sorry bud).. So that's when the stupidly competitive streak in me came through and I practiced my butt off to be better than him.. After putting that much effort into practice, I realised I loved playing the drums, started my first band a couple of months later, and I've now been playing for about 12 years.

So there you go. Looking back at it now, it's really kind of a bad way of getting into the drums... But my god am I glad I did!
 
I reckon I was ten or eleven. I remember watching Hocus Pocus and the guy in that (who, on watching the film again recently, is actaully a bit of a goon) has a drum kit. And I was like: I want that.
 
Only been playing a couple of years but just started doing lessons.

Bored guitarist. I had a studio with two mates and there was a Pearl kit in there. Started knocking about on that and then bought a beginner V drum set. Upgraded recently. Loving it :-D

Guitar now bores me to death
 
At the age of 15 all my classmates started to play guitar or bass, so then i thought that maybe I could start to play drums and form a band with them.
 
KISS ALIVE! I remember I was in seventh grade, 1980, I was sitting in history class, long pencil with a big eraser, my history book on the desk and a pocket full of change. I, not even realizing I was doing it, began playing Rock and Roll All Nite and the teacher came over and asked if I played drums. I said no, why? She said you should, that sound good. A couple of weeks later, me, my mom and aunt made a late night run to Taco Bell, an hour away, and ALIVE was playing. Peter's solo came on and I started banging on the back of the seats. My mom said you can play this? That's when it hit me, I said yes, can I have a drum set for Christmas. My mom and grandma went in together and got me my first set and been playing since.
 
Music - Green Day, Third Eye Blind

Drummer- My dad, Tre Cool, Casey Cooper

Person - Dad

Style - Rock, Pop, Any upbeat music

Inspirations - Seeing my awesome father jam on the drums and play along with guitarists really got me wanting to learn.

Anyone else get into drums because of their dad? I started banging on the drums when I was like 6, and I actually learned when I was around 10. I started playing on my churches band and now I love playing drums! I practice a lot and I think I'm getting better every day.
 
I wanted to play guitar. My best friend got a guitar and started taking lessons. I immediately noticed that my fingers do not move like that. Went home and told mom I wanted to play drums instead. She made me try the school band and I kept going after that.
 
I was always quitting when things got tough! Piano lessons, basketball, homework and all the stuff growing up from grade school; I finally said to myself I'm going to take up drums and I'm going to stick with it. So started in the 7th grade with a plastic snare drum for Christmas( I'll never forget the name "Big Bash"). I read everything over and over as nothing else really interested me as drum stuff! Teaching myself by reading (and I was a slow reader) I mastered the single stroke roll, and practiced everyday before my parents got home from work as the noise they said had to stop. The double stroke was definitely much harder-Think tip bounce control; Powerful stuff! Still with no band in our small Catholic school I read everything I could get my hands on from the libraries as I knew nothing in music notations, so most music drum teaching books were out of my league. Searching stuff to read I learn of Baby Dodds, I found a book from CA Berkley School of Music by Dawson, describing various latin rhythms, with words instead of music notes! What a find! After 46 yrs and owner of 4 vintage kits, lots of small town gigs, a few big ones, I still have the same enthusiasm and the book from Dawson - but "Big Bash" is long gone!
 
KISS ALIVE! I remember I was in seventh grade, 1980, I was sitting in history class, long pencil with a big eraser, my history book on the desk and a pocket full of change. I, not even realizing I was doing it, began playing Rock and Roll All Nite and the teacher came over and asked if I played drums. I said no, why? She said you should, that sound good. A couple of weeks later, me, my mom and aunt made a late night run to Taco Bell, an hour away, and ALIVE was playing. Peter's solo came on and I started banging on the back of the seats. My mom said you can play this? That's when it hit me, I said yes, can I have a drum set for Christmas. My mom and grandma went in together and got me my first set and been playing since.

I also began with tapping on my desk, although I was already in high school at that point. During my middle school years, I would get very annoyed by classmates who tapped on their desks, only to join their ranks a few years later. I also played Guitar Hero: World Tour around this time, playing the guitar at first, since that was my instrument at the time, and later switching to the drum kit controller. I never looked back. During Christmas of or 2010, I got my first snare drum, and immediately asked my parents, "now where's the rest of the set?" I got my Tama StageStar set around a month or two later, and it has been the "high road" ever since!
 
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