What's your story about how you started drumming?

I'm told I was banging on pots and pans as a toddler, and that my mother got me a set of pots that she kept in a bottom cupboard so I wouldn't bang up the ones she cooked with. I don't actually remember all that.

But when I was 6, this record hit the charts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWRnF6cSIO0
and I declared my intention to play drums.

A couple of years later, we could take up an instrument in school and I had changed my interest to trumpet. I didn't have any idea how to make a sound with a trumpet, though, and I failed the aptitude "audition". Took up drums as my 2nd choice.

57 years later, I'm still playing, teaching and building drums, and having a ball. The music experiences I've had over that time have been sometimes extraordinary and unique, always valuable -- and way too numerous to list here.

(I did take trumpet lessons for a couple of years at one point, but it turned out I didn't love it as much as I had thought I would.)
 
These are all great stories. That's the first time I ever heard "Happy Whistler" Jeff. It's funny how a little ditty like that changed your life.
 
Growing up, my older brother always wanted to be a drummer and had a pair of sticks that I used to pick up and beat on pillows with. When I was 16 a couple of friends got guitars and a buddy of mine got a drum kit. I went over to his place one day and tried out his kit. From the first time I ever sat down behind a kit I could play simple rock beats with pretty solid feel. My buddy got jealous and he wouldn't let me play his kit much after that, so I had to get my own kit. In pretty short order I learned all the songs on Back In Black and Appetite For Destruction. Never looked back ever since.
 
As a wee kid I refused to sing in school - eventually learned to mouth the words just so the teachers would stop giving me grief, but then they copped on and my aunt was advised to try to get me interested in an instrument (I would've been 9 at the time) - I wanted to play drums and when she found out that the school had drums so kids who chose drums didn't have to buy/rent an instrument she signed me up. The first record I got was "Jailbreak" by Thin Lizzy, and I would've been into them, The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, because that's what my cousin listened to. Then by 11 I got into punk, and my aunt got me a battered old Ludwig Club Date in red sparkle for my birthday - she found them at the pawn shop and one of the kids on our road came up to me the day before my birthday and asked why was I getting rid of my drums? (my aunt was hiding the kit across the road at a neighbor's house and he'd seen her carrying them over) I looked at him like he was mad - I didn't have drums, what was he on about? Woke up the next morning to find them set up in the front room! That was it for me, I was pretty much obsessed with music - if I wasn't playing my drums I was at the music shop or record shop. I used to skip school to stay home and play. Dropped out of school to play in punk bands, never regretted it, at the time it was exactly what I needed to do, music gave me a sense of purpose and self worth in a world where I was being told that all my future held for me was the dole queue.
 
When I was small, occasionally my mother would take me over to her friends house, where there was a set of drums. They'd let me bang away on the drums for a while while she visited with the couple that lived there.

When I was around 6 or 7, we stopped going over to that house, but the guy who owned the drums gave my mom a pair of sticks to give me.

I didn't think a whole lot about it, they were just another toy in my toy box, but I did keep those sticks into my teen years, when they eventually broke.

My childhood was a bit unstable to music was my solace. I really wanted to play an instrument, but I had no real direction to which one. I had some piano lessons as a kid, but they didn't really stick.

Then two events: I was a big Rush fan, and I started buying their back catalog. Once night I just kept tapping out the intro to Cignus X-1 over and over again on my knees, the dinner table, anything around me. So my mother decided to needed drum lessons.

One day in high school, I found out my favorite teacher was getting fired. I was in a terrible mood. I came home and put on "Live at Leeds" by The Who. When it got to "Magic Bus" I really got into the way the tension of that song builds and builds, and then Keith Moon just explodes. And I realized how the drums control the dynamics and energy of the band more than the other instruments. On that afternoon, I declared the rest of my life would be dedicated to the drums.

And such it is.

Then one day, I was taking lessons in a local drum shop (Drum World in San Francisco) and my drum teacher said the owner was looking for someone to work part time after school. And I took the job, and worked my way to full time, and that is how I got really into the ins and outs of gear.

The trippy aspect is, after my mother passed away, I stumbled upon the discovery that the guy who owned the drum set from when I was little was the guy who knocked her up with me. Which explains why my late mother was willing to pay for drum lessons and a year at PIT, because apparently she knew drumming was in my blood, I just never knew it.
 
In 5th grade we got to pick what instruments we wanted to play. I wanted to play the sax. The problem was, every kid wanted to play the sax (apparently it was the "cool" instrument), so they told us if we wanted to play sax we first had to play two years of clarinet and then we could switch to the sax. Obviously this was a ploy to get kids to pick something else and it worked.

But it wasn't drums. I didn't even consider drums. I tried to figure out what I wanted to do and my mother said "I've always loved the sound of the oboe". Nobody else wanted to play the oboe, so me, being the contrarian I always was, picked the oboe.

I should have never listed to my mother. I hated it. Nobody tells you that the oboe only sounds lovely after 20 years of playing. Otherwise it always sounds like a dying goose.

There was one good side to playing the oboe. The reeds are very fragile and also very expensive, so they wouldn't let oboe players march in marching band with it. Instead, we had to play percussion.

In 6th grade when we marched I played bass drum. As time went on and we got into pep band, I was allowed to fill in on some drum parts since I knew them. I really enjoyed this, but I was still stuck with the oboe. In high school though is where the rubber met the road.

My freshmen year our high school band was huge because it was the year the band was going to Florida to perform. We had maybe 10 drummers, who were all much older than me and very good. I got to spend a lot of time that year in marching band, learning our cadence, our drum line, etc. I couldn't get enough of it, and I hated thinking about being in concert band playing the oboe. Once marching season was over I dreaded going back to that dying goose stick.

After my freshmen year I made a decision, I was either going to be able to switch to drums full time, or I was quitting band. I put the ultimatum to my band instructor. He had just lost 2/3 of his band kids because almost all of them were only in band for that Florida trip. He agreed to let me switch to drums my sophomore year, lest he lose another student.

That summer I bought a Pearl Export kit (that I still own) and practiced for 4 hours every day (at least). I couldn't get enough of it and I wanted to prove I belonged in my new role. By the end of my sophomore year I was first chair. I haven't looked back since.
 
Poika, I like the smell of the inside of drums when you take the head off. I don't know that I ever noticed if the outside smells. Now I have to go smell my drums lol. I wonder if I can identify my drums by smell alone lol.

Maybe it's all in my head lol
All I know is that everytime I walk into a studio or a music shop I can feel the smell.

Love reading these stories, it's definitely a trip down memory lane! This is how we rocked in the 80s
 

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Well, it was 1999 when I was in Jr. High and one of my substitute teachers noticed that I was pretty darn good with computers. Living in a verrrrrry small town at the time, she asked me if I could come over to her place to help her with her PC. A couple weeks later, I did. All of a sudden, I hear her husband Jeff, who I had met just an hour before, playing the hell out of drums down in the basement. Curiousity got the best of me and I walked down there to watch him play. From that moment on, I was fascinated by drums. My cousin Ryan Toth was the drumer for Mower out of San Diego and I had grown up around them . . . but when I saw Jeff play, I was astounded. I didn't know at the time, but he is known as one of the best independent drummers to ever pick up a pair of sticks. He allowed me to come over to his house any time I wanted and just learn the drums . . . to play as long as I wanted and he would show me things along the way. Once, when I had just graduated to barely keeping a 4/4 beat, he let me take his drums home for awhile. Awhile turned into 6 months. He never asked for them back, he never called, he never stopped by. I asked frequently when he wanted them back and he would change the subject. That six months he graciously allowed me to use that old black Tama was the most productive time in my entire life playing the instrument. I owe him everything. Now, in 2015, I have accomplished so much and finally made him proud, I think. I will never forget that. I cringe inside thinking about letting someone use my kit lol . . . but he did. He told me that he saw a natural talent in me and that I needed to take the drums home for as long as it took to "figure the out." I wouldn't have gotten anywhere if not for my friend Jeff. Still so thankful for that.
 
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I've always loved drums, even before I started drumming, it started with Ringo, then Bonzo, Paice, Powell...etc.

But I always thought then that musicians, artists and actors were people with a special gift, it never occurred to me that I could do it myself.

During my chef apprenticeship I saw a very very cheap drumkit in the window of my local music store, 200 Swiss francs only, I couldn't resist, I bought it (it was cr*p though).

I had this kit in my room for about a year, it was more of an ornament than a music instrument, I did sit behind an did air drumming to my fav songs from time to time.

One day, one of my friend who visited me asked me if he could try the drums, I said yes... and my God, he played a wonderful Latino type of solo, when he finished I said to him "I didn't know you played the drums" and he replied "I don't, this is the first time I sat behind a drumkit"

I thought, well if he can play like that the first time he sat behind a kit, I should give it a try... and I never looked back.

I've been mad about drums since :)
 
It started for me with my kindergarten teacher telling my mother I had natural rhythm. Simple ass that. I started lessons right after that at age 5. Then I saw Buddy Rich on television. Loved it from the beginning.
 
This is a fantastic thread and it's been lovely to read everyones stories so far! I'll try and keep mine as short as autistic person can lol.

I used to enjoy listening to music as a child but none of my family played any instruments whatsoever. My mum used to love reggae and 80's while my dad was big on Meatloaf, Queen and Led Zeppelin. The artist that touched me most as a 9 year old was Michael Jackson and then a couple of months after getting 'History' for my 10th birthday I heard 'Don't look back in anger' on the radio and that sparked my love affair with Oasis.

I used to love singing and I was quite decent at it. I was forced to learn recorder at primary school so I did that then decided I wanted to learn guitar. I was so lazy though, I would just strum the D chord throughout school assembly while everyone else played the proper notes, it was funny looking back.

Anyway my voice broke and I couldn't sing any more and I was experiencing a lot of bullying in physical and verbal forms at secondary school. So I thought about learning guitar properly. There were a couple of school bands (one that became Blakfish who were quite big on the UK underground scene).

Unfortunately they were elitist and didn't want rubbish musicians in their crowd so I was left to go it alone so I ended up learning some Oasis and Beatles songs. On the last day of Year 11 (end of secondary school aged 16) I played Wonderwall by Oasis and sang it too. For the first time ever I had not been bullied and a girl I really liked kissed me on the cheek because she was so impressed. My end of year book was something else...all these girls who had avoided me telling me I was cute and that they hoped that I'd make something of myself.

Proves how shallow human beings are but also the power of music to influence people.

I went back to the school for sixth form (like college to the rest of the Western World!) and I was bullied out but the younger blood coming through so I moved school.

As I moved half way through the academic year I was so far behind that I ended up missing most lessons except for French and Music. I met a guy called David Lawlor who was also a guitarist and we ended up playing guitar in a booth or the common room on break/lunch/free periods etc. He wasn't technically gifted but he was very creative. So when he said we should work together on some stuff I was thrilled.

It turned out that he wanted to play guitar alone so I played bass instead but played it too much like a guitarist, so he asked me to sing and I said no. He said that he felt that would be the end as there was nothing else I could offer so I lied and told him I could play drums. I booked myself a 3 hour session in a rehearsal room and tried to get some beats together, and I did just enough that we could start to jam together.

Our 2 piece band called Rodent was formed. We tried out bassists but nobody ever worked out. The one that did work out got stagefright on his first gig so we ended up doing as a two piece anyway.

I have always been a self taught drummer. Me and David both improvised a lot in sessions, it was a good chemistry and departed so far from the norm of people who write riffs in their bedroom and then expect a beat in a one hour session. After me and David called it a day for various reasons I got so disallusioned with other guitarists not being able to jam on the spot that I sold all my gear and had a go at playing darts semi-professionally instead.

Cue 2014 I regretted selling my stuff and have come back to playing and have been the happiest I've been for a long time. I look back on my musical past and I was immature but I always missed playing with David. Whenever I am asked who my drumming influences are there is only one name on that list - David Lawlor, because he was the guy who made me lie because I was so desperate to play with him. Not because he was a valuable friend, but because he had a unique sound I had not heard anywhere else before and had a David Bowie style voice. I just could not resist!

If it wasn't for him, my life would have been different

Thanks for reading and sorry it was so long.
Baz
 
Maybe it's all in my head lol
All I know is that everytime I walk into a studio or a music shop I can feel the smell.

Love reading these stories, it's definitely a trip down memory lane! This is how we rocked in the 80s

Smells have a vivid connection to my memories. When I read this I could literally smell the inside of my first snare drum. It was a 'new', but cheap no name, made in China (or wherever they were made) wooden student snare kit from the early 80's.
 
I had a kit when I was a kid and played on it just a bit. I knew one beat. Then I ignored it long enough that my dad sold it because it was a huge 70's ludwig. I had been playing guitar a few years and kept it up until I got out of high school. At 26, I got the itch for drums again and bought a TKO with busted heads from the newphew of a friend. I rocked on it a couple years then got a Gretsch, then my girlfriend and i broke up and i blew a bunch of the engagement ring money i had saved up on new A customs and stuff. It was fun.

Now that I'm in a serious band, I find myself wanting to play guitar again. I've been practicing it a lot and have improved quite a bit in a short time. I wanna be one of those multi-instrumentalist guys. Next up will be piano. I still will always feel like a drummer though.
 
I played piano for a few years (early grade school) and would throw tantrums trying to get out of practicing it.

6th grade rolled around and if you had experience on another instrument you could try out drums. I really wanted to, but my parents weren't to keen on it.

I wanted to drum SO badly that I would sit on the edge of my bed and air drum to my Walkman every night (while I was supposed to be asleep).

One night they busted me because I had my eyes closed jamming out to... whatever... and they turned on the light. I lost my Walkman privileges for a while haha.

At school I would just go into the band room and beg the teacher to let me play the jazz kit and the various percussion instruments around the room. Finally after a few weeks he let me sit on it and I picked it up pretty quickly. He called my parents and asked them to let me switch from trumpet to drums and they finally gave in. I became 1st chair soon after that and haven't stopped egg-heading out about drums ever since.
 
I, like many was a singer early on. I sang solo as a boy soprano and I guess that's where my love of music, and of performing came from. My first awareness of being aware of drums as an instrument was in the early 70's watching Top of the Pops on BBC1 on a Thursday night and seeing bands like The Sweet, Gary Glitter (pre his current woes), The Osmonds (Crazy Horses!) and other glam bands of the period, and beating on anything with anything at the same time. The only instrument that I ever truly wanted to play was drums. I had some brief encounters with violin and accordion (good god, a lucky escape there) and even toyed with bass for a short time, but my heart wasn't in it. As we didn't have much disposable income as a family, the opportunity to acquire a kit just never came along. The desire was never really quelled in me either and I was always fascinated by the drummer in the band whenever I saw music on TV or live, particularly if I wasn't really into the music as a whole.

I took some classical percussion lessons in my middle years at high school, but again, my heart wasn't really in it, I just wanted to rock! I did gain a pad and some sticks though! Someone had a bass pedal and brought that and a hihat stand and cymbals into the music dept at my High School one day and when combined with the orchestral bass drum and snare, we created a basic drumkit. And I found that I could just sit down and play quite naturally with pretty much anything. My hero by this time was Phil Collins, and I aspired to a big kit with lots of toms, cymbals and everything else (now I aspire to a 4 piece and a roadie).

My playing was overheard by the brass teacher, who asked me to play a few different things, straight 4/4, swing time and a shuffle and then he put me forward as a drummer for a local youth group. The material was a mix of standards and some more modern pop and show tunes. The best thing was though that they had a proper drum kit with toms, cymbals and everything, and if I joined up I could play it and practice. I jumped at the chance and the rest is history- I was 15 at the time. I played with that group for 10 years until I moved away to work at the other end of the country. By this time I had my own kit and proper professional cymbals, had been in a couple of bands, taken some proper lessons, depped for my drum tutor on a number of gigs and taken my first steps into the world of playing for money.

Moving back home after 3 years away, newly engaged and with a responsible job and soon a mortgage and kids, drumming was always there somewhere, helping to pay the bills, providing release from the daily grind and making sure that life was never really that dull.

20 odd years on from that, I still love playing, although I am physically less able than I used to be (damn you old age) but I now make up for my lack of speed with depth of groove, and I think that's a pretty fair trade off!
 
Now that I'm in a serious band, I find myself wanting to play guitar again. I've been practicing it a lot and have improved quite a bit in a short time. I wanna be one of those multi-instrumentalist guys. Next up will be piano. I still will always feel like a drummer though.

It's interesting that you say you always feel like a drummer, because I feel the same way too. I've played far more guitar than I have drums yet I still would call myself a drummer and not a guitarist.

Being able to play multiple instruments is a huge plus as it gives you different perspectives and ideas for music. It also spreads out the wear and tear on your body as you're not constantly using the same joints and muscles.

I'd highly suggest piano it's a lot of fun if you don't go into classical, but that's just my opinion.
 
My first post. I’ll try to be brief.

When I was around one and a half years old growing up in Chicago, a family friend gave us an acoustic guitar with no strings as a toy for my older brother and me. At the time, Beatlemania was in its heyday. While my parents played Beatle records for us, my brother would monopolize the guitar pretending to play along as I was relegated to banging on pillows with wooden spoons.

Several years later I asked for a toy drum set for Christmas. The brand name of the kit was “Out of this World”. In a matter of time, I destroyed that and was forced to move on to Tupperware containers.

When I was around 10, my brother’s friend brought over a real drum set. I remember him primarily playing Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” and Golden Earring’s “Radar Love”, two very snare-heavy songs. He left the kit in our basement for a couple of months and I would grab any opportunity I could to bash away on them. When the set was taken away, I went back to Tupperware and would play along with everything that came on the radio.

When I was 14, two of my school mates and I decided to use our grade school graduation gift money and buy instruments to form a band. The other two got a Kay guitar and Kay bass from a pawn shop and I got a used no-name set of drums through a local classified ad. I recovered the drums with silver contact paper to make them look like they were stainless steel. The band “Zitt” was formed and we played our first gig playing cover songs at the bass player’s girlfriend’s backyard party, around the age of 16.

Fast forward to 2015: I am still going strong on a vintage Ludwig drum set. I have since learned to play several other instruments and am more than proficient with recording gear. If I had to name my most natural talent, however, it would have to be playing the drum kit. The longest I have gone without playing a set was around two months in 2012, a time I consider to be my “dark” period when my band lost their rehearsal space. The withdrawal symptoms were agonizing.

So much for being brief.
 
I started playing guitar when I was around 10. But I had always felt something towards the drums. Air drumming and listening to them more than the guitars in a song. But, it was never really possible to take the time and space to learn them.

Fast forward 29 years, at the age of 39 I decided now was the time and just jumped in. I bought a full set up off of Craigslist and took lessons for about a year. I find I play my drums far more often than I play my guitars and I couldn't be happier.

As a drummer I was able to play my first live shows since I was 16, as a guitarist that just didn't seem possible.
 
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