What's your story about how you started drumming?

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
Like how old were you, and was there anything instrumental in steering you towards drums? Let's hear your story.

Me I loved music, especially drums, by age 2

At age 9 I used to go over my cousins house who had (still has actually) a Ringo set, bought in the mid 60's. So that was the thing that put it over the top for me. I just loved drums from as far back as I can remember. Never did the pots and pans thing though. Got bongos in 1967 which didn't scratch any itch and got my first MIJ kit in 1968. That's all she wrote.
 
Nice trip down memory lane :)

I was always into music and singing, and my parents got me to take piano lessons when I was about 5-6 years old. I became bored after a couple of years with that (wasn't really a natural talent sort to say), took up guitar class for a year and then quit the school. At that time, probably around '91-'92 we got a signup for the schools marching band, and I figured I'd try that instead, but at the time I was uncertain of what instrument to choose. After going through music theory class, it became time to pick an instrument. I had it in the back of my head that my father used to play drums a long time ago (even though I had never touched a pair of sticks myself up until then), and none of the other instruments really appealed to me. So the instructor says "we got one last place for a drummer", and I quickly raised my hand as fast as I could. That was it. I got a really good teacher and had to nitpick almost every rudiment imaginable. As well as practice just on a snare, it transferred over to a drumkit in about a year (used for indoor and seated concerts with the marching band).

I like to think of that as a "defining moment" of my music career, even though I haven't played in a marching band since I quit at the start of the year 2000, got more into hard rock and metal bands then. But I might have gone the same route anyway (drumming), since my father started drumming again soon after, and we both continue with it to this day. He's more into blues and "groove" playing though, I'm more into the metal side... We still have a lot in common and a lot to talk about, though :)
 
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I "officially" started around 9 years old. The first drum stick I ever broke was of my mother's first pair of drum sticks. She cried. :D
 
I loved drums all through high school, found a pair of sticks in high school hallway, played around with them but knew nothing of rudiments. But I grew up in a household that drumming could never happen - getting a drumkit, loud practicing etc. So life happened until 40, got divorced and decided I would finally get drumming, bought myself a kit for Xmas. Voila...totally immersed in it for the past 12 years. Wish I started sooner, oh well.
 
6th grade band for me, would have been 11 or 12, 1982 or 83. A close friend started at the same time and was one of the reasons I picked the snare. Stuck with it from then through the end of High School. Unfortunately we started with a excellent band teacher, but lost him by 9th or 10th grade. After that the rudiments took a back door. Transitioned to the drum set around that same time and never looked back other than a few long breaks. Funny thing is I am still in touch with the friend, he is one of my neighbors. He was always a natural where I had to work at it, he now says I have far exceeded what he ever did, but in my mind I haven't. He plays mostly country guitar now.
 
February 9, 1964 Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I was hooked. But I started out wanting to be a guitarist. My buddies my brother and I used tennis rackets for guitars and boxes for drums. My younger brother did not want to be Ringo so to keep the peace I became Ringo. I also got in trouble because I used my sisters albums as cymbals. Coat hanger through the hole on one end and jam the other end into a box.

Bamd was called The Termites :)
 

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You used your sisters albums as cymbals? Hilarious! Pretty funny man. Well not to her lol.
 
I got into music in the third grade. I started on trumpet, where after six weeks of lessons, I was famously told by my instructor I would never go anywhere with music. That led to a cooling-off period until eighth grade, when I took up saxophone (eventually going to All-State three times).

In the early 1980s the second British Invasion happened, and then we started getting 80s metal. So my friend picked up guitar and I picked up bass. I did two years on bass in jazz band, but began to get fascinated by drums. There were only a couple of drummers in town at that point, and no music stores, no internet, so everything I knew about drums came from what I saw of these couple of drummers and from videos.

On an exchange trip in Europe, everything changed. I visited some friends who played in a band and the drummer let me sit in on his kit. I took to it immediately and never looked back. When I returned back to the states, my parents bought me my first kit and eventually it became my primary instrument. That was 30 years ago last year.

I'm friends with that first music teacher on Facebook. I invite him to my gigs.
 
At 39 I decided I wanted to play an instrument and decided to play a flute (!) Took lessons and took it to grade 7. Loved it. Took music theory lessons to grade 5 (you can't do grades 6+ practical without theory grade 5 with UK's associated board of the royal school of music). Then classical guitar (grade 5) and then bass (grade 5) and all the time I really just wanted to play drums but thought it would be too loud, annoy everyone, take up too much space, and lots of other excuses.

At 47 I switched to Drums and 18 months later I can't think about playing anything else.

Now, for the first time in years, when I listen to any music, I just hear the drum lines. I take my sticks away when I'm on business trips to hit desks, pillows, and my steering wheel when stuck on the M25. I read stuff about grooves, and can't wait to get behind the drums again.

A bit of a journey and it just keeps getting better :)
 
I had an obsession with music at a very young age.
Some of my earliest memories are of standing on a chair in front of my moms old record player.... which was basically an enormous piece of furniture with a lid that opened revealing a turn table... and playing record after record.

She had an amazing record collection with everything from George Jones and Slim Whitman to the Platters and Temptations to Stevie Wonder and James Brown to Bill Evans and Miles Davis....

I remember listening to some of these songs and feeling very emotional.... I had no idea what they were singing about I don't think.... but my emotions were stirred up by the melodies and the rhythms

There was one record that I think was called Funky Favorites ... it had songs like Purple People Eater, My Dingaling, Monster Mash, Charlie Brown, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, Beep Beep, Hello Mudduh Hello Faddah etc... but there was one song by Lee Dorsey called Ya Ya that I thought had this amazing groove and I would dance all over like crazy.... that song took over my soul and I would listen to it 50 times a day.

I wanted some drums so I could play that song .... I would get up on the kitchen counter and bang on the flour, sugar, and coffee canisters.

Eventually my older brother started taking drum lessons from a family friend down the street in I guess 1978 or 79.

My parents bought him an old Frankenstein set Slingerland Stewart hybrid with some old Zildjians .... I loved to beat on that thing.... but my brother hated me banging on it so he taught me a few beats ....

one he called the strip beat which was basically the jazz swing beat
one he called the rock beat which was basically Bap Bap Bap Boom Bap Boom ... kind of like Pretty Woman or whatever... and some other beats.

When it all really became mine was when I found a KISS record in my sisters collection.... Destroyer... I heard the intro to Do You Love Me?.... and I was hooked ... I needed to play that .... my journey had begun
A couple years later ... I guess around 1983 I discovered Run DMC and my mind was blown..... I needed those beats to come off my limbs.

by age 12 I had gotten into metal and everything else you can imagine and was gigging heavily .... as heavy as a 12 year old could gig I guess

so here I am today .... a big sloppy goulash mixture of country, Motown, funk, jazz, rock, metal & hip hop

sorry for the novel uncle L.

but it was nice to reminisce for a minute
 
My mothers side of the family is all drummers....

My Mom, her Brother, their Father... Even a number of my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, cousins are all drummers. And if you aren't a drummer, you married one! No LIE, I think we have around 11 or 12 on that side of the family.

My first xmas I was give a Muppet's snare with Animal on it.
Then when I was 2 my uncle gave me a Remo PTS Snare, and finally when I was 10 I began formal lessons. The rest, as we say, is history!
 
Being brought into the world by the man in these pics...

He was a ferocious jazz record collector. In fact, it wasn't until I was about 9 or 10 did I know any other music existed. It played constantly in our house (and I do mean daily).

His drums were always there for me to dabble with and I remember watching him sit in at family weddings back in the 70's.

It wasn't until I was about 10 that I expressed interest in exploring the instrument. He wouldn't teach me though. He refused since he hated to read. He wanted me to not be like him and get schooled. So off I went....

My uncle (dad's brother) played jazz sax & clarinet and his wife sang... So back in the late 70's / early 80's we ended up playing together a few times a month and eventually started getting gigs with other musicians. I wasn't out of high school yet but I had been exposed to an incredible amount of music and information. I consider myself lucky and look back with more than fond memories. My dad and uncle were walking history books of the music. I miss them all terribly so.

38 years later - here I am.

Not sure if this is the kind of info you are after Larry... But this is where / how it all began for me.

Here's the pics. My uncle. dad and some cousins are also playing in the big band pic.

Sorry if this has bored you all to tears.

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Ant that's a great story Ants. And kind of the reason for the thread. It's great to look back where we all came from. The goal for adulthood is to return to child hood for many people.

Great story man, I can relate very well to the early fascination. I was nearsighted and didn't get glasses till late, and I think I focused on my hearing more. I got so much pleasure from my sense of hearing. The stuff coming out of my little RCA 45 player....like what IS this? All these different elements doing different things and sounding so GOOD together. Just fascinated the pants off me....I liked to get to the very bottom of the mix, the drums, and listen completely through everything to the rhythm track. That's what really grabbed me, the force of the rhythm track.

My parents weren't musical themselves, listened a little, car radio playing Motown and everything else. Once in a while I would hear Frank Sinatra on their big stereo. He never grabbed me then. No real dominant drum sound on his records I think. For some reason there were enough 45's around to keep my interest. "Mack the Knife" was my 50 listen a day song. I was really young, pooping my pants still lol. I always had an ever changing song I was obsessed with all the way through my entire childhood.
 
man... love all these stories

refreshing change to the dynamic of the forum for a bit

thanks uncle L

I'm looking forward to reading more
 
You used your sisters albums as cymbals? Hilarious! Pretty funny man. Well not to her lol.[/QUOTE

Yes I did use her records as cymbals. Some good ones too, James Brown, Roy Orbison are two that I can think of.
 
Sorry Tony, Pretty boring.
2nd grade piano lessons. lasted one year. 6th grade saxophone lessons. Again one year. I was small in 6th grade and the tenor sax wasn't.
8th grade took drum lessons. 14 of us started the class using boards from the bookshelves on the backs of chairs facing back to back. Not a bad sound really. Anyhow 3 of us finished the class and graduated to band and orchestra. That ended in 1966, didn't play again until 1975, three gigs for a friends Dads trio, and then didnt play again until about 2006 and here I am.
 
My dad was a drummer, 7th grade I took lessons to be like him and had almost zero interest. I never practiced but nevertheless he bought me a shiny new black set of Pearl exports. By the end of 8th grade they collected dust and the lessons were over. High school was all about baseball to me, jocks were cool and musicians well, weren't. The second half of my senior year I walked into a used CD store and a copy of MXPX Life in General was sitting on the counter. I played it in the store using a set of headphones and was hooked. I started getting into punk and going to shows. I went downstairs one day to the set that hadn't been touched in 4 years and taught myself how to play cause I now realized how cool it was to be a musician. Picked up the sticks and they haven't been put down in 17 years.
 
My parents got married in 1944. In 1946 my parents went on a bus tour across the country with Ted Fio Rito and his orchestra.
My Dad as the drummer, my Mom as a background singer.

I came along in 1949. So there was always music in the home and drums set up in the front room.
I started playing at about 5 years old; as soon as I could sit on the stool and reach the bass drum pedal.
I remember playing the drums at my 6th grade graduation ceremony. And of course in the early 60's I got deep into rock n' roll.

When you start playing drums that early in life, it feels like you have always played the drums. Drumming becomes as natural as walking while chewing gum.

I have a lot of respect for those drummers that start drumming as an adult, later on in life.


.
 
My father was (is) a musician so when I was a kid I got to hang a bit in all these rehearsal spaces, studios, clubs etc. I remember I was always fascinated with the drum set, because it was not just a singular instrument but - especially to the eyes of a little kid - it was a huge stack of shiny and funny smelling things that you could hit that made a lot of noise. Even without electricity!

Growing up, we always had all kinds of instruments around the house, but never drums. None of the other things really grabbed my attention for more than 10 minutes, so I didn't get into music until later. When I was ten he moved into a house that had a basement, and there he put up a real drum set. I still remember walking in the basement for the first time, the drums all set up and ready. From that moment on, when I was able to sit down and just play the drums as long as wanted and I didn't get bored doing it, it was clear that drumming was the thing for me.

I still get off of that smell - you know the one, the "instrument smell".
Can't get enough of it.
 
I've been a guitarist since before dinosaurs roamed the earth (either 6,000 years ago, or more than 65 million years ago, depending on your sources).

Four years ago my then 7 year old son started playing drums in the school band.

Two and half years ago my wife bought him the most godawful drum kit, with even worse cymbals. On the way home from collecting it, I decided I was going to take lessons.

One kit upgrade (early 90's Pearl Exports...the Toyota Corolla of drums) and many cymbal changes later, I've been taking lessons and started a band that will be playing out(ish) for the third time next weekend.
 
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