My Drumming Epiphany - and My First Kit.

5Twenty

Junior Member
Hi everyone. I've been lurking but It's my first post so I thought I'd tell you a little about myself and my kit.

As long as I can remember I've loved music. When I was 8 or 9 I'd record "Kasey Kasem's American Top 40" in my bedroom every week then listen to that recording all week long (Yes, I grew up in the '70s). But when it came time to choose an instrument mom wouldn't go for drums and I ended up playing clarinet. Barf. Later in life I tried the instruments I really thought wanted to play, which were rock and roll instruments. Turns out I have no aptitude for guitar, keyboards, or bass. More specifically, it turns out I have no patience to learn how to play these instruments. About a month ago, in a last gasp, hail Mary, desparation attempt to find an instrument I was good at, I bought some electronic drums and tried playing them to the songs on my iPod. (Insert Angel voices singing here.)

The very first night I tried playing my new Alesis DM6 electric kit I found I could play many of those old classics I listened to on American Top 40 in my bedroom back in the '70s. I mean I could play them, after a few minutes of learning the timing of using the kick pedal, nearly note for note and in solid time. I was half way through my third song when I noticed I was working the hi-hat pedal without even realizing. By the third night I was playing some of those songs with accuracy, timing and feeling. I was and still am thrilled and excited to have finally found my niche!

After just a few days of playing on my DM6 electronic kit I started getting a little frustrated that I couldn't play musically[/I, if that makes any sense. For example, while the DM6 pads and cymbals are velocity sensitive, it seemed like there were just a few levels of volume available. Also, the hi-hat pedal was either open or closed, nothing in the middle and that was frustrating me right away. It didn't take long to realize that, while the electronic kit was going to be great for practicing and playing at night and when my wife was home, I was going to need an acoustic kit to feed my need to learn how to really play and to play with feeling.

I am fortunate enough to be able to afford a really nice kit but I had no idea what kind of kit I really wanted. I mean, before about a month ago I never even considered drums or drumming. 3 piece? 4 piece? 5 piece? More piece? Do I really need a 14" floor tom? Would I like a double bass as opposed to a double bass pedal? So before I went out and bought a really expensive kit that I might not like or might not be satisfied with I decided I should buy really big, low price kit to learn on and to find out what type of layout I am going to like to play in the end. If I found i didn't use that 14" floor tom I could take it out as opposed to wondering what if. Same for the double bass, 10" tom, etc.

I knew I wanted a new kit, not a Craig's list or used kit, just not my style. I knew I didn't want to spend more than $1000 since I might upgrade sometime and also because I might decide I just don't like drums after all. (Not happening). I settled on this Sound Percussion 8 piece kit. I bought everything you see in my entire kit except for the cymbals and throne for $599. The Zildian ZHTs were $389. So everything in the kit you see was just under $1000. Except for...

When I first set it up and was tuning the heads I could tell right away the heads were poop. The snare head made the snare drum sound like a toy. The toms were not great either. I was sad. Butt I had heard before I bought the kit that the heads were crap and would need to be replaced so I was ready. I had a set of Evans hydraulics and an Evans HD Dry snare head. I AM THRILLED AGAIN. These heads give my that dry 70's pop sound I really love. Hall and Oates, Carly Simon and Paul McCrtney and Wings never sounded so good (in my head) as when I'm play along. And for a $600 kit the drums now sound really good.

So, I'll be around. I'm looking forward to getting the tips and tricks and advice from the real drummers, you guys. As a noob rookie I am waiting to absord everything I can and just try to improve a little each day. I'm getting the camcorder charged up so I can give you all a sound check very soon. But first, I'm going to go play along to "Jet" by Wings, which, by the way, was on American Top 40 in 1974.

P.S. What put the bug in my head that started the sequence that finally lead me to want to try to play drums was seeing Keith Carlock play for Steely Dan last summer. (Steely Dan has always used 2 drummers. With keith Carlock they only need one). While I know I could never play like Keith Carlock it made me start thinking that I might want to try to see if I could play drums at all.
 

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