Were You Destined to Be a Drummer?

lilerm8302

Junior Member
Hi guys!

So, I posted this question in my Facebook group for drummers, but I thought I'd see what you had to say.

Looking back to the time before you started learning to play the drums, do you have a memory that surfaces that was a sign you'd one day be playing the drums? Or at least you recognize it now as a sign.

For example, being 3 years old, and playing on pots & pans with wooden spoons.

Any early signs or symptoms? :) Thanks for your comments.
 
Nope, no early signs that i could think of here.. A lot of drummers do, though. I actually recall a time when my friend showed me their drum set and me thinking "Ill never play drums, its just not my thing." I was very wrong haha. It wasn't until several years later that the drum bug bit me.
 
Absolutely, for sure, no question about it. Except I don't do it full time, because it doesn't pay enough for me to live on....which is not my fault. If I was born in 1930 I could have made enough to live on, thrive even. The economic landscape is completely different now.

A lot of traditional business are falling by the wayside. The music business has been hit hard by the digital age, as are many other businesses.
 
Not sure, but all I recall is that at age 8 I was fixated on the drumming in Edgar Winter's song "Frankenstein".
 
Yeah. I was attracted to the instrument as a kid. I remember being fascinated just by the mechanics and physics of a drum set. I think that stuff appealed to my scientifically curious side. I've always loved trying to understand how things work.

With a drum set, I wondered about things like: Why does attaching wires to the bottom of a snare drum make it sound like that? ; how do hi-hat cymbals and pedals work together make that slushy disco-beat sound? (I remember wondering if it had to do with air moving as they were opened/closed - funny, in hindsight).

I just wanted so badly to get my hands on some drums and figure this stuff out and mess around. I finally did, one day, and felt like I understood that stuff. Then it was about music, which I already loved anyway. Well, there was the attention from girls, too. Anyway, I never looked back.
 
From as early as I can remember, music hooked me in, and my ear always went right to the very bottom of the mix. I remember tapping out the entire memorized In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida drumsolo out on the lunchroom cafeteria table at age 10 for a few onlookers.

Then after age 14, when I became... ahem.... aware...yea that's when drumming took on a really important meaning and revealed to me..... who I really was.
 
Yes. Not destined to be,but born one.Pots and pans,African rythyms at like,5yrs old,playing with broom handles on tv trays, in the garage with a grill nailed to a workbench as a cymbal playing with the a.m. radio....it's always been like breathing to me.It's part of me forever, no question.
 
Yeah, I clearly remember banging on pots and books with my mother's knitting needles; I can't have been more than 4 years old at the time. I have absolutely no clue where the interest came from... I have no musicians in my family, and this was long before I became aware of music and musicians in any way other than singing along with childrens' songs.

It must be genetic.
 
I don't know.

I found out when I was in my mid-30's, the guy who knocked up my mom with me was a drummer.

So, I guess it was in my blood, but I had no idea that was so until long after I had been in a bunch of bands. Just kind of weird.
 
I never played the pots and pans as a kid, but I have always loved music, right from the start, and always loved the drums in music, well before I started drumming, I don't if it's a destiny, I've been at it for over 30 years, and I'm certainely loving it, I can't imagine life without drums :)
 
Actually, I do have a very similar early indication I was supposed to be a drummer. I would take the empty tubs of ice cream we had that my dad kept screws and nails, etc in and I'd play them with paint brushes. This was when I was three.

I never knew my dad used to be a drummer until after I'd decided to get my first set at age 13. I guess he'd sold his drums when my brother was born to support the family. Too bad, too, apparently they were some late 60's Luddies.
 
What an interesting thread! I had a toy drum set at four. I got it at the holiday time, along with a cooking set and a talking doll. Looking back, I thought, what an odd juxtaposition. When I asked why I got the kit, I was told I used to like to play on things. I don't remember. I've always been fascinated by drums, even as a small child. I don't know why. Still, I'm not making a living at it, and never will, but I'm grateful to have them in my life at all.
 
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I totally believe I was without a doubt. Musicians run deep and wide in my family and I think it just "is" within it. I have a 2nd gen cousin who also has the bug and is making a name for herself as well.

No doubt, drums were destined to be in my life and I had a Dad who was a Jazz drummer that passed it all on to me. Best part of it was he never once asked, encouraged or tried to entice me into any instrument whatsoever.
 
If I was destined to be a drummer...who can tell? I have to ask mum & dad!
What I remember I always hitted and kicked things with passion. Grabbed pencils started to hit pillows, cushions, tins, whisky and wine bottles, tap on the table. Love to kick the ball (football, soccer).
 
My dad is a percussion player (actually lived off it when he was younger) and had six sons. I'm the only one that turned out to be a drummer (and more generally a musician) but I had no real interest with music till I was thirteen. After that I was consumed by music, haven't been able to to anything else since.
 
I don't think I was destined to play music, period - but I'm fighting all the way!
But from a purely physical/mental approach to the instrument. I think maybe, maybe not. I'm very distracted - not good for a drummer. But I'm very physically coordinated - good for a drummer.
 
Is there a difference between being a drummer, and playing the drums?

If not then every answer here should be yes, because if it takes place, meaning if you play the drums, then you were destined for it, because it happened. It came to pass.
 
Is there a difference between being a drummer, and playing the drums?

I think there is a difference, we can all write, but we're not all writers.

I don't mean it in a bad way, but there's drummers and drummers, I'm one that play the drums :)
 
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