What got you started playing drums?

In my country, I didn't have access to live drummers, but, ever since I was born, I listened to the extensive collection of Jazz and Brazilian records (50s-60s) featuring the most outstanding musicians of those decades from my parents (non musicians).

I always liked the drums but never played them, not even what I often hear others describe as playing "pots and pans." It never occurred to me to do that; my dear mother would have fainted!
At 13, I bought a drum set almost by chance (because my dad saw an ad in the newspaper, which was absolutely unusual back then), and began studying, and little by little I was doing professional work already at 15, and at 19 full-time.

Thanks to music, I've lived in the USA, the UK, Germany, and Spain, and I've traveled halfway around the world. I've never done anything else.
 
Last edited:
Started off on the trombone, 5th grade, switched to percussion in 9th grade.

There was a kid in our 8th grade jazz band who brought his 6 piece top of the line Rogers kit for our jazz band concert. I was enthralled. Started practicing the rudiments, made the formal switch in the 9th grade. Continued through college level (big band jazz ensemble) all the way through college.

Seeing the Count Basie orchestra (sadly after the count passed) live was all it took and I was hooked in jazz.
 
Palaeographical said:
Honestly? They were easier than any of the other instruments. 🫣
Click to expand...
Percussion and Piano music can be some of the most difficult to read and play effectively (dynamics, etc.).

I can also see how guitar music would be more challenging than a 'single tone' instrument like trombone or trumpet.
 
doggyd69b said:
For most of us, something or someone made us choose the drums over other instruments (Mainly guitars)
I started at 5 years old when my grandfather gifted me a small drum for Christmas (I believe I had that drum for ONE day, and then the drum disappeared to never be seen again) I bet I was driving my grandfather crazy banging on that thing all day long so he probably was the one that disappeared that drum.
From then on, I always gravitated towards drums.
I started making my drum sets of cardboard boxes and can lids (which surprisingly worked ok as cymbals) I used to "play" along my favorite recordings.

It wasn't until many years later (when I turned 18) that I was able to buy my first drums (a really beat up used Ludwig kit probably from the 60s).
I never took lessons but I taught myself by watching videos (where the drummer is featured in about 5 percent of the video) and mostly by listening to the music. Still do that to this day and it has served me well many bands and gigs later.
I am still improving and still have the same level of passion I had when I first played a drum.

Being a teenager in the 80's made me very aware of bands and music in general (as we all know the guitar players stole the spotlight for a while until Tommy Lee brought the drummer to the front by pure showmanship and simple playing that served their songs well. He is to this day one of my biggest influences because he showed me that you don't need to destroy the drums to look bad ass, you just need to mimic hard hits through controlled movements instead and playing upside down was just awesome.
I love everything drums from playing to building to programming and of course hearing other drummers play.
What is your story?
Click to expand...
I was taking electric bass lessons for a few years - after retirement. I realized that my main limiting factor was counting (especially when getting down to mixed note-length rhythms). I thought that I would take some drum lessons - to focus on timing and rhythm, and the relationship between the drummer and the bassist, and once I had better possession of those, come back to the bass. I was going to buy a starter kit but a guy I used to work with had a kit in his barn attic - which someone had given him but he never used - so he gave the kit to me. Now that I’ve been taking drum lessons (almost all rudiments on a practice pad) I found that I like drums themselves and plan to continue practicing and learning them.
 
Last edited:
Syncopated_1 said:
Percussion and Piano music can be some of the most difficult to read and play effectively (dynamics, etc.).

I can also see how guitar music would be more challenging than a 'single tone' instrument like trombone or trumpet.
Click to expand...
Guitar music in a practical working guitarist sense is not notated much unless there’s a specific part that needs played or a specific rhythm. A lot of the time you’re reading chords, unless you’re playing classical or you’re the lead instrument playing the head of a jazz tune out of the Real Book. Having said that, I’ve seen some guitar parts transposed to the letter that look quite hellish.
 
Unquestionably when I saw Ringo performing with the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
I wanted a drum kit but my parents insisted I learn how to play the piano first.
Two years later they bought me a 5-piece Stewart kit.
That's officially when I started down the slippery slope of drum and cymbal obsession.
 
as ive been told, i was born to do it xD.

heres me, 18 months old, on my first "kit" ^_^
jaykaydrums_13394934_1733592850241847_1260152057_n.jpg
 
I grew up in a family of drummers. My mom, Uncle, Grandfather, and cousin all played. I was gifted a snare by my Uncle when I was 2 years old.
As the family grew, so did more drummers. Everyone on my Mom's side of the family played. If they didn't take up the instrument themselves, their wife/husband, or children did. My father on the other hand is a guitarist, and owns his own repair business. While I didn't choose guitar as an instrument, I always had one in the house, and my Dad did teach me how to fix them.

I never really learned how to play my drum, but when I was bout 8 or 9 I decided I wanted to learn an instrument. I chose Saxophone because I wanted to be rebel and not do what everyone else in the family did. That lasted about a year before I gave in and switch to drum lessons. I wasn't bad at Sax, but at age 9 it weighed more than I did, and walking to school with that thing sucked. It was much easier to toss a pair of sticks in my backpack. If only I had known what the future held, my lower back might not hate me lol.
 
"Art Blakey said he was sitting at a piano....
 
Last edited:
By banging pots and pans at my Nans when I was a toddler. Mom and Dad were musical so encouraged me so got me a little kit not long after. Dad taught me guitar when I was 6 and Mom taught me to sing in harmony not long after.
 
Living Dead Drummer said:
I grew up in a family of drummers. My mom, Uncle, Grandfather, and cousin all played. I was gifted a snare by my Uncle when I was 2 years old.
As the family grew, so did more drummers. Everyone on my Mom's side of the family played. If they didn't take up the instrument themselves, their wife/husband, or children did. My father on the other hand is a guitarist, and owns his own repair business. While I didn't choose guitar as an instrument, I always had one in the house, and my Dad did teach me how to fix them.

I never really learned how to play my drum, but when I was bout 8 or 9 I decided I wanted to learn an instrument. I chose Saxophone because I wanted to be rebel and not do what everyone else in the family did. That lasted about a year before I gave in and switch to drum lessons. I wasn't bad at Sax, but at age 9 it weighed more than I did, and walking to school with that thing sucked. It was much easier to toss a pair of sticks in my backpack. If only I had known what the future held, my lower back might not hate me lol.
Click to expand...
At 9 they shouldn't have given you a baritone sax :)
 
I started on guitar, mainly watching my brother play Metallica, hair metal, and some 80s rock music for years. I was about 4 years old at the time. That lasted throughout elementary school (although I of course didn't get much better at messing around on the electric at such a young age).

It was more in middle school, so a few years later, that I started to get into the drums. I tried out for my jazz band because I thought drums looked cool. Then I got super into it - taking lessons and playing on the 4-piece Pearl set in the band room all the time.

So yeah it was a mix of - "it looks cool" and liking how loud it was compared to other instruments haha. I was pretty young, so that's all it took to hook me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top