Yesterday, I had the opportunity to play with a couple of very talented musicians that I hadn’t made noise with for twelve years. They were my first band, in fact. They do classic rock and blues, which isn’t exactly my favorite genre, but I don’t hate it. Besides, they are open to newer stuff. Nice.
I learned how to play the drums in 1994. I joined up with these two a few years later, and we gigged quite a bit. I had tempo problems, I played too hard, I broke sticks, and I never remembered beginnings or endings to songs. I was a brand-new drummer, simple as that.
At a gig one night, the bass player said he had to let me go. I just wasn’t cutting it. I wasn’t too upset because I had told them as much myself on several occasions. I knew I was on borrowed time, but I had fun with it anyhow. They were good, and needed a solid drummer; I could definitely understand that.
So, I moved on.
I played with several original bands (meaning they wrote their own stuff) in the decade to follow. I recorded four albums, performed countless live shows (I even threw down a few in Hollywood), helped write music, and, of course, improved greatly.
The jam yesterday went well, and I had a really, really good time. The bass player who had originally fired me told me that now, I played far better than the guy who replaced me back then; I’m not gonna lie, that felt good. It felt real good. No longer do I have tempo issues, no longer to I “wonder” if this or that roll will fit into the given space (or if I can even do it at all), and no more do I play so hard I crack two sticks per set.
I’m a drummer now.
Anyhow, this blog post is largely useless other than providing me a place to tell you all what a good time I had on the drums yesterday. And, I guess, to say that if you are trying something that is extremely difficult, but you suck, stick with it: better times are definitely ahead.
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