Category: Drums!

Today is the last day at my music studio, and I’m taking it a little harder than I thought I would.

It was always a dream of mine to have “my own” place to play,  whenever I wanted, as loud as I wanted and for as long as I wanted, and finally I got to make that dream a reality a little over a year ago.  Fourteen months, to be precise.

As a drummer, it’s a lot more difficult to practice, than say for a guitarist or pianist. When I lived in my childhood home, I got pushed out of my bedroom into the garage because it was just too loud for my mom to deal with. But even in the garage – and I’m talking old-school garage, no insulation, no drywall, nothing – I could only go about half an hour before Mom had had enough… Plus you’d freeze in the winter and have a heat stroke in the summer. Not a great situation. When I played in bands through my teens and 20’s, I was always at somebody else’s house or an hourly rental rehearsal space, where you spent half your (paid for) time setting up and tearing down your gear. Then we finally got a house, but also had a baby. Then we had to move into an upstairs apartment, the drums went into storage, and were unfortunately stolen shortly thereafter. So, it’s been a tough run as a drummer.

But as it turned out, the dream was better than the reality. Sort of. I mean, yes, I got to keep my gear in one place, completely set up so I could just walk in and be playing in less than 60 seconds. THAT was awesome! And if it was 6am or 10pm, it didn’t matter. Having no one to complain is a gift that you cannot understand if you’ve not had the cops pounding down your door cuz the neighbors complained.

Don’t get me wrong, I had some good times there, but there was a little aggravation too. There were 40-50 studio spots in the building, the insulation was poor at best, so when 3 or 4 bands would be crankin’ it out simultaneously, the cacaphony would drive me nuts. For a while there was a Tejano group across the hall, with non-stop AMPLIFIED accordian playing. I hated the accordian BEFORE then, now the sound of it completely puts me on edge. A bunch of times the heat or A/C wasn’t working, there would be NO parking for blocks around (and it’s not the kind of neighborhood you wanna walk half a dozen blocks in the middle of the night, if you catch my drift), then the roof started leaking…though thankfully none of my gear got soaked.

But honestly, the worst part of the whole thing is I simply couldn’t find other musicians to join in the fun. I had a writing partner when I first got the space, but his other project took off, he went on tour for 6 months or so, and I spent the last 8 months trying to recruit other players, to no avail. I don’t care what anyone says, finding like-minded musicians to play with in middle age is 110% harder than when you’re a teen or young adult just starting out. Everyone has “real” jobs, spouses, kids, responsibilities… and the middle-aged folks that don’t have that? They’re worse! You find out very quickly why they don’t have any adult stuff in their life…

Now, I LOVE playing the drums – as part of an ensemble. Playing drums with no other musicians gets stale and boring after a while. (I’ve always HATED drum solos!) Boredom led to a lack of motivation. Lack of motivation got me making excuses to not go as my savings account burned to the ground paying for a space I was barely using.

And here we are…

On the bright side, I got my MOJO back as a drummer. I’m not at 100% of where I was when I was say, early 20’s, but I was playing about 20-30 hours a week back then, and had essentially no other real responsibilities so my skill level was off the charts. But I do feel like a real drummer again, and that has been good for the soul. I was also able to do a lot of experimenting with different set ups of my kit, which is something I’d never do when I’m paying by the hour for a rehearsal spot. And it’s not like I’m gonna stop playing altogether, I’ll just be going back to my alternate methods for a while. I got my first snare drum at 7 years old. Now I’m 55, and while there have certainly been ebbs and flows over the years, I’ve never stopped playing. I see no reason to stop now. It’s part of my DNA I suppose…

I still have “The Dream” of my own space. I just know now that this wasn’t the right place for me at this time. I’m grateful I took the leap, I’m grateful for the lessons learned and I’m grateful for this not becoming yet another “I wish I would have…” event in my life. Yes, it’s been a very expensive lesson, but I consider it worthwhile. You don’t know what you don’t know, right? Now I know.

So now I’ll be retreating to the spare bedroom, and setting up shop in there to see what, if any, new things I can learn with all the gear I’ve acquired over the last couple years. I’ve got electric drum stuff, samplers and keyboards, guitars and basses that have not been getting much love. Now the amps and the PA and the giant acoustic drum kit are stuffed back into a storage unit (NOT the same place that was burglarized all those years ago!) and it’s time to move on outside of my comfort zone to see what kind of magic I can pull outta my hat! Honestly, even after all these years, I’m intimidated by electronics – back in the 80’s when all that stuff was new and thrilling I tried my hand at programming sequencers and drum machines and…well, let’s just say there is a reason why drums, good old fashioned acoustic drums, are still my main instrument! Hopefully, like with computers, the machines are more intuitive and user friendly than when they were new, cutting edge technology. We shall see. Either I figure it all out and make some cool new music, or I’m gonna have one hell of a yard sale!!

Thanks for stopping by!