Lesson # 2

Update to follow when I find my lessons notes !

Buying my first drum set

So, I had the necessary permission, I'd cleared out the spare room (not totally, my guitars are still in there but unnecessary stuff like bed, furniture and so on was ditched) and I'd arranged to sell off some surplus guitar gear to pay for it : time to buy my kit !

All the advice I'd had said the same thing : get something higher spec and second-hand and wait until after Christmas when it all hits eBay. So I waited. While I was waiting I was offerd what turned out to be an outstanding deal on a snare drum : the much revered 70s Ludwig 400 (see more pics of it here )

I bought a snare stand on my way home from work one day to mount it on, and I was in business with the first parts of my kit : practice was about to get a whole lot noisier.

I'll spare you the anguish of the continual poring over eBay for the next few weeks but suffice to say it was all I could do not to buy the first (and second, and third . . .) thing I saw, until eventually it all came together.

First up were the drums themselves : Mapex Pro M shell pack (shell pack = drums without stands, cymbals etc) for sale in Stoke (via eBay) with a 'buy-it-now' price of £399 : a bargain I was assured by a knowledgable friend. Then on the Drum Classifieds website there was an old DW5000 single-chain-driven pedal, Tama Iron Cobra hi-hat stand and Sabian AA Rock Hats all for sale from the same guy in Hemel Hemsted. On the same site, there was a TRX Ride cymbal (in Worcester) A few emails later and I'd arranged to travel in a huge circle and buy them all one sunny Sunday.

The guy who sold me the drums threw in a stand to hold the 'floor' tom and they chap who I bought the ride from took pity on my money running out (which meant I didn't have a crash on this initial kit) and threw in a splash cymbal (top chap !)

All in all a very nice first setup.

Lesson # 1

I found my drum teacher partly through the Mike Dolbear website teacher register, and James Hester (who I'd met while working at the IGF last year) also spoke very highly of him. We'd settled on bi-weekly 1hour lessons, of which I pre-bought and booked a package of 5.

The teaching setup was ideal - a detached garage at his home had been fully soundproofed and converted to a well-equipped teaching studio complete with 2 full kits and a PA

Update to follow when I find my lessons notes !