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 !

First steps

So - how to take those first steps ?

Step 1 was to sow the seeds of the idea with Mrs DrummingDad : after all I can't exactly just clear out a room one day and move a drum kit in. After an expected "Don't be stupid!" I eventually convinced her that with silencer pads on a drum kit would be fine in the spare room (which currently houses my guitars, PC, rowing machine and a futon. The latter item, I suggested, is rarely used and takes up about the same floor-space as a lovely shiny drum kit. I think she felt that arguing was a waste of time and so the matter was sealed : I had spousal permission !

Step 2 was to find a teacher : a quick search on the Mike Dolbear website (yes, that place again - I honestly will say more about it soon) revealed that just one local teacher was registered on their website so I investigated his website (all very impressive) and emailed to book some lessons : 5 bi-weekly lessons arranged for the New Year :-)

Step 3 was to buy lovely things ! : yay - now for the exciting stuff. I went to a local music shop (which reputedly specialises in drums) and bought a set of sticks and a 'practice pad' with which to practice the absolute basics until my lessons (which seem sooooo far away . . . ;-) )

Hello and Introductions

Hello there good reader, and welcome to my blog (it seems odd writing this - does anyone really read other people's blogs ? . . . ) *ahem* Anyway, 'Hello' . As the title suggests I'm a Dad in his 30s who recently and inexplicably got the bug to play the drums. I've never played the drums before even as a child, and what little musical inclination I did have was always to play the guitar (which over the years I have managed to achieve a proud but below average standard and I play guitar in a covers band).

So as it's just you and I reading this let's be honest with each other : this is my mid-life crisis isn't it ?

When I'm rich and famous from my drumming exploits . . . (are you laughing ? come come now, and after I was so honest with you . . . ) people will want to know why I did it and I will tell them : My toddler made me do it.

It's true : he's always banged on things and from 18months would drag the pots and pans from the cupboard and arrange them in a semi-circle around him then set about them with a wooden spoon and a cake spatula (please note that neither were made from tuned and hand-matched hickory but he seemed to get on just fine) and this led to us buying him a toy drum kit for his second Birthday. He quickly battered it to pieces so time came for a more robust 'toy' which resulted in this :

which is a mini-kit put together from real drum kit parts by a very clever chap going by the name of "fiveknucklebullet" on the Mike Dolbear forums (more about this excellent community in a later post)

so the next time I was home alone you can guess what I got up to (actually if your mind is as single-tracked as mine maybe you can't, so I'll tell you:) i played his drums.

and what a revelation. I was grinning from ear to ear. I wanted some. I NEEDED some. And dagnabit I was going to get some !