Music continued - Drums

Drums

Aged 14 I started to play the drums. I’m self taught, learning to play by ear listening to music and playing on make shift drum kits made of a combination of cushions, pans, mattresses and quite often my bedroom wall (I now feel sorry for my neighbours considering I lived in a maisonette).

Aged 7 my mum started to attend a church. It was lively and some of the older teenagers and young adults used to play various instruments. By the time I’d reach 14/15 years old I’d made some good friends, a few of which started a band. My connection with playing the drums was and is deeply connected to my journey of faith. I have never been a keen or gifted singer so I wanted a way to participate, to belong, to carve out my place amongst peers. An ancient Hebrew song writer puts it like this “praise God on the clanging symbol” so I took that as playing drums and thus my journey began.

This post is not about my journey of faith but rather the role of music in my life.

Two albums on repeat as I learned to play the drums were by the Foo Fighters, “the colour and the shape” and DC Talk, “Jesus freak- Live”. I must have learnt every beat to every song. Foo Fighters’, “hero” is in my top 3 favourite songs along with DC Talks’ title track to their album.

I may be stuck in a musical time warp in some respects but, perhaps this is something which happens to us all. To this day I am a frustrated drummer continually tapping and often completely ignoring the words of songs and primarily tuning in to the drumming.