I started playing when I was six. My mother would work in a bookshop attached to a church in a rural town nationally known for its meth addictions and annual flooding. While she did that until 6pm, I would venture into the church and play on the drum kit, keeping me amused and her not having to look after me knowing I was fine so long as she could hear the drums.

We got out of that town and she bought me a beat up Pearl kit at a garage sale for $300 which was HUGE money for us then. She managed to set me up with lessons with a jazz drummer, that turned out was a bit of a national legend, for $13/hr, and we'd travel almost an hour to get to him each week.

Edit: Oh, at this point, the dollars in this post aren't USD. If you're from the US, half it.

One day I bought my kit with us because he was going to teach me all about tuning. He saw the state of my kit and we spent the day fixing it. Not only did I learn how to tune, I also learned how to fix the action of a kick pedal with a leather belt and two nails—still runs like that. He got me new heads from his shop, taught me how tape deadening works, and that I needed a new radius rod, but he didn't have one. I was about 9 then and the music store in my town were blown away that this kid walked in knowing what that was, the type I needed, and ended up heavily discounting me a new stand. Then they helped us even more by heavily discounting a beginner pack of Paiste 506s and second hand stands for those I was missing.

After a few more tweaks here and there—like getting a front skin for my bass—I finally had an actual kit four years after picking up the instrument. I was able to play properly at home and not just practice with what I had. The only time I got to play a "proper" kit was at school or at lessons.

I sheepishly asked to join the school band and was accepted. I did not know that all the years prior of practicing, practicing, practicing with the minimal busted shit I had, while being taught jazz—being all about making music out of thin air—quickky got me recognised. Young kid, out of no where, played really well and uniquely. So I also got drafted into the church band and did that for years. Often I'd bring in my old beat up but now rejuvenated kit for it because to me it just sounded good and I knew it inside out.

Fast forward to 19, I moved to a city. I had no where to set up my kit in share houses. I dragged it around with me but would be in apartments never allowing the noise.

A decade after, it got to the point people knew I was a drummer, but no one had ever heard it. I accepted, I was no longer a drummer. I was someone dragging around a kit no one ever heard played.

Last time I looked, that $300 garage drum kit is now worth $35K to the right buyer to Pearl vintage seekers. I almost sold it a few years ago, but just couldn't.

It's been 25 years since I played before I forked out for a TD-27 eKit a few months ago. I'm not emotional at all but actually cried on the way home as the realisation hit me. I was finally going to get to do the thing I always loved so much.

Boy was I in for a shock. It wasn't just that I could barely play anymore—the brain knew what to do but just couldn't and the limbs were even worse—pkagung on an electric kit was SO weird and SO hard to setup to come close to feeling like acoustics. I used to be able to do so much and so well, but it was all gone...

Time to learn to walk again, one step at a time.

It's funny. I've tried to learn other languages, I've tried to learn guitar, but never do. But drums, I can sit down for hours practicing drills, paradiddles, time signatures, tweaking stool positions and the layout. It's a thing I genuinely enjoy and therefore know I'll enjoy it more putting the hard yards in. I don't know if it's the meditative state, the flow, or the jazz influence of just jamming well with other musicians so they all feel empowered to also send it to new levels, but it's something, or all of it. It's just overall haoppiness, whatever it is.

So as I start learning to walk again on this eKit, with no one to play with, I've been humbly going back to basics. But these days I get to removr drums with AI and play along rather than fuck around with an EQ to only remove punch. Where I would once play Dude Ranch all the way through, I now can't fathom how I did that halfway through the first track. I've started again at my roots; lots of rust to get off, just pick some tracks I think would sound better with a drummer rather than a machine or samples, and just get the muscle memory slowly coming back.

Here's my status in rehabilitation as I learned how to record WAV to SD on Saturday. Just wanted to play and groove. It's not much, but I am happy. That's what this instrument is all about.

I hope this inspires anyone returning or anyone starting. Don't just tap your foot, let it all out.

Drumming is dancing that lets everyone else dance ♥️

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h-Obe8VxRxi2s8LWsJYcYQw8EdvT9rVl/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/123Nn86vwF5dOvRNUdYETITjC0zEfhQXt/view?usp=drivesdk

Also, if anyone can suggest a smart way to share personal audio other than GDrige, please...