[eclein]

I wanted to drum when I was young, young and in 4th grade they had the assembly for those interested in playing an instrument, so I went and said "I'll take the drums please" and they said NO, not until 6th grade so my very first instrument was.....Violin and then in sixth grade I dropped Violin immediately and tried the hard core instruments and took up drums. So they put me in marching band and I'm playing these 20" crash cymbals that you hold out in front of you and slam together...I was like 98lb and holding those babies out there to "slam" them together was a real chore and on the Star Spangled Banner for football games you had to "slam" them together alot like continuous 1/8 notes and I just remember at the end having to hold them like in front of me but down by my ankles and I'm doing everything in my power to not let them hit the ground, oh man, I was exhausted...I quit marching band the next day and that was the end of my career in Marching Band---Thank god!!!
 Anybody have a similar experience???

[fredgarvin]

I started drumming on the sofa when I was about six. That was my first instrument. I finally was able to get a 4 piece set from the JC Penney catalog at 12. I played in garage bands in High School with that beater. Finally I bought a set of Ludwigs, blue-tinted clear acrylic. I started playing in clubs at 18 and ended up on the road for three years. At the end of that stretch I sold all of my stuff, drums, mics, PA, and moved into a mountain commune to cool out. After a couple of years I picked up a set of slingerlands and started playing in worship bands and doing weekend gigs with other bands for about 25 years. My last set was Mapex, 9 ply maple Mars model. Very nice. A couple of years ago I gave them to my son who plays out occasionally. Now it's strictly guitars for me and I gig out rarely because I moved to the mountains.

[eclein]

My Dad who is 93 bought me a set of Ludwigs from a guy he worked with and I was so excited and then the doorbell rang, and there they were the most ancient set of ludwigs ever...the tom had one head that was actually held in place by tacks...needless to say I did my best to never have to play them in front of folks...then Fibes stepped in and hooked me up with some clear drums like Billy Cobham used... they were better but my eventual move to Yamaha was the finest kit I owned. I played some kits that were legendary because of the owner...when I was living in LA I jammed a bit with Buddy Rich in his basement and played his Slingerlands...they sounded great.....I remember that dy like it was yesterday.
 

[fredgarvin]

Sweet. Buddy Rich was a phenom. I remember those Fibes of Cobhams, that's what led to me getting the clear ludwigs. Yamaha makes great kits.

[eclein]

Billy hit his drums so hard they just sound awesome, I saw him at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr and sat in the first row, he set his cymbals up flat and hit the cymbals with his stick at a 90 degree angle and when I got up to leave the wood chips that fell off me to the floor was astounding----LOL.

Buddy Rich was a trip, flat out trip.....I never met a musician or anybody really that excelled at what they enjoyed doing that wasn't twisted in some way.
 Have a great night Fred!!!

[nathanm]

I was into messing around with tape recorders and microphones at first and then I took an old "door harp" I found in the garage which looked something like this:

and mic'd it up with an overdriven Radio Shack microphone and made interesting noises.  This inspired me to build my first electric guitar.  It had a plywood body, poplar neck, handmade brass rod frets, and handmade steel bridge with the tuning accomplished with bicycle brake hardware.  I bought a two used humbucker pickups from a guitar shop.  It was quite a frankenstein monster, but it worked.  I learned basic power chords from a friend and went from there.

[eclein]

As I was reading your post I thought to myself "what a great idea" and the components you used to fashion it all together were very resourceful. Good stuff..

[mfsoa]

First snare drum at 6 ys old for me. But I have played very little in 20+ years.

While some modern drummers may have surpassed Cobham in ultimate technique (Dennis Chambers), he remains my all-time favorite, most inspirational drummer. What a snare sound and cymbal sound on the older things! Compared to the nasty, compressed/fake echo on Warning. Ahh, the wonders of

I was a huge Carl Palmer fan (yuck - I read an article in Circus magazine 20 years ago where they were saying that everyone knew Carl just couldn't cut it at that level and was almost booted from ELP) as a 6-7th grader, then my brother put on a live Mahavishnu cut w/ Billy jammin' and I was hooked.

I truly feel that my playing was hindered by being hooked on Jack DeJonette (sp), Tony Williams and Billy from 7th grade on - I would have been much better served at that age by being into much more basic, groove-oriented playing. Dejonette don't care about the Pocket, and I needed to as a little kid.
-Mike

[eclein]

i was turned onto Ginger Baker by my brother although I didn't really see the talent there that he seemed blown away by, my idols growing up were also Cobham, Steve Gadd, Jon Christensen

As I started to play out more I was instilled with the false idea that all these guys were the enemy, possible players that could take my livelihood away....that was a very twisted time in my life.

I now consider the drummer from Porcupine Tree (his name escapes me) ,the phenomenal feel and playing of Manu Katche has
recently gotten my full attention. The drummer in Dave Mathews band is technically incredible but I feel he overplays a bit sometimes-hopefully he'll age well and mellow out with some time. Neil Pert, anybody thats played behind Steely Dan and so many others can just smoke me when I was at my best. Buddy Rich was just another world type player an alien I think...LOL... I jammed with him for about an hour in his basement (girlfriend at the time's father knew buddy and got us together) Ritchie Heyward (sp) was someone who's technique and fills I tried to copy...Pat Metheny seems to always find monsters of jazz drumming to put in his band, I have enjoyed everyone he's played with.
 I'm sure I'll think of more in like 5 minutes....LOL

[mfsoa]

I read that some youngster came up to Billy after a gig and told him how much he enjoyed his playing, and that Billy was obviously influenced by Carter Beuford (sp) of the Dave Mathwers band 

Little did he know that Billy has been doing this for 40 years!!

I do like Carter, though - Deep ass Pockets, like Dennis Chambers, and it's fine to hear someone in a rock band overplay just a little.

[mcgsxr]

Not sure I ever really made it into hard core instruments, depending on what that means!

The violin was my first instrument - I saw a group of kids playing them in the mall when I was 5.  I begged for 2 years to play one, until my parents finally gave in.  I played for 9 years, and achieved the 9th level Conservatory.

I later played bass (stand up and electric), trombone, trumpet, and played around with guitar, but never really played it.

It was a great run - I went through 5 music teachers in 6 years playing the violin, until my 6th called me on not being able to read music.  I was already first chair in the youth orchestra too... good ears I guess, and a love for music.

Must be what keeps me around here!

[pjchappy]

I forget what made me want a guitar, but one year in the late 1990s, my parents bought me a Takamine Jasmine (acoustic guitar).  I hardly played it for years.  Even got a MIM Stratocaster between the time I got my Jasmine and the time I really started playing on a regular basis, ~ 4.5 years ago. 


I went through a ~ 7-month period of unemployment in '06 to '07.  During that time, I started doing open mic nights (me just singing) with my friends.  I then started writing my own songs and playing the guitar regularly. 

Since about 4.5 years ago, I have picked up the following:  a Martin dreadnaught; heavily modded my MIM Strat (my favorite guitar); cobbled together a USA Strat in 2008 (w/ a Deluxe neck); a MIDI controller keyboard; a miniature MIDI drum thingy; custom Carvin SB5000 5 string bass; recording equipment (PC interface; tube mic preamp; microphones; cables; stands; software; built a new PC; etc.)

Sadly, I don't have the time to play with this stuff as often as I would like.  I need to win the lottery, damnit.


Paul

[eclein]

before I got divorced I had a 12 track digital studio in my basement with Roland V-Drums(the flagship model at the time, I forget model#) an analog synth, a couple Roland amps for the stereo drum thing and some cheap mics, I played the drums, my youngest played-banged-them also and friends would come over and lay down tracks over my feeble attempt at genius. I kind of had the stuff just to say I had the stuff, I never learned keys but making some cray sounds on a friday ngiht with your young kids and the laughter that was always there was the real reason...go to see you stop in everybody.