Your music background?

IAN - W -

Rebel
Mine is and will always be Rock N' Roll (all genres), but I am open to listen to all kind of music, in fact I do, which is good to fresh your mind with something different, to channel into the drums. Which is yours?

Thanks & Regards,
 
I grew up listening to a lot of stuff from the 50's and 60's. My mom was into the Beatles, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, some folk stuff, etc. and my dad was into Motown, James Brown, Otis Redding, etc.

In high school, I got into the popular bands of the day--Guns n' Roses, Metallica, Pantera and heavier stuff like Morbid Angel and Deicide. In college I studied classical percussion and jazz.

Most of my playing is dedicated to jazz these days, but I still love listening to just about anything. My Itunes contains 21 genres. I think hearing and appreciating as many different types of music as you can makes you a better musician and a better human. Like Buddy Rich said, "There are only two kinds of music--good and bad."
 
Music was always in the foreground in my family, because my Dad was a full-time guitarist, but despite this I didn't grow up listening to my parents' records, because my dad would't listen to any music at home, because he didn't want to "contaminate" his own work.
But i had some Beatles tapes, or rather all Beatles tapes, so as a kid I listened exclusively to The Beatles, and I'm grateful for that. Later, I discovered everything else, from really heavy music to jazz, and I listen to that whole spectrum now, but The Beatles were just such an awesome place to start.
 
I hate new music, indie, rap and RNB all suck. Old music is the best. I like mainly punk, metal and classic rock and a tiny bit of prog. My fav bands are Maiden, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Motorhead, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Clash and The Who
 
I began by listening to my parents record collection. They had music as diverse as swing to the Carpenters and everything in between. I would listen to the Tijuana brass then Deep Purple. But my love as a small child was The Sweet. :)

As I turned into a teenager anything was possible, prog by Yes and King Crimson, movie themes (James Bond in particular) and loads of jazz. Over time rock died for me, it just seemed to repeat itself ad infinitum. This is the late 70's through til the mid 90s. I far enjoy modern rock than that of the "classic rock" bands of old who I really think should be retired. I enjoy hearing new music, not old hat music I've heard time and time again. I think "what's the point???" And mean it. Really mean it!

My first drum teacher turned me onto funk in a big way. So from the beginning of instruction I was into Clyde and Mason, Garibaldi and Clark. Plus all the other guys like James Gadson and Purdie.

My jazz list was extensive and covered everyone from the early people such as Baby Dodds to the who's who of modern jazz players.

Then I heard some Cuban music and began studying percussion, congas, timbales etc. Then I heard samba and joined samba groups playing surdo, pandeiro, tamborim, agogos etc. African music followed, and then Gamalan....... On it goes.

I also studied with several high end drum teachers, Virgil among them and continued to play drums as well as percussion.

My first band was a rock garage band. That was followed by stints playing reggae, ska, punk, rock, top 40, latin and samba, touring playing either drums or percussion and continues to this day save for an interuption of a few years when I became ill. Now I teach drums and percussion and love it! I find teaching to be as, if not more fulfilling than gigging. To see a student's face light up when he or she discovers something new is just great.
 
Colleagues,

Your comments and share of knowledge is remarkable, with an strong music foundation. Please keep your input, also I am learning from you.

Many Thanks,
 
mostly classic rock, blues,heavy metal (several genres),punk,grunge,jazz blah blah blah oh and classic music too
 
I grew up in a home filled with music. My mom would play anything from Hank Williams to the Bee Gees to the Eagles. My dad was big into the Ventures. He used to jam that kind of stuff with his buddies when I was young. I became a huge Rock fan especially 60's and 70's(Beatles, KISS, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, etc.). I was a teenager in the late 80's early 90's so I got pretty big into the hair bands too. I think all those influences can be heard in the music I'm making now. Check it out at www.reverbnation.com/dirtbeggers.
 
Mainly Classical actually. My brother was and is a very seriously good Classical Pianist and French Horn player (I mean, SERIOUSLY good) so my house was always full of Classical Music and I played the Piano for a few years when I was very small. I actually got to be reasonably good and then gave it up - forgot how to read music - and then got into 70's Rock; that was when I started playing the drums when I was fourteen at about the same time I started having Classical Singing lessons; something I've always been able to do even though I had to learn it all by ear. I got rather good at that and was entering competitions and my teacher was considering my prospects as a singer as potentially career making. Then she fell quite seriously ill and I never found another teacher. Since then I've had all sorts of changes, but my music taste is best described as 'anything with a soul'. I'm playing guitar, bass, drums and still singing. And right now I'm also teaching myself the piano again - which is just great fun.
 
My Mum, Brother and Sister play and take piano lessons. Dad plays the acoustic guitar, cuatro (4 strings acoustic guitar) and steel pan (instrument played in the Caribbean West Indies, steel bands).
Myself, I am into the drums, it flows in my veins since I was a toddler. I began the first beats on my Uncles's (He was a drummer by nature, R.I.P.) 7-piece Premier set, as well as, helped him to rig up his set during gigs.

Best Regards,
 
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My Dad played saxophone in college in the schools big band. My Mom came from a family of singers. All amateur. I took a year of piano in 2nd grade, a year of sax in the 6th grade, and then started the drums in the 8th grade and played until I graduated high school. When I was young I use to do my home work with classical music playing. I played in the band and orchestra in high school and sang for a year or two in the church
choir. My girlfriend made me. When I was real young, 4 or 5 there was a radio program called something like "March Around the Breakfast Table" I think that's where oatmeal boxes first made their appearance as drums. My only gigging experience was my first year in college when I played for a guy I taught while he went to Naval basic training, and then my last year of college when I sat in for a friend in a three piece combo playing a cocktail set wearing a Gold Lame (fabric) sport coat. Many years later I had an audition with the Baltimore Colts Marching Band, but it had been so long since I had read music that I chickened out and didn't go. Those same colts are now in Indianapolis of course. Music has always been there somewhere.
 
I've been playing the drums since I was ten. I played in the school bands throughout HS and into college. I've had a couple of bands. The first did some TOP and Chicago. But we never quite got the horns right, nor a singer who could handle that stuff. So the rhythm section got bored after a while and we broke from the horns and formed a hard rock quartet. We did Aerosmith, Kiss and Van Halen covers. We were pretty good.I divided up the songs between four guys but the day before the gig no one had learned them. I ended up singing them and that's how I ended up being a singing drummer. At the time, I wanted to form a progressive rock band, and put in numerous ads for musicians; but there was literally no interest in progressive rock. So since then I've been singing and/or playing drums in bands. I've done some symphony choral singing and even been on a couple of Grammy awarded recordings. Several years ago I had an original group that did my music. We had some record label interest but nothing major. After that I decide I would put all my effort into the drums. Now I am looking to play more jazz, which was my first love. I am really enjoying that.
 
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