Why did you start drumming?

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drummerquestion

Junior Member
i am doing research on drummers and I am trying to find out why drummers decided to be drummers and what is your ultimate goal as a drummer. Thanks for your help.
 
Personally, my grandparents got me a kit when I was 5 on account of my penchant for hitting things.
 
Well for me I started off playing trumpet in grade school, then that wasn't "cool" so i picked up a guitar. Well I had way to much energy to just sit there & learn that. So a buddy of mine was a drummer I sat behind his kit & was HOOKED!!! 20 years ago I was a drummer so I could be a "rock star" now it's a wonderfully fun hobby & a great way to deal with the stress of the daily grind.

Once your done with your research please let us all know how it turned out.
 
Gene Simmons of Kiss said it best many, many years ago ..almost every male that starts playing music does it for girls..most won't admit it and some may not even know it but thats why most of us started playing..(I'm quoting here, very poorly but quoting) I happen to agree with him though as far as I am concerned..shallow? you betcha!! but its the truth...as for why I picked drums..I believe its the physical nature of them that appealed to me.. my goal at 48 is to have fun and make a few extra $$ @ 14 my goal was to be a rockstar
 
I started drumming at the age of two, so not really sure why I started. My entire family is either musicians of some kind or music teachers, so it was kind of a given that I would play some sort of musical instrument. The drums/percussion have just always been more appealing than anything else to me.

I'm not sure I have an ultimate goal just yet, but I hope to always play in a band that plays shows/gigs. If I get lucky and I'm able to make a living at it, then great, but it's not about the money for me.
 
I didnt start until I was 39 and married, not for the chicks... I've had my run already. Maybe when your young, dumb, and full of ... then I agree chicks are the best thing EVER, Woman still are lol.

I started because its something I've wanted to do since I was 13... I never had supportive parents so when I traded my bicycle for a drum set, Moms got rid of it quickly.
I lived my life to make money, thinking something I never had would make me happy, it didnt!! I bought a bass guitar for the wifey and I was the one who played it... She asked for e drums (Stinking Rock Band) and after people said I have natural ability on the kit versus the bass, which drums are my first love anyhow, I switched.

Music as a whole is very fulling to me, thats why I play the drums, Fullfilment in my Soul.
 
My Mom has always said that I was banging on things from the time i was born.'

I'm an only child, so drums were a way to pass time and entertain myself.
 
i actually started on violin when i was 6-7...this was back when they had full music programs & parents were sent a form & then signed up their kids on whatever instrument (thanks Mom!). watched jealously seeing the guys who got signed up for drums or guitar. the program was real rich & led by an awesome teacher / cellist...so we had a huge string /brass band & performed concerts / in shopping malls all over. did that for 2 years & then quit, just had no passion & was not practicing as my parents found out. around the time i gave up violin, i noticed that all my buds who got signed up for drums & guitar had their gear in a corner gathering dust. one guy just gave me all his drum gear (!!). snare, wooden / gum rubber practice pad, etc. i bought a cymbal stand & a POS cymbal & i was in business ! i was 8 or 9 back then & i think got a full kit (slingerland) around 11. to this day, i still have 2 vintage violins in my "music closet". i pull them out & fool around maybe once a year. my Mom kept them & i think had visions of me playing alongside Itzhak Perlman in carnegie hall w/ a single tear running down her face. LOL. she is a romantic.
 
I was watching MTV on day( back when they actually played music) and seen a Van Halen video. There sit Alex Van Halen behind this monstrocity(spelling?) of a drum kit going crazy while he was playing. From that moment i wanted to be a drummer.

For as long as i can remember when i listend to a song or was at a concert i always watched/listend to the drummer. Trying to figure out why he/she did what they were doing. I would try to immulate that stuff but i never could at the time. I love drums period. It's just a realease for me to get behind the kit everyday and play.
 
When I was 11yrs old I hated playing the trombone and thought drumming would be easier (it's not, btw) and my goal is to start a band or join one.
 
To get the chicks. Why else?

Seriously, I was 10 years old and I had already tried the french horn and the guitar and didn't like either one. I wanted to take trumpet, but all the slots were taken in beginner band. So I saw this awesome drummer playing a Slingerland Black Diamond Pearl kit in the junior high jazz band (exact copy as Ringo played) and I went home and told my parents "I want to do THAT!"
 
I got my first set in 1969 ( a cheap japanese blue sparkle 4 piece kit with japanese cymbals) and lessons to go with it. Before then, it was coffee cans and trash cans. My primary reason for ever starting? Ringo Starr. But thanks to lessons, I moved into jazz and big band style as well as rock. My biggest inspirations after that were guys like Danny Seraphine, Bill Bruford, Carl Palmer, and later Neil Peart.
 
Well I wasn't even really into music at all when I was younger, I was a sports guy (still am). But I started to get into music more around freshman year of high school. I had just began taking guitar lessons, because guitar is the easiest to begin playing in terms of the gear you need to buy. Anyways I tried out for the baseball team and didn't make the team, so I decided to focus on music more. Learned guitar for a couple more years, then played bass for a bit, then finally wanted to play drums. I had always liked the drums but it can be expensive and loud for a 15 year old.
 
Saw Ringo....Buddy Rich.Gene Krupa,Louis Bellson,Roy Haynes,Joe Morello,and that was it.My parents wouldn't buy me drums,so I joined the school drum corps when I was 8.My Dad still said "drums are not a musical instrument" so no drums,only a practice pad till I was 12.Almost gave up then I saw Dino Danelli with the Rascals,and Johny Barbata with the Turtles.,and The Monkees...that kept me going.Then it was Ginger Baker,Mitch Mitchel,Clive Bunker,and Carmine Appice,who was a sight to behold when you're 12-13.Everybody else in grade school as listening to The Archies and the 1910 Fruit gum Company.For me it was Hendrix,Cream,Tull.,and the Vanilla Fudge.And then came Bonham and that triplet,with those huge sounding drums.The great big band drummers were always there;Rich,Krupa and Bellson,and the great Joe Morello but these guys I could identify with.

Steve B
 
So I could beat the crap out of something, without getting in trouble..

Seriously though, I've always been drumming on stuff, so at 16, I bought my first kit, and never looked back.
Goals: Make a living out of it, and constantly improve my playing.
 
As a kid, I was made to take organ lessons for about 4 years. I was never very good at it but learned to read music, did well enough to play in church a couple of times but that's it. It was definitely never something that came natural to me. Not much happened musically after that.

I've always been a HUGE music lover but as a teenager couldn't afford to go to hardly any concerts. But in about 1983, my brother took me to see Rush at the Cleveland Colliseum and seeing Neil Peart and his "drums in the round" is something I'll never forget.

Flash forward to about 2 years ago and I was finally in a place in my life that I could afford to go see some concerts. Every concert we went to, I found myself always being drawn to the drummers and "air-drumming" along with them. We've seen some great concerts in the last couple of years...Jeff Beck, Clapton, Daltrey, the last 2 Ringo's All Starrs to name a few... and it didn't matter who the headliner was, it was the drummer that I would watch the most.

Watching Daltrey's drummer, Scott Devours, probably was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. I came out of that concert (Clapton, Daltrey) talking more about Scott then anyone else. I was mesmerized and I knew then that I had to one day learn to play the drums.

Long story short (I know, too late) last Wednesday at the ripe old age of 43, I began my lessons. I've never been so excited about anything in my life. I don't know if I'll be any good as a drummer, but I sure do intend having a blast finding out!
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When I played the piano, I always looked at the drums. The teacher said that they were only for those with bad temper. When Rock Band first was released I bought it first day. Since that day I realized that drumming was my thing. And I haven't looked back ever since... :)
 
I started marching in a percussion line when i was 6 after seeing my cousin do it.
I though it was really cool, and looked like alot of fun.

Close to 17 years later, I have not looked back thinking I should've tried some other instrument.

Drums just fits for me.
Really good anger management. Hah
 
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