What First Inspired You

What first inspired me were my two friends in high school believe it or not. One was a drummer for four years and he was good and he was teaching my other friend drums. Then my best bud came up to me and said he was gonna learn bass and that we should start a band. Ill never forget that day; that very weekend I went and got my first drum lesson.
 
I was 12 and Nirvana was the first band I ever air drummed to, which is where my interest in drumming began. Didn't start drumming till I was 18 and I play nothing like that now (and don't really listen to Nirvana anymore), but I'd still have to say that's where it started for me.
 
Well for me, I didn't even want to play drums. I just got a kit for christmas when I was about 9 years old. My parents noticed that I tapped and made beats on everything. So they suprised me with a kit. At first I hated it, I never played. Then one of my friends came over and played guitar, and I thought up a beat and started playing it on drums. Ever since then I've fallen in love with them. But I had always liked David Grohl, and Tommy Lee. I mean I never thought I would play drums.
 
I played trombone in 5th grade...... it sucked. lol
I needed to pick a new instrament, so i choose drums.
 
The Beatles. Then Cream. Then Led Zeppelin. Then Yes. Then Genesis and King Crimson and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and Gentle Giant. Then Jazz.


Outstanding list! Very similar to mine. When I was 17, I went to a music festival at Saratoga Springs, NY, and saw this kid not much older than me absolutely RIP IT UP! It was like seeing Buddy Rich's kid playing in a rock band! Turned out to be a 21 year old wunderkind named Carl Palmer, and I never looked back.

Since then, I marveled at the musicality of Tony Williams, the sheer power and speed of Billy Cobham, the dazzling, seemingly multi-armed dexterity of Narada Michael Walden, the sheer delicate elegance of Bill Bruford, the amazing funk of Lenny White and Steve Gadd, while still appreciating the power of John Bonham, the creative chaos of Keith Moon, and the rock solid rhythmic foundation of Ringo, Nick Mason and Charlie Watts.

I was very fortunate to see all these great drummers up close and personal, and really began to enjoy the art.
 
I was always fascinated by music and when I was in Grade 4 I started to play violin. I played it for 3 years but I didn't love the instrument and never wanted to practice.

When I got to highschool in Grade eight I was given the oportunity to join band. I wanted to play jazz sax, it sounded so sexy and I thought it would be a lot of fun. Sadly we never got the opportunity to play anything cool or fun... I remember the worst song called Soft Shoe Shuffle... Death. I quit Sax

In Grade 11 my buddy Cameron started getting seriously into bands like Iron Maiden. He introduced me into some classic metal and I fell in love. Cameron really wanted to start a band as a result, and so he picked up a bass, his brother had a guitar and he convinced me to try learning drums.

Not knowing how to start I found the website mxtabs.net, pulled up the tabs for Metallica's "Orion", set up some cd cases as drums/cymbals, whipped out a couple of pencil crayons and got to work learning the simple rock beat in the intro of "Orion".

I really didn't know what I was doing and Cameron kept telling me that I'm supposed to cross my hands because it looks cool. It felt awkward and uncomfortable so as a result I play open-handed; my left hand on the hats and my right on the snare.

Although I was really having a lot of fun drumming along to various iron maiden and metallica songs with my pencil crayons in my room, it wasn't untill a year later where I discovered my passion for percussion. My mom was driving me home from a hockey game, I was sweaty and tired. I flipped on the radio to Classic Rock 101.1 there was some instrumental song playing. But oh my god! the drumming in this song! What rhythmic genius was playing this!? At the end of the song the commentator announced that it was Rush playing YYZ. My mother said "oh yeah rush... I never liked them. Didn't like the singer". The song being an instrumental I couldn't care less! that instrumentation was absolutely amazing!

When we got home I asked my step dad what he knew about Rush (he's a professional recording engineer so he was bound to know). He told me that they were a canadian band and that the drummer was Neil Peart. Rush is now my favourite band of all time and Neil Peart is the greatest inspiration to not only my drumming but life. His rhythems with all their nuances complement his lyrical prowess which is sometimes fun, sometimes inspirational and moving. All that coupled with his vast intelligence (watch him interview Jean Cretien. http://www.guba.com/watch/3000093700) and the tragedy in his life and his courage to come back...

Anyways that's my story :p
 
Neil Peart. The songs Mystic Rhythms, Territories, High Water, The Weapon, and several others seriously moved me. I ended up tapping them on counter tops by hand.

So I figured I'd take my relationship with rhythm to the drums.
 
My dad took me to listen to a marching band when I was 5. All I remember hearing was the drums. From then on I always focused on the drums in any music I heard. But what really turned me on to playing was going to dances at Lake Hills Roller Rink in Bellevue, WA USA. The Pacific Northwest bands were great, and I spent a lot of time studying and practicing the techniques of all the drummers.
 
upon reaching 4th grade i was given the opportunity to join the school band. i didn't know what instrument to pick but thankfully the had a little expo where you could go and look at all the instruments and decide from there. ...i picked the flute... thankfully there was a 2 week return program and i took the flute back and grabbed my first snare drum. i hung onto that snare for years until i passed it to my little sister when she wanted to start playing drums.

thats how i started, but what inspired me was when i changed churches in 5th grade and met my buddy brad. him and i all the way up through high school would buy albums (christian ones of course because my parents felt that anything else was satan) and study the drummers on them. we were the only two drummers for the church so we would rotate who got to play and when. the more we learned, the better we got the more i fell in love with the drums. before we knew it, people were actually telling us we were good. which at the time was amazing.

then after i graduated high school and moved out on my own, my buddy dalton started introducing me to led zepplin, the who, metallica, murder by death, interpol, the hives, just all this music i had never heard before. and i fell in love all over again. since then drums have not just been my passion, they have been my life. and i have no regrets.
 
I was always fascinated by music and when I was in Grade 4 I started to play violin. I played it for 3 years but I didn't love the instrument and never wanted to practice.

When I got to highschool in Grade eight I was given the oportunity to join band. I wanted to play jazz sax, it sounded so sexy and I thought it would be a lot of fun. Sadly we never got the opportunity to play anything cool or fun... I remember the worst song called Soft Shoe Shuffle... Death. I quit Sax

In Grade 11 my buddy Cameron started getting seriously into bands like Iron Maiden. He introduced me into some classic metal and I fell in love. Cameron really wanted to start a band as a result, and so he picked up a bass, his brother had a guitar and he convinced me to try learning drums.

Not knowing how to start I found the website mxtabs.net, pulled up the tabs for Metallica's "Orion", set up some cd cases as drums/cymbals, whipped out a couple of pencil crayons and got to work learning the simple rock beat in the intro of "Orion".

I really didn't know what I was doing and Cameron kept telling me that I'm supposed to cross my hands because it looks cool. It felt awkward and uncomfortable so as a result I play open-handed; my left hand on the hats and my right on the snare.

Although I was really having a lot of fun drumming along to various iron maiden and metallica songs with my pencil crayons in my room, it wasn't untill a year later where I discovered my passion for percussion. My mom was driving me home from a hockey game, I was sweaty and tired. I flipped on the radio to Classic Rock 101.1 there was some instrumental song playing. But oh my god! the drumming in this song! What rhythmic genius was playing this!? At the end of the song the commentator announced that it was Rush playing YYZ. My mother said "oh yeah rush... I never liked them. Didn't like the singer". The song being an instrumental I couldn't care less! that instrumentation was absolutely amazing!

When we got home I asked my step dad what he knew about Rush (he's a professional recording engineer so he was bound to know). He told me that they were a canadian band and that the drummer was Neil Peart. Rush is now my favourite band of all time and Neil Peart is the greatest inspiration to not only my drumming but life. His rhythems with all their nuances complement his lyrical prowess which is sometimes fun, sometimes inspirational and moving. All that coupled with his vast intelligence (watch him interview Jean Cretien. http://www.guba.com/watch/3000093700) and the tragedy in his life and his courage to come back...

Anyways that's my story :p

Cool video! I've never seen this before and I'm kinda surprised that Neil would be involved in this kind of event. Though, it seemed like the candidate was talking much more than he was. But that's what's supposed to happen, right?

And Neil did a pretty good interview, none-the-less. Nice.

Anyway, thanks for the link! ;-)
 
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My response is going to be a little bit more modern than most of these posts because Im only 3 years into the game but I would have to break it down in order as follows...

- Travis barker
- wanting to be a "rockstar"
- wanting to get chicks
- picking the most aggressive instrument
- Funk
- punk
- metal
- blues

Yep... That's it for me...
 
Cool video! I've never seen this before and I'm kinda surprised that Neil would be involved in this kind of event. Though, it seemed like the candidate was talking much more than he was. But that's what supposed to happen, right?

And Neil did a pretty good interview, none-the-less. Nice.

Anyway, thanks for the link! ;-)

Jean chretien went on to be canadian prime minister for a number of years for the Liberal Party. I vote Neil for PM! lol
 
Jean chretien went on to be canadian prime minister for a number of years for the Liberal Party. I vote Neil for PM! lol

I'll second that vote!

Though, wouldn't that probably prohibit him from touring with Rush? :-(


That would be NOT good!

hee...hee...
 
Drums always caught my attention while listening to music as a toddler, but when i was five i saw the great musical "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat" and i really liked how the drums sounded in it! my Dad bought the soundtrack and i would play pots and pans to it. Good times..
 
Growing up in a churched home, my first introduction to drums and rock music was in listening to Michael W. Smith's live album from the early 1980s. Call it what you want, but they really rocked out on that album. My introduction to non-Christian rock music came when my dad and I were driving somewhere and he popped in "The Doobie Brothers Greatest hits, vol. 2" (the one with all the Michael McDonald songs on it...I still love that music).

But I still didn't really get into rock and roll until I heard "Green River" by CCR, and then "Summer in the City" by Lovin' Spoonful. It was all downhill from there. Once I saw "The Compleat Beatles" on TV, I knew I wanted to play music for the rest of my life. I wanted to give up the violin that I'd been playing and play rock and roll.

I built a drum set out of cardboard boxes (one served as the bass drum, since my foot tapping the inside would reverberate like a bass drum, the other two were stands for my ice-cream bucket toms), with chopsticks for drum sticks and pie tins for cymbals. It was on that set that I learned how to vary my right foot and hold a steady beat.

I learned how to play bass by listening to my dad's Beatles, Beach Boys, and Byrds records, and then learned guitar shortly after that. For the first little while I didn't have a bass amp, so I would sit at the record player and rest my chin on the upper arm of the bass, which would let me hear/feel the vibrations in my head. It worked.

I briefly tried to get into metal when I was 13, but it didn't stick. Just not my thing. My peers made fun of me and said I was "stuck in the 60s," but now I laugh because most of them now listen to the music I was into back then...just ahead of my time, I guess. :)
 
I liked to just tap on things when I was about 8 years old and then for my 9th birthday my parents bought me a set of bongos and I loved to play along to songs with them. So that year in school was the first year we could sign up for band so I went with snare drum and that progressed into full drum set.
 
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