Drumming regrets

Cmdr. Ross

Platinum Member
I saw a thread in the Off Topic lounge about photographing drummers and it got me thinking: One of my biggest regrets is not documenting my decades long drumming efforts.
So many good shows & moments are lost because I failed to record or photograph/film the event.
With technology as easy and advanced as it is now, I have massive plans to fix this issue.

Anyone here have a drumming regret?
 
I regret playing *only* in churches for 20+ years. While I experienced great moments of music/worship/experience, many skills became rusty. If I had a mulligan, I’d play both churches AND bars & clubs…if I could handle the hours (A Late Saturday night followed by an early Sunday morning).
 
I regret not marching Drum Corps...I tried out for a group the last year that I would have been eligible to march. Limited Edition from Columbus Ohio. I made the line - one off of center tenors - and then let my friends and parents talk me out of doing it. They won best drumline for Div A (now called Open) that year.... 😑 :mad: :rolleyes:😭

it is actually the biggest regret I have in my entire life...not just my drumming life

I was an idiot to listen to all the outside voices, and not my heart...
 
I regret not marching Drum Corps...I tried out for a group the last year that I would have been eligible to march. Limited Edition from Columbus Ohio. I made the line - one off of center tenors - and then let my friends and parents talk me out of doing it. They won best drumline for Div A (now called Open) that year.... 😑 :mad: :rolleyes:😭

it is actually the biggest regret I have in my entire life...not just my drumming life

I was an idiot to listen to all the outside voices, and not my heart...
How come your parents didn’t want you to do drum Corps? I know it does take a lot of time, and a lot of young people can’t do it because they can’t afford taking time off of work.
 
I regret that when I was gigging, I neglected other aspects of drumming that I wasnt using. Maybe not regret, but wish I hadn't now. Going back and learning a shuffle, for example, should have been before double kick and blast beats, not 20 years later.
 
How come your parents didn’t want you to do drum Corps? I know it does take a lot of time, and a lot of young people can’t do it because they can’t afford taking time off of work.

it was the money thing...and they thought I should have been taking college classes over the summer. It was actually the only music related thing they ever said no to in all of my life. They didn't really understand why anyone would want to, or should, live on a bus, practice 14 hours a day, and sleep on gym floors all summer.

It would have definitely better prepared me for my current career than the Communications and English Lit classes that I nearly failed out of that summer....
 
Drumming/career-wise, my choices have been good (whether I was aware at the time or not.) I don't think I would do anything different if given the chance again - there were no missed opportunities I wish I'd taken, or projects that I wish I hadn't done. My only regrets involve getting rid of certain gear when I probably didn't really need to. It was always a lack of foresight (as to eventual value) or my perception of not having enough space to keep something. But I would also have a TON of stuff had I not thinned the heard now and then.
 
I once found a used drum kit for sale on Craig’s List and after contacting the owner, I was surprised to find that he lived less than a mile from my house. I went over to check it out and It was a beautiful DW five-piece that had a custom paint job, which was kind of a medium yellow, but with some orange and red flames painted on the tops of the toms and front of the kick. It looked a lot like the flames you see on the old hot rod cars of the 60s and 70s. It was a very cool kit and I immediately loved it. Even though I had the money in my pocket, I decided to play it cool by telling the guy that I wanted to sleep on it and would contact him tomorrow with the money. Lo and behold, the next day, the guy had changed his mind and decided to keep the drums. Man, I was pissed! Still regret not snatching up that kit while I was there.
 
I also wish I started earlier with hearing protection, I guess I was around 22 when I started using it, and I started drumming at 8.... So yeah, quite a few years without, and I start to feel it quite a bit now, especially my left ear is quite reduced.

Otherwise, I wished I practiced more and increased my focus to become better, other than just playing with a band, during my teenage years and twenties. And maybe would have done more towards working in the music business/trying out for a bigger band, etc. At least dare to try, I think I held back for a long time, thinking I wasn't good enough, or I just had low self esteem in general, I guess. At that time I could easily have practiced more, basically no obligations at all. I feel that I now have the skill and endurance I wished I did have back then, but getting close to 40, I feel like I have lost a lot of "momentum", and have more obligations than ever before, so it's hard to be much more than an occational weekend warrior at this point. I guess it sounds stupid to all the 50-60 plus (age) members here, but when playing metal as I do (no other styles of music really affects me the same way), I feel you have the biggest chance of "making it" (or at least getting a name for yourself) if you really work towards it in your 20's. I guess it helps playing in a band with people that all are about 10 years older than me though. I guess age is mostly only a number as long as the music and performance is good, I just somehow wished I could have done it at this level earlier....
 
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I'm not chasing anything, so drumming wise I don't really do regrets.

Could have I done things better (studied harder?...etc) Sure. Does it keep me awake at night? Nope

Im just happy playing as I'll never loose the love of it.
 
it was the money thing...and they thought I should have been taking college classes over the summer. It was actually the only music related thing they ever said no to in all of my life. They didn't really understand why anyone would want to, or should, live on a bus, practice 14 hours a day, and sleep on gym floors all summer.

It would have definitely better prepared me for my current career than the Communications and English Lit classes that I nearly failed out of that summer....

It sounds like well meaning advice from your parents- they didn't want you to get behind on your studies. But in the grand scheme of things it sounds like everything worked out for you in regards to your career.
 
I regret playing *only* in churches for 20+ years. While I experienced great moments of music/worship/experience, many skills became rusty. If I had a mulligan, I’d play both churches AND bars & clubs…if I could handle the hours (A Late Saturday night followed by an early Sunday morning).

I only played church music and were in CCM bands until I was in my early 40's. I think if I would have opened myself up to other genres of music earlier, I'd be in a lot different place now.
 
I'm thankful that I at least got four years of marching band in high school, but I too wish I had done drum corps and the drum line at UNT. My drum teacher in high school was very opposed to marching band/corps and I shouldn't have let him persuade me . There so many teaching opportunities here in Texas for marching percussion specialists and some very talented drum set artist have a strong background in marching band/drum corps.. I do enjoy teaching high school Spanish though, and at least my weekends are not filled up with football games, parades and field shows, and I'm home everyday before 4pm, so I can't complain too much.
 
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