The aging drummer

Arkansmay said:
Yes actually I was told in very clear words that I was "properly too old" lol so yes. I mean points for honesty at least but it did happen. Mostly though at least four times where I am emailing back and forth then the age comes out and people stop replying.
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"You're never too old to be Young and Your'e never too old to Drum"
 
TMe said:
Is it the youngsters who don't want to play with you, or is it you not being comfortable playing with youngsters?
In my experience, youngsters these days are a lot less prejudiced about age than we were.
As for old guys playing crap, yup. I keep meeting guys who want to play nothing but top 40 songs from when they were in high school. Yuck. It reminds me of Proverbs 26:11. "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly."
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Very good question. I feel if you even think about age differences, you potentially can give the “old guy vibe”. I have not encountered that in 46 yrs and if someone had a problem with my age, i m not supposed to be there.
 
TMe said:
Is it the youngsters who don't want to play with you, or is it you not being comfortable playing with youngsters?
In my experience, youngsters these days are a lot less prejudiced about age than we were.
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This is one reason why I like playing country music. The older guys KNOW how to play it and can play it well. Same goes for bluegrass.

TMe said:
As for old guys playing crap, yup. I keep meeting guys who want to play nothing but top 40 songs from when they were in high school. Yuck. It reminds me of Proverbs 26:11. "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly."
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OMGosh yes. I've played with people like this. Played with a band where the leader loved to play Skynyrd. As far as the other songs we did? Well, they sounded a lot like Skynyrd too.
 
I find that to be true about mature people that play country. It might be the only thing they do, even tho some of them swing so hard, they could be playing jazz. I thought originally i would be the r/r guy but the people i was playing with in country were good players, easy to work with, and understood dynamics. So that mostly became my bread and butter. Then…i caught the jazz virus
 
A current band I've worked with wants very hard hitting drums on a couple of songs. I'm still capable of very hard hitting but get winded on some songs with single stroke stuff. The songs are sorta winning in my battle with them. I have no technique at that dynamic level.

Weird stuff. I come back to drumming at jams in my late 50s and get told I'm too loud so I lighten and choke the snare.

The 1st Rock type band I join has a leader saying my drums are too loud (prob the snare).
The 2nd band I join says the snare is too quiet, repeatedly.
The 3rd band has had no comment.
Now the 4th says that my louder snare playing level from band 2 is too quiet and they want more everything louder. I can't really hear the guitar over my drums and my grunting to perform. Big guys have an advantage there.
 
Don’t fear aging. Life only gets better! At 73 I’ve been playing since I was 11 years old. 62 years and I love playing more and more each day. When I find my enjoyment waning I do 2 things. First, I’ll go back to basics and work on stick control and grooves. Second, I’ll work on a genre I haven’t played for a while. It never fails to regenerate me. Just remember to have fun!
 
tcurrin said:
Don’t fear aging. Life only gets better! At 73 I’ve been playing since I was 11 years old. 62 years and I love playing more and more each day. When I find my enjoyment waning I do 2 things. First, I’ll go back to basics and work on stick control and grooves. Second, I’ll work on a genre I haven’t played for a while. It never fails to regenerate me. Just remember to have fun!
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First of all age is just a number.

I started drumming when I was 68 1/2 years Young. And when I'm on the kit I feel like I'm 17!

Once I started playing it became very natural and I understand why... there are about 15 drummers in our family, starting with my mom and dad.

Remember...

"You're never too old to be Young and You're never too old to Drum"!
 
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Tamboreter said:
I can relate to that. At almost 65, I was dropping sticks until I switched to sticks with "Vic grip." I also like the shrink wrap grip on Headhunters sticks (but have found that the sticks themselves are the quality as VF. Some of the things we experience with aging, have work-around solutions. At least this has worked for me.

Practicing rudiments on the pad has helped improve my grip as well.
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I have taken to doing a small experiment. I wrapped a pair of Shira Kashi Japanese Oak 727s (nylon Tips) with K Tape. Not too sticky but offers a bit better grip, and I do not detect any sound modifications measured against non-taped sticks.

FWIW, I still have a pair of American Oak Sticks that I had when I played as a teenager in 1969! Yes, the shoulders are badly worn, but they did not break! They weren't used for 50 Years - as I returned to drumming in 2019 after 50 Years. I cannot read te maker's name, but probably Vic Firths and I still have the Remo Practice Pad too!!
 
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