Why The Drums?

con struct

con struct

Platinum Member
I wonder about this at times. I could have been a piano player. By now I'd be a damn good piano player. Instead I'm a lousy piano player, but I'm a pretty damn good drummer, or so I'm told.
I remember very well how I wanted to play the drums, and the drums really grabbed me for some reason. It just felt really right. But looking back on it I really wish I'd stuck with the piano.
Don't get me wrong though. I love playing the drums.
So what about you...why the drums?
 
Drop the piano to play the drums. Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, I played piano first too and then Tenor Sax for a few years in high school, before trying the drums. Don't know what it is about them, but I enjoy playing the drums more than any of the other instruments. I even tried guitar for a few months but that didn't stick either. I still enjoy playing soft synths once in a while, but like you I'm not nearly as good on keys as I could have been if those stupid drums hadn't come along.

I think it's just one of those intagible things. Like you said, drums just feel right. I don't know why and don't really care. They just do.
 
I think most people who take music seriously will tell you that you don't choose your instrument, the instrument chooses you.

There is an invisible, inexplicable magnetic attraction between the two.
There is no rationalization.

However, lots of serious drummers will also tell you to go learn the piano, because it is truly one of the few 'complete' instruments which encompasses melody, harmony, and rhythm simultaneously.

It can only help you as a drummer to learn the piano too, if you can.
 
I used to play the guitar for five years before falling in love with the drums. And now, after six-ish years of drumming, the guitar is starting to grow on me again. Why, I don't know.
 
Without drums i find music quite boring. Drums make music exciting and interesting to me. No offense to guitar players or bass players.
 
I am lured to instruments, one at a time, rotating between drums, mallet percussion, guitar, and bass. I am drawn to each of them by some inexplicable magnetic force for a couple of months at a time, and those are my best times for growth and enjoyment with those instruments. I'm more sucked in to the energy field created by the drums, though. Always have been.

Lately, I've been wondering more and more, "why MUSIC?" Why do I have to do music? Just lucky, I guess...
 
aydee said:
...you don't choose your instrument, the instrument chooses you.

There is an invisible, inexplicable magnetic attraction between the two.
There is no rationalization.

However, lots of serious drummers will also tell you to go learn the piano, because it is truly one of the few 'complete' instruments which encompasses melody, harmony, and rhythm simultaneously.

It can only help you as a drummer to learn the piano too, if you can.
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What a spot-on post Aydee.

(((((( * )))))))
 
From the most simple beat to some of the most outragous fills, its always been drums I heard in the music first since I was probably 4.
 
Hmmm.... well, the single percussionist in my first school band couldn't count to 4 to save her life, and I realized that I despised the clarinet I was playing at the time, so it seemed like an obvious choice. :)
 
I played piano for eight years before switching to drums. I'd like to try piano again though. I think piano is more beautiful but drums are more fun.

There's one major disadvantage with drums, and that's they're damn loud! They already damaged my hearing and I have to be extremely careful not to worsen it even more.
 
The Drums run through my veins, since I was a toddler...The feel, vibrations, beat, rhythm, sweat, passion are all contributing factors to love The Drums.
 
What a great thread!

When I hit 'em, people start to move. I love that. There's just something about the drums.

I have played other instruments too, and studied music theory. All good stuff, and useful on a daily basis when working with the band, writing songs etc; but nothing makes me feel like I do when I play drums. 32 years and counting, and I still love it every time I sit down to play. Like caddy said, just lucky I guess :)
 
OP: "con struct"


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Well really i started out of nessecity more than anything. I needed to do it so i could get some good songs down. But now i've come to quite enjoy it (hopefully i'll be actually good someday!)
 
It was never a conscious choice for me. It's like asking me why did I decide to have green eyes. I was designed that way. Even now, if music doesn't have real drums in it, I usually lose interest in it after awhile, classical music excepted. I can't stand hearing non real drums. The electronic ones subtract the humanness from the sound, not for me, thanks anyway. I know you can't stem the tide of technology, but what you don't get with the electronic sounds, humanness, imperfection, emotion, are the very reasons the drums appeal to me. I'll never use an electronic kit.
 
aydee said:
I think most people who take music seriously will tell you that you don't choose your instrument, the instrument chooses you.
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I was going to type!!

I did start piano at about 9, but switched to drums same time as my brother at about 13 during school. There was something special going into the the music department on a lunch time to hit those drums!!
 
when you think about it, the piano is kind of percussion instrument too. you hit the keys with your fingers to make hammers strike strings.
 
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