Drumming; it’s a joyful thing and an angering thing at the same time.

A lot of the time,

when you are working on a really hard piece of music, it gets pretty angering. However, the
reward of getting it down is always worth it. Drumming can be an export for so many different
emotions and feelings and it helps your hand eye coordination and fluidity in your body. I love
being a drummer because there are so many different things to learn every time you sit down. I
wish it didn’t have to be so angering but if it wasn’t, would I be where I am now?

I have learned so many different drum grooves in the past year. This past year I have
finally started taking drumming seriously, so I now know what I need to work on. My drum
teacher is a huge help in my learning process. I bring the questions and he plays the answers.
I’ve learned many grooves while working with my teacher and many songs too. By learning all of
these drum techniques I can broaden my playing skills every day.

I am most interested in hand placement, doubles, rudiments, and fills. What are all of
these things? These are all different types of techniques that you can play on a drum kit. Hand
technique is the most important thing to me because if you know how to place your hands
around a stick, everything becomes easier. Doubles are the movement of your wrist and fingers
hitting the drum and then rebounding back to hit it again in one motion. A lot of the time people
who aren’t drummers think that someone is rolling they’re sticks when they’re actually doing
insanely fast doubles. A drum rudiment is basically a sticking pattern. Every sticking pattern you
play on the drum set is copied from different drum rudiments. Most are very common patterns
but some are far more complex and difficult to play. What is a drum fill? Often, drum fills occur
on the final bar of a section, such as the end of a verse going into a pre-chorus or when a
pre-chorus transitions into a chorus. Since I’ve been most interested in these things, I can get
faster and smoother in my playing.

Drumming and music fit into my future because I will always continue to learn more and
practice more. Drumming hasn’t always been something I wanted to learn, it took a while for me
to figure out what I wanted to do. When I moved to NCS (Nanaimo Christian School) the band
program there was mandatory. At first I didn’t really like sitting and hitting a drum super slow but
once I saw one of the other kids in my grade hop on the kit, I was blown away. I don’t know why
I found every other instrument boring or not interesting but I do know why I chose drums. You
are free to do whatever you want and it will sound good almost every time. I picked up drum
sticks when I was in grade 5, but I was in grade 8 when I started really taking it seriously. I hope
sometime in the future I can become as good as I truly want to be.

Drumming will always be a part of my life even if it makes me so angry. I am so grateful

that I am able to buy the things to make my drum kit sound good. I am also so grateful that I
have found the drum teacher that I’ve found. Without him I’d be so much more behind than now.
Something I really need to work on is music language. I don’t know what a lot of words in music
and drums mean so sometimes I struggle when it comes to talking to other drummers. I will
always be a drummer no matter what obstacles are placed in my way.