I raced down the creaky basement steps to my bedroom after a long day of school. “Bash! Bang! Slam! Smash! Kick!” These are the sounds that quickly became part of my everyday life as I battered on the sonorous drums. After spending long, hard, countless days working at school I need a way to get rid of all that stress. Jamming on the drums is the only way I really do that. It just relieves all of my stress.
Ever since I was a young boy I have been brought up in music. My dad had been playing drums since he was ten, and he always would teach me how to play them, and drill me so that I could get better. “Left left, right, right, left, left, right, right.” I practiced this one rudiment over and over on the small, old, tattered practice I was given. Music was always a part of my life when I grew up, but later on in the summer of my eighth grade year something changed. My dad moved out, and I soon realized that I wouldn’t be getting much instruction anymore from him, and that I was going to be on my own. I sat in the basement that afternoon thinking. Thinking about how I would never get good at drums because my dad wasn’t there to teach me and guide me. Then I realized I had to do it on my own. My passion for music just skyrocketed through the roof and I began to not only like playing music but Love it. I began practicing at least an hour a day; sometimes even more, and I would keep this pattern everyday so that my skills would increase. I didn’t want to settle for less. I had to be great.

I started off practicing on my own, but then I sought further instruction, and I began taking lessons from a guy down the street from me. This was good because I became a little more rounded in music. Instead of just playing the alternative rock like blink 182, sum 41 genre that I loved playing, I could start playing jazz, Latin and many other beats and grooves. I learned the song Rosanna by Toto, which has a cool groove to it. And Fooll in the Rain by Led Zeppelin. We also would sit down and listen to amazing drummers: Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Gadd, and Buddy Rich, and Travis Barker and take pieces of what they drummed and try and play it. It was not easy at all. Sometimes it took 2-3 days to get everything down. From all of this I learned that if you aren’t rounded in music, you won’t succeed as easily as if you were well rounded in it. Drumming can also be very hard and frustrating. You have to train every limb in your body to do different things at different times. Sometimes I will sit down for thirty minutes and just straight out train my left arm to be as strong and good as my right arm, or train my left leg to be able to do one thing while the rest of my body plays another groove. Drumming is very time consuming, but it is everything I love. To this very day I still practice every day and hope to become a great musician one day.