Akan datang: drum lessons

They say the best way to learn is to teach. Since I started drumming in church again two years ago after my century long hiatus, I have been toying with the idea of taking drum lessons. However, several lame excuses ranging from the lack of time to a supposedly deteriorating hand-eye-leg co-ordination had convinced me otherwise.

Recently, Justin and Natalie, along with their friend Deon, had been bitten by the drumming bug ever since they witnessed an 8 year old girl playing in their church's worship team. 'If she can do it, so can we' became the order of the day for the past few weeks. Since their parents saw no sense in signing them up for lessons or getting them a drum set to annoy the neighbours with, I volunteered to give them free lessons and probably a jam session or two. What better way to go back to basics than to hustle a couple of kids, eh?

Lesson number one was, of course, getting some sticks for the kids since all my spares were 5Bs and too big for their hands. Not being able to find anything suitable at the crappy Yamaha retail store, we headed down to Drum Resources as I only trusted Nigel and nobody else. True enough, he actually stocked some Pro Mark Junior sticks, which I eventually bought for Natalie and Velouria (who INSISTED on having her own pair as well). For Justin and Deon, a pair of medium weight, ball tipped 7As each ince I reckoned their grubby paws were huge enough to hang on to a regular pair of sticks.

Lesson number two will commence at the next Hushhouse jamming session at Mel's place. But first they'll have their exams to contend with.

Punch Buggy redux

Singapore is such a small, small place. Just about a week and a half ago, I found a long lost friend through Max, the media planner in the agency that was doing stuff for us. The first time we met, I found his persona strangely familiar, like one of those things you seem to remember from a dream you had the night before. It was only after taking a second glance at his namecard that I realised he shared the same family name as a friend whom I'd long forgotten.

I took a stab in the dark and asked Max if he had a younger brother named Melvin and, true enough, he said yes. Max immediately gave his younger brother a call and there we were, Melvin and I, trying to catch up on what had gone on in the past 12 years since we last met.

In 1993, Melvin and I found each other through the free ad postings in the now defunct BigO magazine. He plays the guitar and was looking for members to form a band; I was just starting to play the drums and was looking for a band to really jam with. So, voila, Punch Buggy was formed.

We had the same kind of musical tastes which were, at that time, mainly made up of jangly stuff like Teenage Fanclub, Weezer, The Posies, Lemonheads and the like. We were also skating buddies who would go everywhere on our skateboards - jamming, skating to his place from Sunset Way (they used to reside at a condo called Bradley Ville or some fancy name like that opposite Clementi Park condo). Somehow after I graduated and Melvin found his niche with another local band (Silverspy which then evolved into Suchness) and we lost contact.

Upon catching up, I realised that we still have more in common than I thought. We both wear skating shoes to work (despite being frowned upon by our bosses), we love buying Bata shoes and (this one takes the cake) both of us relish the sound of this band called Silver Sun because we are of the same accord that our band then would have sounded like this had we continued to master our craft.

Anyways, it turns out Melvin still writes songs and is a bedroom musician now. Not that he wasn't back then; we used to fool around with a 4-track machine which recorded on a cassette. Which in turn is unheard of anymore. He's turned one of the rooms at his (parents') place into a jamming studio so we're getting together this weekend for a little jam session.

Can't wait.

Going electronic

So there we were on Sunday at FairPrice Finest (the atas NTUC targetted at the ang mohs, situated at Bukit Timah Plaza), grabbing some stuff to bring to Tua Pek's house since we had been invited there for dinner by his new Korean neighbour who was doing all the cooking. Then we saw an ad on one of those lelong notice boards that are commonly found in all these ang moh places (they seem to have an affinity for lelong-ing their unwanted stuff). It read:'TDK Electronic drum set for sale. I paid $3000, you pay $500'. Only an idiot would refuse this offer.

So we called up the owner, viewed the thing and ended up paying $800 for it. Yes, it was more expensive than the original price but still a lucrative deal. And it was a Roland drum set, no less, with an amp and headphones, some 'Drumming for Dummies' guide book and an instruction CD.

I know how badly our church needed a new drum set. The current one we're using has been there for ages, all worn out and rusty. One of the cymbals had even been cracked by an overzealous drummer. :P

Ps Don had been talking about getting an electronic one for the longest time. But cost had always been a deciding factor that held us back. Financial obligations aside, I think this was an opportunity presented before us to help build God's sanctuary. So I just grit my teeth, signed the cheque and shoved everything into my car.

Digital equipment always have cons when compared to analogue ones so it will take some getting used to, but I think we're gonna have a great time with this new toy.

Blessed be the name of the Lord!