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.

Getting into the groove

After being together for almost a year, we are finally getting our act together as a band. I am a subscriber of the notion that music soothes the savage beast. So what better way to end the work week than with a jamming session, in a nice studio downtown no less!

My Saturday afternoons have become preoccupied with other arrangements so our only option left was to jam elsewhere since Mel's home studio was a great big no in the evenings, lest the neighbours should complain about the din we were making. It is therefore also subtly ironic that we are currently toying with the name Hush House, considering the amount of noise we make and distortion we use in our music.

So we found ourselves at Shiin Studio on North Canal Road (just above Settler's Cafe) where Mel apparently also jams with his other outfits. Cosy little place with two small studios, but with some rather decent equipment. Finally, a nice set of tight, tuned drums to pamper my sticks with. Here, they were equipped with a 6-piece Gretsch that came with double pedals (not that I needed them anyway - getting too old for that s**t).

All in all, a great (but albeit costly) evening of wonderful music making. We even got to try out our cover of Beach Boys' Don't Worry Baby with me on backing vocals. Cool!

Punch Buggy redux - continued

We finally made arrangements and got down to jamming at Mel's place. After going around in circles (why do all these private housing estates all look the same??) I found Mel's place and went up to his 'studio'.

I was really taken aback by the state his drum set was in. And to think he paid $800 of his gig money to get it! The metal parts were all rusty, the bass drum sounded like crap and it came with one 10" splash and 18" ride cymbals. It made me sad just looking at it. I mean, what was I supposed to do with only one 10" splash? The least they could do was throw in a 12"!

Then I was reminded 'In all things give thanks', so I thank the Lord that at least we had a drumset to use. Selwyn, our bassist, turned up a short while later so after the usual pleasantries we got down to it.

Although I screwed up a little here and there (Mel and Selwyn had already been playing together for a few years prior to our reunion), overall it was quite a good jam. Mel was up to his usual nonsense (the chord structures for all his songs are more or less similar) and it felt like how it was 12 years ago. We covered about four songs within an hour and a half so it wasn't that shoddy at all.

I'm so looking forward to the next jamming session. Drum set needs a little maintenance though.

Cracked cymbal

'Praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.'

Psalms 150:5

Sunday's praise and worship was really rocking. I think I just went nuts the moment we played Open Up The Gates. In fact, I was so engrossed in playing that I didn't even notice the crash cymbal was cracked! That's a first for me, never cracked a cymbal before. Guess I took Psalm 150:5 a little too literally.

Also, other firsts on Sunday - first time I cried while playing (the worship was that good) and also the first time I dropped my drumsticks while playing (apparently nobody noticed the abrupt break).

I hope this never happens again, save for the crying. It's good to feel the Holy Spirit moving so freely.