Drums

My sister, who once heard me tap my fingers idly, said that I should learn how to play the drums. I think that I'm finally going to take her up on that suggestion.

10 years ago, when visiting Disneyland, I bought a pair of drumsticks in Orlando hard rock cafe, fully expecting that I would use them one day. I didn't do it.

The student dorm that I was in for my first year in the U was next to a block whose theme was music. They had a jamming studio on the first floor. I had gone down there for a few jamming sessions and that was it. I played the keyboard. The ppl I was with were keen to continue but I decided that I didn't travel halfway around the world just to play some jams. (But if you asked me now what I travelled halfway around the world for, I'd have been hard-pressed to answer you. There's nothing tangible that I could point to.)

When we were young, we had it drummed into our heads that playing music was not a reputable past-time, even though it had already been a tradition in the West, that anyone could start a band, and it was a rite of passage, or at least an attempt at being entrepreneural.

I remember that in the early 90s, there were only a handful of alternative rock bands in Singapore, many of them were heavy metal / hardcore, and I wasn't interested in that at all. I hadn't noticed it very much over the last few years, but the band scene in Singapore had grown a lot. If nothing else, it made it very easy to go looking for band mates.

Any way, I don't think I can handle a guitar, so I would have to look for other people who are good at playing. I can do song writing. It's funny that many song writers out there don't play guitars. Paul McCartney was perfectly happy playing bass (although he played guitar in early versions of the Beatles). Sting played bass. Brian Wilson played bass. Antonio Carlos Jobim didn't play anything. Ian Brown played the tambourine. Stevie Wonder played everything other than the guitar. I'm happy to let other people handle the complicated instruments.

Anyway there are a lot of jamming studios in Singapore. Unfortunately the drums are not something that I would really want in my house right now, firstly because it takes up space, and secondly because it annoys the neighbours (even though I don't have neighbours that I'm afraid of pissing off.) So last weekend I went to a studio, and payed $13 for the privilege of bashing the drums for 1 hour. That is expensive. I wish I could find a cheaper place to practice. But it sure beats shelling up $7 for an expensive cup of coffee, and you have the privilege of doing nothing.

It went OK. At first, my pedalling was so weak, I couldn't even get the bass drum to give me a simple beat. Later, as it went on, I tried to figure out how to do some fancy stuff with the drums. Some of it came off well, others didn't. I was eavesdropping on the neighbours, and the drums sounded funkier than mine. Then there was the hi-hat on the left foot. What does a high hat do? I couldn't co-ordinate 2 hands and 1 leg at the same time, so how on earth was I going to play drums with all 4 limbs at the same time?

Anyway, drummers seem to be a rare commodity in Singapore, judging by the number of advertisements which ask for drummers. I think I really should learn the bass, because drummers are almost never the leaders in rock bands. They could lead jazz combos (think Art Blakey, Buddy Rich) but even then that's rare. OK, there's Lars Urlich from Metallica but that's about it. It's much easier to balance the bass with telling the rest of the band that they're going to play your song, how to play this riff, that riff, etc, how it all fits in together.

Well, that hour passed quite quickly, even though I was trying to be playing the whole time. Sometimes, though, you just have to give your legs a break. It's OK, at least I have 1 more hobby with which to pass my time, so that I can throw out some old hobbies I no longer need. (*cough* basketball *cough*).

So I went on one of Singapore's leading music forum, and advertised myself as a "keyboardist" and a songwriter. I got 3 or 4 replies. We'll see. If I have to play with ppl 10 years younger then so be it.