On Drums (on Writing)

Sitting at my kit is the most comfortable place I’ve ever found in all the world. No matter where my kit is set up if I am sitting at it with drum sticks in my hands at the ready, I am enclosed in a warm, rhythmic embrace protecting me from all worldy dangers. My confidence explodes when I’m at those drums. Enveloped inside the protective barrier of my beautiful, green Pearl kit, I am more me than I could have ever possibly imagined.

I’ve always had a warm-up ritual when I first sit down at my drums. I pick up the sticks from the snare drum, which is where I keep them as soon as they’re out of their bag. Immediately, I throw my right arm out at a 45 degree angle to softly reach the my big ride cymbal and I bounce the head of the stick off it in uneven rhythms, trying to actually force myself off time for the time being. Once the right hand is steady with a true non-steady-non-rhythm of sorts, I usually get my right foot kicking at an even-yet-staggered pace and tempo on the bass drum. Then the stick in my left hand begins to drop some science on the head of the snare in small, diddles and paradiddles and drumshit like that. Lastly, once those three limbs have all found a home inside the steady storm of random rhythm, my left foot opens and closes the hi-hat cymbals at usually half the time and tempo of the bass drum. True improv.

So what ends up happening is my arms are flailing at odd and differing paces, totally off beat and each within their own times, while both of my feet keep the whole ship grounded by giving an actual steady, constant time to the machine that has become my body at that point.

The warmup lasts for about five minutes max and afterwards I am loose and good and my mind is ready to concentrate on actual counting and soaking up the beats. I can move on to whatever needs to be done, whether it is actually practicing true swinging, in-time rhythms or reading my well-worn drumming book and practicing the exercises within it. Whether I’m playing by myself, or in a structured practice session, recording session or a live show, the first five minutes remain the same and always have. It’s the most natural thing for me to do. It’s just what I do on drums.

Other than the actual drumming parts, all the same is true for my iMac and my writing