I’m a multi-instrument musician. And because of this, I have a problem. For many people, there is no realization that this problem is even really a problem. You see I want to start taking drum lessons again.
This would be all well and good if I didn’t know what I was doing. It would be incredibly easy to find a teacher if I had little or no experience. Instead, I need to go some complicated shopping.
The problem is my musical resume. I started taking drum lessons back in 1991. I happened to be right around 9 years old. I took lessons from two places: at school I had instruction in concert percussion, and I took drum kit lessons at one of the best places in Connecticut, Dynamic Percussion. Upon moving to Utah, I started taking lessons with a man named Steve Gustaveson, who is in my, and other’s, opinion one of the best teachers in the state. Amazing drummer, and for those who are into drum-speak, his teacher studied under George Lawrence Stone. During my time in Utah, I played regularly in my church’s worship team for 5 years. Between the lessons, and regularly playing with other musicians, I got to be quite good.
When I went to college out of state, obviously I stopped taking lessons, but continued to play on a weekly basis with another church group. I didn’t really improve much, but I didn’t lose anything either, something I took as a win. After graduating college however, I didn’t live somewhere that I could easily practice and lost quite a bit of ability and, to be honest, passion. I started to dabble in other instruments. I taught myself to play guitar and bass to fill needs at the various churches I was serving, both at home and as a pastoral intern in Iowa. All the while drums kind of fell to the wayside.
This changed nearly a year ago. I was considering purchasing an electronic drum kit, primarily to assist in some of the recording I was doing. Then a few months after that, I was asked to play for a summer camp last summer. Now, I had played bass at this camp and had been responsible for the sound system recently, but I was several years removed from being behind a drum set. So I played. A lot.
Leading up to this summer, I was behind a kit playing at least an hour every day just trying to get my stamina back up. I wasn’t that worried about technique, but I knew that this camp is a musical marathon (6 nights, 1-3 hour sets each night, plus 15-30 minute morning sets, and rehearsals) so I wanted to make sure I could handle it.
Things with the camp went well enough. I wasn’t very happy with how I did, but I never am; it’s the curse of being a perfectionist. I had mildly kept up playing, nothing too special, but this afternoon I made a realization. I had been playing drums quite a bit in the past year, but I have not once actually sat down and practiced.
People who don’t play an instrument, and even many who do, don’t understand the difference between playing and practicing: playing, at its core, is for fun; practicing is work. Can practice be fun? Yes, it can. But practicing a musical instrument takes a level of dedication and effort that really does become work.
Today, I sat down and practiced. It hurt. I went for about half an hour, and during this time I realized that, while I have always been a somewhat lazy player, I had picked up a lot of bad habits in the ten years since my last formal instruction, and I need someone look from the outside to help me fix these bad habits.
Thus begins my search for a drum teacher. The problem is, during my quick search of folk around Utah, I have more experience than most of the teachers near me, and I have been spoiled by having particularly excellent instruction in the past. So, I announced to the internet, here begins “The Great Drum Teacher Hunt of 2011”! Wish me luck kids, I think I’m going to need it.