Ruth4Truth

So paradoxically the only time I have had recently to actually write for my blog has been when I was without internet for a weekend. I did some stuff for work the first night, but thought I’d be as well to get stuck in to some writing while I had fewer distractions than usual.  But then of course I couldn’t remember any of the ideas I had when I didn’t have time to write. Typical. They were of course fabulous ideas. Oh well maybe they’ll come back to me later…

So I’ll just tell you what I’ve been doing recently, which I am very excited about – I had a drumming lesson last week!   It was awesome. It was a special deal where you got three 1-hour lessons for £30 and when I saw it, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.  I hadn’t played drums for about 13 years and it was so cool to get back on the stool with a pair of sticks in my hands.  It felt so right.   I mean I’m comfortable in front of a keyboard, and I love the feeling of playing the guitar, but put me in front of (wait, behind?) a drum kit and it is a different feeling altogether, more like I belong there. I kept thinking why have I waited so long??  Don’t get me wrong, I only mess about on keys and guitar, I’m far from competent on either.  Also some would say drums are the easiest thing to pick up, all you do is bash things in time to the music, which may be true, but anyway I’ve always had an affinity for the drums and it was a great feeling to be back bashing and thumping to my heart’s content.

I played drums when I was at school, well I took lessons in percussion, so that included tuned percussion such as xylophone, timpani drums and all manner of shaking things as well as drum kit.   Of course drum kit was the best part, although my teacher was a jazz man so there was lots of instruction on swing / jazz rhythms and using brushes. I pestered my parents to buy me a kit, but we didn’t have the space and they didn’t have the patience. I got a snare drum to practice on and had to mime the rest. I always wanted to take it further and be in a band, but didn’t know anyone who played the guitar or keyboards or who liked the same kind of music as me. There were a few boys in my school who took up the guitar and tried to play together covering some stuff. I can’t remember what it was, but when you went past the music room it sounded loud and thrashy, so I was intrigued. But they were older than me, by about 3 years or so, which is an absolute age when you are 14 and they are 17 and in any case they didn’t want to wee girl in their band, especially playing drums. When I was on my gap year between school and university I found a kit and played a wee bit, but a combination of chronic shyness and again a lack of potential band-mates put paid to any possibilities there. When I came back home I just got diverted into different things, occasionally found people who played music, but they had all been at it for years and were far more confident and competent than me so I didn’t dare put myself forward.  And so 13 years passed…

Anyway the lesson was amazing, the teacher was really cool and asked what I’d done before then got me straight into trying some different beats and fills and pushing me to try more complicated stuff. I was having such a good time I must have had a huge grin on my face the entire lesson. He couldn’t believe that I hadn’t played at all in all that time and asked why I didn’t try to get together with others to play. I explained I had an 18 month-old daughter to look after, a job, took sign language lessons, etc etc. He told me I should do it anyway, so I took that as a pretty big compliment.  Also the guys in the shop were a bit taken aback when I walked out of the practice room and had to ask the teacher if it was really me who had been playing.  I tried not to look too smug.  Then again I was in my work clothes, so maybe I should grunge it up a bit next time to complete the look.

I have 2 more lessons as part of the deal then I have to decide what to do – carry on with the lessons (very expensive and time-consuming), try to find people to play with (also time-consuming and probably expensive) or leave it for another 13 years (NOOOOOOO!!!!!)