A music enthusiast’s flashback: teenage drummer

I was 14 when my ears got fascinated with the simple drum pattern of Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls on Parade”. I tried looking for the song’s drum tabs on the net. I realized that the only simple part of the pattern was the coordination of the left hand’s snare and the right hand’s steady hi-hat. I didn’t expect how frustrating it was to coordinate the right foot on the bass drum, with my steady right hand. The bass was supposed to be hit in between the steady hi-hat beats, but my right hand couldn’t help but hit in unison with the bass drum’s pattern, which was so wrong.

I hated that boxed part of the pattern so much!

I had to practice the pattern in super slow motion to be able to isolate the beats of the hi-hat and the bass. It took me at least two or three hours in bed before I could do it fast and finally fall asleep. You don’t need to sit in a drummer position to do this. I was lying in bed with my right hand on my lap and my right foot just jerking. I wanted to shout when I finally could consistently do the pattern without error.

It was everything I needed to learn for me to be able to play patterns by ear, not relying anymore on the drum tabs. It was easier to do the isolated left hand’s snare and the right hand’s hi-hat.

The ghost snare

After being able to perfect “Bulls on Parade” which was at a relatively slow drumming pace, I moved on to RATM’s “People of the Sun” which was more fun to play, and where I first experienced using my left foot on the hi-hat. It sounded so cool for me. I could say that Brad Wilk was my very first teacher.

I continued to explore further. For a mid-teenager’s taste, I found somehow complicated what professional drummers find to be basic. The three songs I remember spending hours on following were “Judith” by A Perfect Circle, “Death Blooms” by Mudvayne, and “Garden Fresh” by Cheese (now Queso). “Judith” was different for me because of its 6-note pattern instead of 8, and I remember it to be a hard adjustment for me. While I found “Death Blooms” and “Garden Fresh” to be challenging because of the variety of their patterns, unlike those of RATM songs. But if not for RATM, I wouldn’t be able to play any other songs just by ear.

The first drumsticks I ever had was Zildjian Eric Singer. I got very much used to it, that when I got hold of a normal drumstick for the very first time, I found my Eric Singer relatively too heavy for just anyone to handle, probably as heavy as a light cellular phone. When I tried using lighter sticks, I wasn’t comfortable with them. I sticked to my Eric Singer until it got chipped too much, and eventually bought a Zildjian Mike Mangini, which was a little heavier and more durable.

And the rest was history. I was always the drummer in my high school bands, because everybody else in the campus can play guitar. But I could only play drums for songs with constant-count patterns, not as an exhibitionist. Those songs were the usual rock with vocals, not the progressive and jazz types. I also never tried playing double bass because I have a weak left leg.

What I learned throughout my short years as an active drummer was that you don’t need to perfect the songs you intend to cover. You can improvise on your own as long as you can sustain the count of your pattern. I had not gone far in terms of being a solo exhibition drummer, but I am sure that until now, I still can isolate my right foot’s pattern from my right hand’s, and that was all I needed to get back to playing the drums again. I still airplay whenever I hear any song on the radio!