State 0: March 2015
By Guts
It’s now July 2015, and this post is looking back a few month, back to March. This is going to be the first post in a series where I once in a while describe my current state. Have I progressed? Do I have more control? What can I do today that I couldn’t do yesterday?
Full disclosure: Before March, my total drumming experience consisted of the basic drumming lessons during music class in school (15 years ago), and the occasional drum kit fiddling at the rehearsal place when I was playing guitar with my now defunct death metal band (https://www.inception.se/)
So in March, I purchased my first gear and went to my first practice, just me in a room with a kit. I sucked. Playing the drums felt awesome, but I sucked. I could lay down a basic beat, but that was pretty much it. I couldn’t handle any sort of speed, and I couldn’t get my left side to do anything useful. My left hand couldn’t grab the stick properly, and my left foot just went into twitching mode.
Frustrating, of course, but I wasn’t surprised. I knew this. The thing that gave me confidence was my right hand: I could grab the stick, feel the stick, and hits felt comfortable. I felt in control. I could play at 240 bpm for maybe five seconds straight.
I’m sorry I can’t provide you with a video of my state in March, but I’ll definitely discuss my past in my next post in the series.