Jericho: Little Drumming Dumb Ass
I bought a drum. Just one.
Max and I used to talk about becoming rock stars. He wanted to learn to play bass and I wanted to learn to play drums. We were gonna rock out!
So, Max bought a bass and learned to play. I gave 20 years of excuses.
Max might not be some bass diva, but the man can play. I got nothing.
So, recently I've decided that instead of sitting around watching TV or playing WoW, I'm going to learn to play drums. I decided that starting with hand percussion is an inexpensive way to learn the rudiments of drumming. Hand percussion has always fascinated me anyway.
I put a few hand drums in my holiday wish list, but, Santa brought be lots of good tunes played by other artists! Santa (via my in-laws) also laid a small chunk of change on me. Time to go to the music store!
Drums are indeed pricey things, and I'm cheap! This combo makes things difficult. I made the mistake of going to Guitar Center on the Sunday after Xmas, hoping to find one of these retail desperation bargains I've been hearing about on the news. Fat Chance!
As Max will certainly tell you, Guitar Center is the Center of Hell, the armpit of the music industry. I walked into the drum area, four people were banging away on drums as loud as they could, led by an Asian tike all of 8 years old - the sticks were longer than his arms. In this cacophony, I eventually got the attention of a sales person. I was not set on the type of drum I wanted, so I pointed out a Djembe and a pair of Bongos. The Bongos were used, the sales person took them down and I asked what was the best price he could get me? He went off to his counter to find out.
After twenty five minutes of him serving other customers and much hearing loss, he returned to tell me that the bongos in question were on lay away. I didn't bother asking why they were still on display. I asked about a second, more expensive set, that were also marked as used. He went to see what deal he could get me. He then returned to grab the tag from the instrument - he couldn't remember the number. Who could? I couldn't have remembered my social security number as loud as that room was. If they had all been playing the same song it would have been a different story. Finally, the young person told me that the bongos were mis-tagged, they were not used and he couldn't give me a discount. At this point I had a head ache, I was very frustrated and I didn't even ask about the other drum I was interested in.
Note to Guitar Center: You Suck. You missed a sale because you suck. I hope you go out of business.
It was getting late, it was a Sunday, I knew I was nearly out of options. I punched in "PAWN" on my GPS. The first location I visited no longer existed. I only had time for one more and I was going to quit for the night. I got to the pawn shop, saw drums and got excited. All of the sales people were busy and I saw no hand percussion. Finally I got the attention of a lady and asked her if there were any hand drums.
"Just that one, honey." She pointed to a conga. It was obviously hand made and kinda funky - both of these things I like. It has these huge pegs sticking out - it wouldn't look out of place being played by Fred Flintstone. It was $79.99 with a 10% off sticker. It was in my price range. I wasn't impressed by the hand made thing and the weird pegs. I gave it a few taps, it sounded like a drum.
"That drum is 30% off, baby" said the lady. I looked at her and said "You have a sale!" $60 after tax. Considering the used bongos I was trying to talk down were $129, I think I did okay.
So, my idea now is to find a few books and learn to play. I can't play at home. We live in an apartment, playing drums would annoy the fuck out of our neighbors, not to mention my wife. So, my plan is to load up the drum, drive to the top level of the parking garage at the local mall, and play in the car. I have a minivan with quite a bit of room, so hopefully this will work. Besides learning from books, there are CDs I can play on the car's audio system. I'm hoping to find pod casts I can record to CD or plop on my iPod and use as well. I've found several videos on YouTube. The mall has WiFi access. If I drag along my laptop, I might be able to load those videos and learn from them, or use the laptop to play lessons from DVD.
In all, I think this will be very cool for me. I'm excited about learning a musical instrument. Wish me luck!
Max and I used to talk about becoming rock stars. He wanted to learn to play bass and I wanted to learn to play drums. We were gonna rock out!
So, Max bought a bass and learned to play. I gave 20 years of excuses.
Max might not be some bass diva, but the man can play. I got nothing.
So, recently I've decided that instead of sitting around watching TV or playing WoW, I'm going to learn to play drums. I decided that starting with hand percussion is an inexpensive way to learn the rudiments of drumming. Hand percussion has always fascinated me anyway.
I put a few hand drums in my holiday wish list, but, Santa brought be lots of good tunes played by other artists! Santa (via my in-laws) also laid a small chunk of change on me. Time to go to the music store!
Drums are indeed pricey things, and I'm cheap! This combo makes things difficult. I made the mistake of going to Guitar Center on the Sunday after Xmas, hoping to find one of these retail desperation bargains I've been hearing about on the news. Fat Chance!
As Max will certainly tell you, Guitar Center is the Center of Hell, the armpit of the music industry. I walked into the drum area, four people were banging away on drums as loud as they could, led by an Asian tike all of 8 years old - the sticks were longer than his arms. In this cacophony, I eventually got the attention of a sales person. I was not set on the type of drum I wanted, so I pointed out a Djembe and a pair of Bongos. The Bongos were used, the sales person took them down and I asked what was the best price he could get me? He went off to his counter to find out.
After twenty five minutes of him serving other customers and much hearing loss, he returned to tell me that the bongos in question were on lay away. I didn't bother asking why they were still on display. I asked about a second, more expensive set, that were also marked as used. He went to see what deal he could get me. He then returned to grab the tag from the instrument - he couldn't remember the number. Who could? I couldn't have remembered my social security number as loud as that room was. If they had all been playing the same song it would have been a different story. Finally, the young person told me that the bongos were mis-tagged, they were not used and he couldn't give me a discount. At this point I had a head ache, I was very frustrated and I didn't even ask about the other drum I was interested in.
Note to Guitar Center: You Suck. You missed a sale because you suck. I hope you go out of business.
It was getting late, it was a Sunday, I knew I was nearly out of options. I punched in "PAWN" on my GPS. The first location I visited no longer existed. I only had time for one more and I was going to quit for the night. I got to the pawn shop, saw drums and got excited. All of the sales people were busy and I saw no hand percussion. Finally I got the attention of a lady and asked her if there were any hand drums.
"Just that one, honey." She pointed to a conga. It was obviously hand made and kinda funky - both of these things I like. It has these huge pegs sticking out - it wouldn't look out of place being played by Fred Flintstone. It was $79.99 with a 10% off sticker. It was in my price range. I wasn't impressed by the hand made thing and the weird pegs. I gave it a few taps, it sounded like a drum.
"That drum is 30% off, baby" said the lady. I looked at her and said "You have a sale!" $60 after tax. Considering the used bongos I was trying to talk down were $129, I think I did okay.
So, my idea now is to find a few books and learn to play. I can't play at home. We live in an apartment, playing drums would annoy the fuck out of our neighbors, not to mention my wife. So, my plan is to load up the drum, drive to the top level of the parking garage at the local mall, and play in the car. I have a minivan with quite a bit of room, so hopefully this will work. Besides learning from books, there are CDs I can play on the car's audio system. I'm hoping to find pod casts I can record to CD or plop on my iPod and use as well. I've found several videos on YouTube. The mall has WiFi access. If I drag along my laptop, I might be able to load those videos and learn from them, or use the laptop to play lessons from DVD.
In all, I think this will be very cool for me. I'm excited about learning a musical instrument. Wish me luck!
posted by Jericho Brown at 12/28/2008 05:56:00 PM
3 Comments:
Pictures, bitch!
http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/files/2008/08/sarah-palin.jpg
Of the drum, you complete and utter doof.
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