Introduce yourself

My name's BJ; I'm student teaching at a small town in Texas right now as an assistant band director. I've been in college since I graduated high school in 2008.
When it comes to drumming and percussion, there really isn't much that I don't do. I write the drumline book for the high school, as well as teaching lessons and beginners at the junior high.
The lessons I teach are pretty extensive. I have a fairly diverse student base; youth drummers at churches, kids who are auditioning for college, band camp, or UIL, and even a couple of migrant worker students who just really want to get into hand drumming and latin music. We start jazz band when the school year starts, so I'll be jumping into some jazz drumset with them at that point.
I also perform, and have performed, in just about every setting you can imagine. Drum circles, small venue jazz gigs, outdoor rallies with a rock spin, coffee shop acoustic drumming, CD recording, the local Amarillo Symphony, and countless other styles in college. I am a believer in being fluent in many stylistic languages so you can pull from any style at any point and create a more unique, signature sound.
Aside from drumming and percussion? I eat a lot. I also love movies, drumcorps, football (go Texans), baseball, books, and video games. Lots of video games.

That's awesome man! I enjoy teaching so much! Great to have a fellow educator on here.

My name is JR McNeely,I picked up the sticks in 93. I played with my cousin who was learning guitar at the time. So we both learned how to play together. After a year or so we started a band called Dreaded Yellow. We started playing talent shows and skating rinks making friends, fans, and a little bit of money. We played together until we were in our early 20's. After almost 10 years we called it quits for a while . It was stupid of us to quit. We were at the age where we should've been pushing to make it. We had the talent, experience, and only half the drive. The partying became a problem when my cousin would show up to practice completely wasted. Tempers got the best of us and that was it. I ended up getting married and having kids. I only played every once in a while. But then my oldest daughter was killed in a car wreck and I stopped playing for good. I pretty much stopped living. 12 years after my last show I'm back at it. There is nothing in my life that was as fullfilling as playing the drums. I thought it would take a year or two to start getting my chops up but within two months I was back to my old self again. I'm now better then ever. I take lessons I find on YouTube and learning things I never did before. I'm trying to start teaching a bit myself but I'm wanting to take one more crack at it. I'm looking for a band that wants to make great music and play around the world. While I'm looking for that band I'm doing YouTube videos of drum covers. You can watch them at YouTube.com/mcneelyshouseofmusic. Or www.Facebook.com/mcneelyshouseofmusic my Twitter is twitter.com/McNeely_jr

I'm glad you were able to pick yourself up and get back to playing man. I still don't have to guts to do YouTube covers yet so that's awesome what your doing! Glad to have you here man

Hey guys! My name is Alaa I'm a drummer from Jordan, I session for a few local bands and also have a YouTube drum channel.
You can check it out here:
www.youtube.com/user/TheAlaaAR

Would love it if you guys would give me some feedback I approciate all the help I can get and looking forward to meeting fellow drummers from all over.

Cheers,

Alaa

I realized I didn't introduce myself after reading everyone else's so I'll give it a shot.

My name is Matt Dudley and I am an educator/session drummer from Whiteville NC. I am 31 years old and have been playing drums since I was eight. I started teaching in January of 2003 and have never looked back. I own mattdudleydrumming.com and have a small studio that I teach out of Monday through Friday. I recently started a drum education program at our local Charter School that I teach at once a week. It's going pretty good at the moment with a handful of students.

I play drums at my church "C3" on Sundays and I'm also in two bands. "Honey Don't" which is a 50's cover band and "Traditional City" which is a modern praise and worship/Switchfoot style band. You can find tracks that I've recorded on their website. www.traditionalcity.com/

I also have a discography page on my website with other projects that I have played on.

I am very passionate about drums and people. I want to use drumming to build relationships with others from all
over the world and help people. I started this forum just the other night in hopes that I could find other drummers who are passionate like I am. I want to build a community on this forum of humble individuals who can share ideas and spread the love of our craft.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. If you want to know anything else feel free to ask.

Matt that's great. Your passion is inspiring. Thanks for creating this site. I hope it turns out to be something special for us all. I think that's something I'm missing is to have other drummers around to create off each other. We live in the same state so who knows maybe I can come out that way for a weekend to drum some with you.. I wanted to add something that happened to me yesterday. I got an email fromSoultone cymbals offering me an endorsement. I will get my signature on all my cymbals and my own t-shirtswith my signature onthem. I will also get a spot ontheir artist website. Plus, they could have me fly out to California to do video spots and recordings. But, I'm stuck because I have to switch over completely to their cymbals. We the discount I would be able to buy enough to get me going with $800 but I don't have that laying around. Once I do this I'll have credit by name and doors will open for me. I guess I'm scared I'm going to miss out on this amazing opportunity. Anybody have suggestions?

Thanks man! I'm glad it's a good place for you.

That sounds really cool! All that I can tell you is that I endorsed a certain stick company about 4 or 5 years ago and got the discount and the artist roster spot but the quality of the product just wasn't that great and the customer service of ordering and receiving was a little difficult. Having the artist spot was cool but I never was considered amazing or great because my pic was on their site. I bet no one even remembers "Matt Dudley - Independent drummer" on that site haha! I'm not saying that no one will notice you if you are on the artist roster cause someone will def see it but don't let that be the reason that you would take the deal and spend money on something that you already have. The other opportunities do sound really cool if it's legit. I have had so many people/company's promise one thing and have nothing more to offer than just a flashy email.

Find out the quality of the company and the product first and then ask yourself would I support that company and spread the word about their awesome cymbals?

Again, I think it sounds really cool! Just read into it make the best decision for you bud.

SUP GANG. I'm Nate. I'm a "drummer"... Psht... I played drums a lot through highschool and some in college. After college I became more or a musical manager. I had to pick up other instruments more so that I could make bands work. I pretty much played whatever was needed. So I play everything now: drums, guitar, bass, piano, blah blah blah. I live in town with Matt Dudley. So we were in a ton of bands together. We've been playing music all over the state for a few years now, and he's inspired me to get back into playing drums. I've got no chops after 5 years of mostly ignoring my drums. My dream isn't to be a pro drummer. My dream is to be a pro musician. I've toured with bands all over the country, but it's been as a hired gun for 2 weeks here, 6 weeks there. Never full time. Drumming was my first love, so I'm gonna get back into it and continue getting more well rounded. It helps in the studio, in song writing, in producing, and creates more opportunity to play. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

My name is Rosalie and I'm from Germany.
Here's my Introduction (from my Page on about.me)

Rosalie was born on 29.08.1995 and discovered her love for the drums as a 5-year-old at the local kindergarten. It came as it needs to come: 2003 is a Drumset the biggest wish on her wishlist. However, on Christmas Eve she will be disappointed and gets only a toy e-drum on which she would never play. Three years, it comes to an orchestra rehearsal but Rosalie take it anything but seriously.

In 2008, just turned 13 years old, she plays drums for the first time, decides lack of talent, to hit the nail on the head.

On a normal Friday morning the miracle happened: The now 16 years old got asked by her music teacher for playing the Cajon, she developed over the years an excellent tone, so she can accompany the Playalong without any Problems. She asked him for a exercise option, it stands up to her until she tried to create different grooves.

Rosalie taught herself a while, decides in 2014 to take Drum lessons.

From now on she's working very hard on her Drumming, she can see it clear since a long time ago - Music will not remain just a hobby for her.


I had Lessons for 4 months but my teacher was very bad, he explained things I wanted to know only if I asked him, told me about nonsense and if he showed something he did very fast, he was distanced and got very barefaced, so I learned not much and quitted on 25th of June.

Now I try to taught myself again (it is very hard without PC or DVD-Player, the most videos doesn't work on my phone not even YouTube does) cause the only good school uses a waiting list and I can sign in at 1st October.

I don't own a drum kit but I'll do soon.

So, this is what I'm working with:

Evans Realfeel Practice Pad 12"

Hardware:
Gibraltar Lightweight Snarestand
Gibraltar 9908 Drumthrone
K&M Musicstand

Sticks:
Vic Firth 2B

Other Tools:
Meinl Professional Stickbag black
Alpine Hearsafe
Thomann Drumkey
Tama Drumkey (it was a gimmick on my deliveries)

I'm new to this forum so I thought I'd introduce myself. According to my mom I started playing drums when she was pregnant with me. She'd let me sit on the kitchen floor with Tupperware containers, pots and pans, and wooden spoons. When I was 4yrs old I wished for a set of drums for Christmas, but I got a tambourine instead (it went missing after a couple days).

I began learning in grade 8 - we moved to a new area and the school I went to had a mandatory arts program so I chose music. Because I started half way through the school year, there was very little choice of instruments left, and I got stuck with a Tuba that was bigger than me. I hated it and kept complaining to my music teacher. Turns out he played drums in his younger years and generously offered to let me try them out. It was magic, and I learned as much as I could before leaving for high school.

When I was 14yrs old I modelled for an artist who also played guitar in a band. He worked out of a practice studio, so after I posed for the pictures, I played on their drummer's kit (turned out I knew the drummers sister, and I ended up taking lessons from him). They invited me to jam, and soon I was filling in for practice sessions (their drummer was away a lot). The band members were older and more experienced, so it pushed me to work hard and learn quickly. I ended up replacing their drummer when I was 16. I gigged with them for four years, then decided band life was not for me and focused on studying theory. I continued to jam with other musicians and joined a house band that ran a weekly Amateur Night.

When I was 22, I was working toward a career as a session drummer, but my plans were cut short when I was injured in an accident. It would be impossible for me to talk about what I'm working on in this forum without talking about the challenges I've faced due to my injuries. I suffered a head injury that resulted in what's called an acquired brain injury (ABI) with long-term memory loss. I also had injuries to my right arm and leg, and an injury to my right eye and eventually lost vision completely. I had surgery last year to my eye, and although I can see very well now, close range is blurry/distorted, and I have limitations (I'm awaiting a second procedure to improve focus).
At the time of the accident and for many years since, I didn't think I'd ever be able to play drums again. I physically recovered quite well, but I will always struggle with balance and hand-eye coordination. I joined a support group for people with ABI which used drumming as a way to help. I played djembe and bongos, and was amazed that I was indeed improving. Then about 3 years ago I saw a video posted by a 17yr old high school student. In it he said that he wanted to prove to his friends that he can play drums even though he's blind. I was blown away, and he compelled me to try. Right away, I found that I could lessen the dizziness and began learning to play again.

So this is where I am now - learning to play again blind. I started out playing just my bass, snare and hi-hat, then added cymbals. A few weeks ago I decided to extend my range to include toms. I'm a little self conscious about playing this way - my husband says I look like Stevie Wonder, and his humour has helped me get over it - it is what it is, and at least I can play!

Hi marley, welcome to the forum!
Wow, it is hard but I have much/many respect for you that you keep playing.

I heard from a woman who is playing blind too.
I was injured for a very long time too, I had a very complicated injury on the shoulders and arms as I didn't know hhow to use the rebound on my pad.
I was injured for a year.

Marley your an inspiration to all of us! It's a tough thought to know that the one thing we love the most could be taken away from us. That's so awesome that you didn't give up on your passion.


You keep pushing forward dear like your doing

Your story has inspired me to wake up early and practice tomorrow.



Thank you for sharing

Matt Dudley