Drum ethics...
Great topic, ETF...
...might as well "get the beat goin'," to coin a phrase...
I started late in studying percussion. When I started I just wanted to play congas and bongos like a pro...but when the first bongo book I picked up told me to learn the 26 rudiments, I wanted to be the best drummer I could be. Strange as it sounds, I am a perfectionist--and I learned quickly that it was the worst thing I could be behind a drumset or behind the hand drums.
The drummers I admire most are those who not only have the training and discipline to play their best, but also the ones who enjoy themselves while playing--the ones who know when they're groovin' with their bandmates, and who can laugh at themselves whether they make a mistake in practice or on those rare occasions that things go wrong on a gig (and there's not a single drummer here to whom that hasn't happened!).
They're the ones who practice regularly, even if they don't feel like it; the ones who always want to learn something new (and there's always something new to learn, even if you're uncomfortable or unfamiliar with it at first); the ones who can leave the 'tudes behind them on a gig; and the ones who that there are other things that matter besides drumming (strange for me to say but true!). As a wise person once said, "Life isn't about getting there...it's the journey."
And I have a long way to go on all accounts ...
As for my style of playing, it's no secret I dig Latin music, jazz and for that matter, anything into which bongos and congas can fit. But I enjoy a wide range of music--even though opera leaves me a bit confused!--and there's something to find in all types of music that can be adapted to the way you play.
While I haven't quit my day job because of drumming, I enjoy it as a hobby, as a ministry at my church, and, should the door open for a middle-aged conguero, I hope to make my (uncorrupted) wish of playin' my congas on stage with a Buffett-style or Latin band come true...not necessarily as the leader, but as the dude with the grin on his face that you see on my av...
keep the beat goin' ... Don't keep it to yourself!
Charlie
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." --Henry David Thoreau, "Walden," 1854
"There's a lot to be said for Time Honored tradition and value." --In memory of Frank "fiacovaz" Iacovazzi
"Maybe your drums can be beat, but you can't."--Jack Keck
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