Between 11 and around 25, I played drums. It's probably the only thing I can confidently say I was particularly good at. Some ambitious recordings with a band with a terrible name (redacted, sorry), exams up to grade 8, some gigs for money but mostly not. But with drums being particularly loud, expensive, and hard to move, it just stopped being something practical to do.
About a year ago I decided to have some lessons to help me get back into, but after just three weeks it was fairly clear that I wasn't really going to learn much new and that I needed to practice to get my technique back.
On Thursday, I rented a small rehearsal space to do just that. But there were some problems:
- Extremely cold in the room
- Most of the kit was broken or just generally knackered
- The cymbals sounded like they were made of some random scrap metal
Also faults of my own making:
- I didn't go in with any kind of plan
- I didn't take headphones so I couldn't play along to anything
- I don't know if this is even for me anymore?
It didn't feel right. Maybe even a little pointless. Who the fuck am I kidding? I don't see myself joining a band again as I think what I would want to do would be very difficult to realise and what I don't want to do (a band in a nearby room were playing Play That Funky Music for nearly an hour, which isn't a bad song but I have no desire to play that at weddings) I really don't want to do.
I need a book on perfectionism probably.