Carl

Sorry @Matthew hit wrong button. Differently not sad! Should not try to respond quickly. 😊 I love to Stone Sour songs (along with nearly all of there collection).

Great question @David! I always wanted to play drums back in 5th grade (a few decades ago 😜), but mom was not supportive & wouldn’t sign off on it (never got a straight answer why). Did saxophone for 2-years but never got hooked. In college, got an acoustic & electric guitar which I dove into but my expectations where too high vs. my abilities/time investment (never loved my playing so they gathered dust). Fast forward to last summer, have the house, family, & daughter is doing lessons at local music school. Something inside finally kicked in, so I loved into lessons for the fall. Wife was extremely supportive, probably also tired that always lamented never having a chance when young but not proactive pursuing. Been practicing for 10 months now & it is AWESOME. Something inside just feels the flow & joy of playing! I have a Roland e-kit in our somewhat finished basement and also do an adult band weekly lessons where we work on songs. We did a family/friend gig this past May that the music school put on with 8 other groups We’re working on more material for another gig at end of summer. I also watched Stephen’s YouTube that lead to participating in the Kickstarter. Goals are to keep progressing with basic to intermediate level music, be patient with my progression, and have the correct technique to not overstrain my muscles, as I want to do this for decades to come. Eventually would like to get Smells like Teen Spirit down (on my 5-year goal) & even farther out tackle the double-kick pedal.

@Justin that’s awesome & you would definitely need to know your audience! Granted I’m betting 4-graders to middle schools would find it hysterical (along with most dads).

@Justin totally agree with the joy of getting people dancing. Granted one played one gig so far, but seeing people dance to our last song “Johnny B Goode” was the absolute clincher to the show for me!

@Julia agree with lifting hi-hat foot on and-of-4 is a major challenge for me as well (didn’t start working on my left till 1-month ago / 9-months in) but know getting that foot independence is a good bundle to get over. Another great Beginner song is Tom Petty’s “Learning to Fly”. Classic drum groove, crash on the 1 very 3 or so measure, 2- eighth notes on snare right before chorus & the breakdown /tradeoff with acoustic is great 2-beat fills. It’s one of the songs my band group/ lesson is doing so I broke it down & been playing for a few weeks.

@Pierre I agree with those on my influences & depending on your point-of-view, would include Queensryche, Black Sabbath, Savatage, Iron Maiden, plus newer (ha) bands like Dream Theater, Mudvaybe, Disturbed, Godsmack, Parkway Drive (insane double-pedal work). The list is sooo long of awesome bands! @Joshua Aaron Gillespie is a beast while I liked his (non-drum) side project The Almost as well.