this drum is pretty much amazing. it is silly to love a "thing," in my opinion, but for this, i make an exception. a white satin flame field drum, that is what it is. it was my graduation gift from darryl. yeah, never in a million, billion years would i have ever thought i would have my very own field drum.
you know how everyone has that one item they would make sure they would grab if their house was burning down? well this is what i would take with me. forget my sisters, just kidding! but seriously, this drum has a much deeper meaning than all of my other drums. i remember the lesson when i saw it for the first time. i said to darryl, "i want to play THAT drum!" no, i didn't want to play the tenors, vibes, timpani, marimba, bells, drum set, or the other four or so snares in his studio. i wanted to play "THAT" drum. well guess what? my senior year i did play "that" drum. i got a superior on “coordination” at solo and ensemble my senior, as a matter of fact.
i kind of feel stupid for telling the world about a drum, but then again i don't.
it was the beginning of seventh grade when i got my first pair of drum sticks, a crappy practice pad, and the red standard of excellence book. i remember taking my grandmother into carlton's(the local music store) and begging her to buy it all for me. she said "emily, if i spend all this money, will you actually use them and play?" i swore to her that i wanted to learn to play drums and if she were to buy the sticks, pad, and book for me then i would practice every day! so, i got what i needed and began to teach myself how to play the snare. my birthday, april 10, right towards the end of the school year, i got a ludwig snare drum from my parents. man, i loved playing that. oh that red book had some "amazing" stuff in it…i say that in fun now that i know what percussion literature is out there! well i decided soon after that i wanted a whole drum set. i opened up a bank account for the sole purpose of saving for a drum set. well, it was that christmas that i got one. a beautiful metallic gray pearl five piece set. the drum set that i knew i was getting for christmas because darryl called my house on december 22nd to tell my parents that their order was in. i pretended to be my mom…you have got to love caller id.
yes, i love my drum set too! i started taking lessons with gerald, the son of the guy who designed our house. when he got a job working away from winter have, he recommended that i take from darryl, his former teacher. that is just what i did. i remember the night i convinced my parents to call carlton's and set it all up.
low and behold, i started taking lessons from him. wednesdays. you know, almost every wednesday from 7th-12th grade, i was at carlton's for my lesson? i have come a LOOOOONG way since i first started. i begged mr. west (my high school band director) to let me switch from trumpet to drum line after my freshman year. luckily, he agreed, so from tenth grade on i was in the percussion section. now i am in college and still playing. in fact, i am a music therapy major!
this white satin flame drum is what defines every hour i have spent practicing, every lesson i've taken, every solo/ensemble i have performed, every gig i have played with jazz band, every halftime show i've marched. one drum sums up everything i have ever done since i started playing the drums, and i owe it all to one person, darryl. he didn’t give me the talent i have today, but he did give me the tools to succeed. all the band directors in the county will hate him sooner or later because he likes turning brass players into percussionists! :)
but anyways, i know i am not the best drummer around, but that doesn't mean anything to me, because i know what i am capable of. i am still growing as a musician. trust me; i will get so much better in the next couple of years. you want to know why? well even if you don't, i will tell you. it is because i was not put on this earth to play the drums. drumming has become my passion, and i won't stop practicing and getting better because it is what keeps me going. playing the drums is what makes the dark days seem brighter; cliché as it may seem, i don't care. if people can't see my passion and love for music and drumming, then they are blind. girl drummers have to work four times harder than guy drummers because nobody wants to take a girl drummer seriously...well guess what folks?! i mean business. i am here to play and i am not going to give anything less than my best.
i will wrap this up. i just want to let people know how serious i am as a musician. how much i love what i do. how confident i am that i will keep getting better. how grateful i am that gerald suggested that i take lessons from darryl, because without him...i would not even be involved in music anymore. i know that for a fact. trumpet would have gotten old. this drum just sums up everything i have ever done as a percussionist and i love it more than anything else i have, notice that i said thing, you know, as in a possession...not a living object, haha. i am done for now.