Here's my story

* just getting some notes down on paper, um, down in writing. Some are more fully written than others, for the time being.  *

It started with YouTube.  Kinescoped live television from the 1950's and early 1960's, before videotape came into wide use.  Early use of videotape, The Edsel Show, An Evening With Fred Astaire, The Nutcracker from 1958 with June Lockhart... Steve Allen, Dinah Shore, whoever, if it looked fresh and immediate 60 years after it was performed, I wanted to see it.

And there were the songs.  Not so much Steely Dan as the pop songs from the 1960's and 1970's that I heard on the school bus.  The Association, Herb Alpert, Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66... 

YouTube's algorithm impassively digested the information I willingly supplied, and provided suggestions for further interest.  

Yoyoka, a 9-year-old Japanese girl playing Led Zeppelin.  OK, I'll check that out.  

Entertaining, and according to the comments, on the level of a prodigy.  "I've been a pro drummer for 30 years, and I can't play what she just played."  She has the gift.  

But the videos had only one camera angle, and with it I couldn't see what she was doing.  It was entertaining, but I didn't learn anything or get any impulses to do it myself.

But after Yoyoka, German girl Sina

Multiple camera angles, could see more.

Home At Last, the Purdie Shuffle, or at least her interpretation of it

Watched it multiple times, and began to see, although didn't know the jargon to put it in words

Started to feel as though "I can learn to do that."

Another Sina video - learn to play in 10 minutes

Put video on Watch Later list, near the top, but didn't look at it for days, maybe weeks

Maybe someone with talent could learn from her 10 minute lesson, but let's be real.  

I played in school bands from 5th through 10th grade, know a little, remember a little

Music staff, clefs, time signatures, note values, Every Good Boy Does Fine and F-A-C-E

But no particular talent, eventually moved from baritone horn to sousaphone.  I could oompa-oompa OK.  

I got out of it what I put into it.  Eventually I got out of it altogether.

How to practice sousaphone quietly at home.  At home at all, for that matter.

And the thing was, my father could play guitar, mandolin, banjo.  My mother could play 3-chord rhythm guitar.   Dad could play, but he probably had never tried to teach someone what he knew so well.  It didn't work on me, anyway.  But later, I tried guitar lessons in a group class, and later still, private piano lessons, and that didn't take either, so it was a me problem too, mostly.  

I wanted to play.  That didn't necessarily mean I wanted to learn to play.

If I could only make mistakes quietly, so no one could hear me until I could do it right, but I didn't know how to do that, and must have not wanted enough to learn, afraid to make mistakes, and soon gave up.

So there I was, age 66, never had a desire to play drums, and if I had any kind of gift, it would have appeared by now.

The Vonnegut quote on the value of learning something even if you're not pro-level good at it.

30 Sept 2025:  And now I hear that Vonnegut didn't write it.

Start slowly.  Tapping fingers on table, patting hands on knees.  Saw progress.

A month later, sprang for a 2-pack of sticks from Amazon for $6 (store credit I already had, so it's free)

Diving into YouTube for instruction.  Plenty of instruction, not as much structure.  

Some teachers with attitude that if you're not working toward pro-level skills, not worth bothering

So many teachers begin their videos by blasting speed-intensive solos that have nothing to do with the subject of the lesson.  I believe you, mate, you are able to play fast.  If that was your point, I got it.  It does me no good, but whatever.

And there's another hitch.  I'm not interested in metal, punk, speedy play.  Not interested in calling attention to myself.  The timekeeping is what I want to learn more about.  

Anyway, this is not an obsession.  I know what obsessions are, and this isn't one of them.  I'm never going to eat, drink, sleep, and breathe drumming.  But I'm finding that when I'm doing things I always did before, like watching TCM or reading on Kindle, or even surfing the web, I felt like I wanted to be doing something related to drumming instead.  When are you going to read these articles you bookmarked, books you downloaded, watch these films you Tivo'ed?  I'll get around to them, whatever, but right now I'd like to watch a lesson on YouTube.

In late August, broke down and paid for a bundle from Drumeo.  It was time.

To be continued

8/31: Bought a e-drum kit and a throne.  Highest-end low-end kit from Yamaha (there's Roland $$$$, Yamaha $$$, and everyone else is on a lower level, both in price and in quality).  Like a Toyota Corolla, but really loaded.  

Highest-end throne, period.  I write this while sitting in a $400 gamer chair, on which I sit eight hours a day during working hours.  I won't be playing drums for 8 hours, but still not cheaping out on quality.  

So that's roughly $120 for lessons and a bit of kit, $600 for a Yamaha DTX452K (not a 402 or a 432, mind you), and $228 for a Roc-n-Soc saddle throne.  Now I've gone and done it.  It's simple to quit when you've only spend $6 for drumsticks in April.  But it's now four months later and I'm still interested (unlike that online game, unlike the French language site like Rosetta Stone, unlike the Russian Duolingo that lasted about two weeks each).  

Hobbies: (1) Tabby's Place (a) writing for Fenek, (b) photographing cats, (c) socializing the Melees, the Cookie Monsters, the Lorna Doones, the Sylvias, the Jennifer Anns, (d) loving on the lap cats

(2) Drumming (with $1,000 invested in a hobby that I'll likely never use outside the house; what, are you nuts?)

(3) French ($100 a year for Le Monde)

Doesn't leave much time for anything else, no matter how interesting it may seem to be.  Need to focus.

Small steps.  After getting the basic backbeat under control, I was satisfied until I wasn't.  What was I looking for?  One day, it came to me that I needed sheet music for songs.  Another day, it came to me that I could look on YouTube for drum covers of songs I wanted to learn.  (I knew there were covers; I watched "Home At Last" how many times?  But using them intentionally to learn how to play them?  I never made that connection until recently.)  

Drumeo has Weird Al songs?  Cool, which ones?   "Happy/Tacky"?  Sheet music, check.  Man, nearly that whole song is made up of one lick, basic 4/4 backbeat except (1) the kick is on 2+, 3+ and 4+ instead of on 3, and (2) opening the hihat on 3, keeping it closed on 1, 2, and 4.  I wish I could see someone playing it, if only.... waaaaait a minute!   And YouTube lets you vary the speed, slow it down until you can see how all of it is done.  

My experience with YouTube videos about drumming consisted of multiple references to Doomed Wild Men like John Bonham and Keith Moon, or skilled young men with tattoos and carefully ungroomed facial hair (long hair or shaved head optional).  And I'd say "That ain't me."  Years ago, I read on someone's blog (paraphrasing), "I hate Broadway, I hate Judy Garland, I don't know why I even bother to be gay."   

I'm not interested in speed metal or anything involving 32nd-notes or 27 1/2-stroke rolls.  So then what *am* I interested in?  (Besides Steely Dan, of course)  And yesterday afternoon, sitting in a waiting room while my wife was getting her teeth cleaned, it came to me:  Charlie Watts.  That's the guy whose style I could follow easily and learn from, both in drumming as well as personal to some extent.  

NY Times obituary:  "Reserved, dignified and dapper, Mr. Watts was never as flamboyant, either onstage or off, as most of his rock-star peers, let alone the Stones’ lead singer, Mick Jagger. He was content to be one of the finest rock drummers of his generation, playing with a jazz-inflected swing that made the band’s titanic success possible.... While some rock drummers chased after volume and bombast, Mr. Watts defined his playing with subtlety, swing and a solid groove."