Part of Michael’s Drums series of life-long joy
Michael’s Drums 1
Sometimes maybe often the whole point is simply in joy itself.
This is for my friends who’ve asked over the years about my drums. Initial pix/txt taken/written 13Jan2000.
Updated routinely.
March 2025 — When I started playing drums back in 1975 or so, half the people alive today were not yet alive then. That’s a really sobering fact. Lance Armstrong once said something about people generally having on average maybe 5 trillion heartbeats in regards to him not wanting to “waste any” on exercising. My version of that translates into listening to, playing with, creating and enjoying music. We’ve all got hopefully about 5 trillion so make every beat count.
I started playing drums when I was five years old. A toddler, barefoot, gawking as the KSU band marched past the 50 yard line during one 1974 summer practice of CCR’s ‘Proud Mary,’ fell in love with the crash cymbalists as they pivoted midstep to hold horizontal 20-inch ‘crash-hihats’ for the following snare drummers — it was so nifty. I knew then I wanted to play drums.
We moved to Maryland, and I got a Remo practice pad along with Ludwig 2B wood-tips practice sticks (which I still own but rarely play). A year later, when KISS was all the rage, I got a 5-1/2 x 14-inch chrome Ludwig snare drum, which accompanied me to school for band every third day in its molded black plastic case. Two years later, I received 14″ Zildjian hi-hats on a Ludwig stand. More practice. I still love that snare. I still have its stupid case.
Christmas of 1979: I spied Santa-Dad’s midnight delivery of an 6-ply maple black lacquer Ludwig “Rocker” drumset. That morning at sunup, I was the overly exuberant drummer on a 22-inch bass drum, 12-inch and 13-inch mounted tom-toms, a 16-inch floor tom, a 5-1/2 x 14-inch chrome snare, a 16-inch Zildjian (type “A”) medium crash, and a 22-1/2-inch Zildjian (thick) Ride. More practice.
Years passed, musical interests expanded, pieces appeared. A 20-inch Zildjian Pang appeared first, almost like magic. Then came Remo roto-toms (two sets even!), Remo timbales, many more Zildjian cymbals (always the original ‘AA’), and various accessories, trinkets, and traps (mostly LP Percussion).
I’ve been in a number of bands over the years. They were either, it seemed, too serious or not serious enough. I play to enjoy now. I’m looking for some good musicians who are otherwise gainfully employed to get together and play for fun and quality. I tend to like songs rather than artists (I have my own preferred list of one-hit wonders). I avoid rap and heavy metal. Fusion, SKA and country are OK. Jazz is better. Progressive jazz and (light) rock are even better.
Note added May 2022: Years later my natural aversions are confirmed by the ongoing revelations of Dave McGowan (Inside the LC / Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon); Dr Leonard Horowitz “Musical Cult Control”; Mark Devlin, Neil Sanders, G. Craige Lewis (Ex-Ministries) and many others — see https://soundquality.org for more.
200+ songs span my “bestest bests” collection…Sara McGlocklin (spelling?) – Sting – Fleetwood Mac – Steely Dan – Tiger Lilly (what IS her name…the 10k maniacs singer) – Motown – *numerous* one-hit wonders (Tubes’ She’s a Beauty, Dokken Alone Again, Tommy-Tutone 867-5309, etc.) – of course Buddy Rich and his big band! (Neil Peart, RUSH’s drummer, BTW, produced an EXCELLENT Buddy Rich tribute CD (now 3 of them, as of March 2025) with 17 tracks, each with a different remarkable drummer and featuring all the available original players – Dave Brubeck – Rickie Lee Jones – Paul Simon – Bob Marley – Cyndy Lauper – Bryan Adams – John Cougar – Eagles – James Taylor – Peter Erskine – Spyro Gyra – Steve Gadd – RUSH – Police – Stray Cats – Joe Jackson – Chet Baker – Linda Ronstadt – Dire Straits – Simple Minds – Tori Amos – Van Morrison – Billy Joel – Madonna – Huey Lewis – Dire Straits – Lisa Loeb – Pretenders — it’s difficult to remember all the bands/names/songs; it feels like a rush of feelings more than words. I guess that’s why I love music: I’m emotional and feeling cancer the crab, and music and rhythm are built in.
I tend to play quietly but with a wide range of speed/tempo, inflection/feeling, and power/dynamics. I’ve averaged one hour daily for years, and I’ve not missed more than a day or three in a row. People often ask, “are you good?” I don’t know; I play what I feel, and the more I play the more I find there is to learn and to express, and there are so infinitely many ways, it seems, to play even the same song. Music and rhythm and drums run a fairly deep and powerful undercurrent in my life. This remains a good thing.
I prefer an undampened, tangy, ringy yet full drum sound. I never tape cymbals and rarely use internal dampers (except a magical big blue blanket inside my bass drum, which changes the sound from an objectional rrrboing to an incredible thick thud), using instead light shop rags to shush the largest cymbals and control the head ring. I don’t like the ‘meat’ oil-filled heads; Remo pinstripes are almost too dead and restrictive (I play a lot of quiet rim type shots, with lots of clicking and unusual strokes with sharp attacks). I like Remo ambassador heads on the main rotos and mounted toms and on the front bass head. Remo clears are on the timbales, left roto toms and octabons. A Remo diplomat covers the second chrome snare. I’m sure I need more cowbells!