I often think I am 100% right.
My way is the best way. I have insight. I understand things (that you don’t). I’m a genius.
But the older I get, the more open I’ve become to trying a different way.
When I learned to play the drums, I was taught the traditional grip in which your left hand holds the stick in an underhanded grip and your right holds the stick the way anyone naturally holding a drum stick would.
I’ve always felt smugly superior to drummers who use the match grip in which both hands hold the sticks in a completely natural way.
Even if those match grip drummers played better than me, which many did, I thought my way was the right way.
When I picked up drumming again in 2019, I briefly considered using match grip because logically it makes sense to play this way on a drum set. But I had muscle memory from my younger days and chose to use traditional grip. For the last two years, I’ve played contentently this way.
Until now.
I just got an electronic drum set.
This broke another of my drumming righteous principles – that acoustic drums are “real drums” and electronic drums are “fake” and inferior.
I decided to get an electronic drum set because:
- I was weary of playing with ear protection all the time. I wanted to hear the toms, the cymbals, the snare, the bass, and the hi-hat the way they actually sound instead of muted from my ear protection.
- I wanted to play in my open aired, bright, sunny loft instead of my dark, sound proofed, second bedroom.
- I wanted to be able to play at anytime, instead of worrying about the neighbors and limiting myself to afternoon hours only.
So I bought an Alexis Nitro Mesh Kit and set it up in my loft.
Are they “real drums”? Well they sound better than my real drums. And I play them with sticks.
But they don’t vibrate, they aren’t as sensitive to reverberation and stick velocity, they don’t ring or feel the same.
They emit noise via an electronic interface vs pure percussion.
It’s a different instrument – but still a drum set.
It’s smaller than my “real” set. It’s whisper quiet – I hear the music through headphones. Without the headphones, all you hear are quiet clicks and taps.
I’ve played at 6AM, 8 PM and all hours in between. Playing in the bright sunny loft lifts me up. Hearing the tones of the tomes, the snares and the cymbals brightens my practice.
When I got the set, I decided to learn match grip and to configure the set so I can play left and right handed.
I figured I might as well give these a shot. If they don’t work out or if I ever want to change back to my old ways, I can always switch back.
In some ways, I am progressing backwards. To play left handed and to learn match grip I’ve had to slow down the tempo. I’ve gone back to start at the beginning of all of my drum books to take advantage of the simpler exercises to build up my skill in the new technique.
Actually I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how quickly I am progressing.
I think constantly challenging myself to try new things has resulted in me getting better at learning.