It's Been Seven Years Since I First Joined This Site, And I Wonder....

[musician4life]

... have your interests in drumming/music increase or diminished? I have noticed that a lot of musicians interest peak in their late teens, and starts to dwindle by their mid to late twenties. Many guys want to play professionally, but by their mid-twenties, real life obligations start to eat away at practice time; it's no longer accept to live with and shed in your momma's house; and suddenly what was once a passion became an interest.

Some quit altogether.

I don't know how many of you guys are still lurking, but it'd be interesting to know where you all are in regards to your level of interest in drumming.

[baggettcindy]

I am very much interested....I turn 45 in July....I will never quit. I think playing will help my limbs as I continue to hopefully get older. I also want to get better and I have noticed improvement. I would love to play professsionally, but my goal is to be a church musician one day...Play the organ and drums. I need to start practicing on the organ though. If I could be a "jojo mayer" church drummer, that would be good enough for me....

[Jedi3]

I think my level of interest is still the same, as drumming and music in general are still a huge part of who I am.  But, like you said, those real life obligations take priority these days.  As a husband and father, there's just not enough hours in the day to spend all day in the basement anymore.  Practice time in general is nearly non-existent.  The mortgage man wants to see me once a month. These kids of mine have grown accustomed to lights, heat, hot water, and food everyday.  My wife loves to discuss how her day went...everyday (a shed session in itself).  All that to say, when I do get to sit down and work out a little, I think I appreciate the time with the instrument more.  It's as much fun now for me as it was then, even though it's a different dynamic in my life now.  A drummer is still who I am and who I'll always be, I just have to be a bunch of other stuff now too.

[hallchamp]

 It's funny that I have more of a passion now for drumming then I ever did. I'm 26 been married for 2 and 1/2 years and have a two month year old daughter, and I am about to purchase my first house and I teach high school math full-time. So in two ends, I have a lot of obligations.  I agree with my man who said that every moment on the kit is special; I appreciate the time on the kit more and want to give everything I got. During the summer (break..yeah!!), I plan to start back on the basics buying some books and a different pad to just get to it! I still would love to do some things professionally, or just play on a couple of CD's.  This won't change until the day I die!! An older musician, 47 I believe, told me that he can't never sit on his gift and I said TRUE THAT! Peace and God Bless!!

[musician4life]

As for me, I was never interested in pursuing music as a career. When I first joined, I was building a home base business, and that has since become very, very profitable for me. Now that finances are no longer a concern, I've found that my interest in pursuing a career music has skyrocketed.

I'm working on becoming a multi-instrumentalist/producer/song-writer.

[SabianKnight]

I will hit the big 4-0 in a few months.

22yrs a couple... married 13 this years... 3 children (8, 3, 15mths old)

My passion higher now than ever. I hitting a local jam a couple times a month. Spending 1-1.5 hrs on the pads (hands and double pedal) working on control and training my right-handed self to play left-handed (not open-handed but full left-handed). Also progressing in learning  acoustic/rhythm guitar. I will soon embark on learning to play left-hand guitar as well.
Training to be an ambidextrous multi-instrumentalist is actually growing my brain development because of causing my brain to work and control intricate actions previously never used. That literally means new nerve (neural) pathways and brain cells are being created.   

Seek inspiration and you will find passion and your passion again.

[Mysteryman]

I will hit the big 4-0 in a few months.

22yrs a couple... married 13 this years... 3 children (8, 3, 15mths old)

My passion higher now than ever. I hitting a local jam a couple times a month. Spending 1-1.5 hrs on the pads (hands and double pedal) working on control and training my right-handed self to play left-handed (not open-handed but full left-handed). Also progressing in learning  acoustic/rhythm guitar. I will soon embark on learning to play left-hand guitar as well.
Training to be an ambidextrous multi-instrumentalist is actually growing my brain development because of causing my brain to work and control intricate actions previously never used. That literally means new nerve (neural) pathways and brain cells are being created.   

Seek inspiration and you will find passion and your passion again.

I have not been really keeping up with drums. I started eating left handed and using a computer mouse left handed at one point for the same reason. People would use my computer and struggle. One point I would use two forks. lol I also try writing with my left hand every blue moon.

[T-Block]

I started off playing drums, but now I play mostly keys and bass. I still hit the set every now and then, but I still have the same love for it as I've always had. I really wanna master the double foot pedal, particularly my left foot. If I can get that down pat, I think I will be in good shape. Still working with independence training as well.

and training my right-handed self to play left-handed (not open-handed but full left-handed).

That's impressive!!!

[SabianKnight]

Thanks for the encouraging statement (...that you seem to appreciate the effort and possibilities of such an endeavour).

What is amazing to me is how much it is opening up my mind. I am starting to naturally prefer leading left-handed and playing full lefty over playing in my strength [right-handed]. I have even caught myself stumbling while playing righty as if my body wanted to play lefty. It definitely has exposed mechanical issues in my righty playing as I have to pay attention to every aspect of motion in training my left-side. My major challenge is getting my right foot to "simply" the hi-hat (keeping straight time... not syncopated kick patterns) while my left foot is playing the groove on the kick.

[JFunky]

... have your interests in drumming/music increase or diminished?

...what's going on Div?  All right, so my interest in drumming hasn't diminished but my time has.  After having my son and now a new baby on the way (3 total) time definitely flies.  The crazy thing is that my son loves the drums and he's 2 so I get drawn back in. lol  I have to say my interest in music has grown a lot more.  I bought 2 books dealing with Piano Chords and Scales and I also find myself thinking about bass parts a lot so I guess I'm gravitating (sp?) to arranging which I've always loved. 

[musician4life]

... what's going on Div?  All right, so my interest in drumming hasn't diminished but my time has.  After having my son and now a new baby on the way (3 total) time definitely flies.  The crazy thing is that my son loves the drums and he's 2 so I get drawn back in. lol  I have to say my interest in music has grown a lot more.  I bought 2 books dealing with Piano Chords and Scales and I also find myself thinking about bass parts a lot so I guess I'm gravitating (sp?) to arranging which I've always loved.

...that's kind of where I am. I seem to be more into producing, than I am into just strictly playing. Have a lot of music in my head that I'd like to get out.

[JFunky]

...yeah.  I'm stuck on something though.  I'm being told to start taking piano lessons but the bass guitar is calling me. lol

[musician4life]

...yeah.  I'm stuck on something though.  I'm being told to start taking piano lessons but the bass guitar is calling me. lol

Maybe you're just meant to be a multi-instrumentalist arranger. The more you can do to that end, the better.

[SabianKnight]

...yeah.  I'm stuck on something though.  I'm being told to start taking piano lessons but the bass guitar is calling me. lol

Piano is IMO going to give you the best grasp on music theory as you have the broadest, most straight forward instrument base for facility to scale... meaning you have 88 keys total between the natural keys and sharps/flats and the largest octave range in the most visible arrangement. This makes understanding the placement of notes on, above and below the music staff as well understanding where Middle "C" is the notes of the Treble and Bass Clefs begin and end much easier. You also are able to find the ranges for vocal voicings much easier on the piano for teaching/correcting sectional parts to choirs/ensembles etc.

Note as well you will get familiar with and build dexterity for playing left handed bass lines should you ever need to play/program bass synth parts.

You can still learn to play electric bass but as Musician4Life alluded to, you will get the most versatility from learning piano.