Journal: News & Comment

Permalinks to this entry: individual page or in monthly context. For more material from my journal, visit my home page or the archive.

Is music bred in the bone?

More than five years ago, I got married (at a lovely lakeside house), quit being a full-time drummer, and made writing and editing my career. Or so I thought.

Since 1995, I've played a few fill-in shows with my old band, The Neurotics (a.k.a. Hourglass), but recently those shows have become more frequent.

Today, two things made me realize I was turning back into a musician:

1. I replaced all the drum heads on my kit -- because I realized that some of them were a decade old. Then, while testing out the drumset, I began to rediscover the joy of playing (of course, my recent free trip to New York didn't hurt either).
2. I started looking at musical catalogs, browsing music Web sites, and visiting music stores again, just for fun.

There's a chance I may get to be the regular drummer for my former band once more. When I left in 1995, I was 26, recently out of university, and still unsure of my role in life. Many of my acquaintances were musicians. Now, I'm 31, married and the father of two girls, long out of school, well established as a technical writer and editor, and pretty happy as a part-time stay-at-home dad. Most of my acquaintances now are computer geeks or other parents.

But my daughters like it when I play drums for them -- they dance, they bang along, they smile and laugh. I'm glad I'm starting to enjoy it myself again too. Maybe it's unavoidable. My grandfather was a choir director and composer (as well as a carpenter), my dad was always the guy who played guitar at friends' parties, and even those two kids of mine seem to have talents for singing and playing instruments -- as much as anyone can tell when they're both under three, anyway.

 |