Repercussions!
Why did you start drumming [dancing, didging, singing, playing.....]?
What was the defining moment to you on your music path?
How are you playing now?
It’s All One’Story. Share your chapter….you never know who YOU’LL inspire
(Please leave a comment below and we’ll post what we can)
I wanted to play the piano since I was about 5 or 6, after I heard a friend play the Pink Panther theme. I went over to his house to play, and he played really well. Randy Vertabra was his name. I wanted to play piano, but my folks couldn’t afford a piano, let alone any kind of lessons or that. But every year for my birthday, I would ask for a piano, so I knew that I really had something in me that wanted to play music. I guess I have to give Randy the credit for being the first person to really make me think about playing. My dad picked up a guitar sometime when I was a kid, and he started learning folk tunes; Pete Seeger, people like that. Really classic American folk tunes that you can find in any Mel Bay guitar book. He would play and sing the tunes. And I think I was taken by that. When I first picked up an instrument myself, I had somehow discovered the sound of the banjo. I’m sure it must have been Earl Scruggs, and it was probably “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”. Even hearing “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” on the Beverly Hillbillies… I used to rush home from school to hear the beginning of the Beverly Hillbillies. I’d either watch the show or not, but I wanted to catch the opening banjo playing.
When I was about 13 years old, a neighborhood kid about a mile away had a violin she was selling. My mother discovered that there was this Old Time Fiddler’s session for kids called “The Junior Jammers”. What it was was an old retired couple – Bill and Nellie Butler – who were in the Old Time Fiddler’s Association in the Idaho Falls area. The way it worked was, you’d show up on a weeknight – might have been a Wednesday – and you’d see Bill Butler, a tall, older man with glasses and a straw hat; pot-belly and a western shirt – classic Idaho farmer look – and he would stand there and play his fiddle, surrounded by children, ranging in size. So you could see all these different age levels just by the height of the children. The littler kids would watch the bigger kids, who would watch the even bigger kids who would learn from the master himself. The way I was taught to play the fiddle was to grab my fiddle and watch the other big kids. I put my fingers where they did, and move my bow like they did and try to make it sound like they did. Bill would play the melody really, really strong, over and over again, and so would the bigger kids and we would all just learned how to play together in unison. We played old fiddle tunes like “Faded Love”. It was fascinating. But I only lasted about 3 months on fiddle. I had a good enough musical ear to know that I was making some pretty wretched sounds on it. It a tough instrument for people to start on, I think, because it’s hard to get your intonation perfect and using a bow is such a foreign object to try to work. It’s a little scratchy and sounds pretty bad, and it wasn’t where my heart was.
So about 3 months into my fiddle playing career, I discovered a banjo in a pawn shop for $70. I started going back to the Old Time Fiddle sessions, not really knowing that the 5-string banjo wasn’t so much a part of that music tradition. I didn’t understand the distinction between old time fiddling and bluegrass at the time, but there certainly is one. But there were some other kids there who really enjoyed bluegrass, and when the Old Time Fiddler’s took a break, we’d go outside or into another room and play some bluegrass tunes. That’s how I learned. It was really interesting because when I started playing the banjo, being the only 5-string banjo player there, I didn’t have anyone to watch anymore. So what I did was watch guitar players, and memorized what their chords looked like. An interesting side effect of that, which came later, was after 2 years of banjo playing and being pretty decent at it, I finally picked up a guitar [when I was 15] and from watching guitar players for so long, I immediately had this vocabulary of chords I could play. I knew how to play them because I knew what they looked like. So I was up and running on guitar very, very quickly.
There was no more enjoyable thing for me to do honestly, at the time, then to go down to my room in the basement level of the house where I wouldn’t bother anyone and I’d play my banjo. I’d do that from the time I got home from school for sometimes 2 or 3 hours until it was time to have dinner. And then with the guitar, that just increased. What was 1 or 2 or 3 hours, became 2 to 4 hours a day after school. It was all I wanted to do. There are certain aspects of music that are side effects and there are direct effects that kept me involved and fueled the fire. I think there’s a meditative quality. I also think there’s also a large amount of escapism. I think a lot of artists will admit to that.
Way later in life, I think my mother wound up getting me a piano for a birthday. I found someone who had an Upright Grand for a couple hundred bucks or something like that. That was my dream. I noodled with it for a while. I even thought I might seriously get into it… I am a student the rest of my life. That was one of the greatest realizations I ever had as a musician. But there’s just no other instrument I really take to. I’ve dabble in a lot of other instruments. I can get up to a minimal competency level very rapidly on them, because of overall knowledge of music and theory and that sort of thing, but I realized after I hit that level, that I could have done it better on guitar. I think I’ve come to terms with that. I’m simply a guitarist and glad for it. Even if I had started on piano, I like to think somehow, I would have wound up being a guitar player anyway.
Guitarist Ben Burdick performs originals, jazz standards, pop tunes and improvisations. A music veteran for over 25 years, Ben has performed and recorded with Grammy?nominated Rosalie Sorrels, singer/songwriter Rebecca Scott and many other artists in Boise. On dozens of local recordings, Ben’s guitar work can be heard encompassing blues, jazz, country, fusion, finger?style, bluegrass, rock, and even an occasional diversion into the avant garde. His own albums, Acoustic Musings, Starting My Day, An Eclectic Acoustic/Electric Christmas and new release, Fretless Jazz Standards, demonstrate his diversity:
“Burdick contradicts the jack?of?all?trades aphorism; he truly is master of all.” - Alan Fark (2004 CD review of Acoustic Musings)
for more info and play dates, check out Ben’s website – http://www.benburdick.com/
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Wow! Drumming has totally been the most amazing journey I have taken in my life so far. it all started one night at Hyde Park wandering around the booths when I heard the drums calling to me. I just followed the music to my first drum circle. I was standing there listening to the music; letting it move me, feeling it flow through my body to my heart. One of the drummer got up and came over to me and asked me to join them and drum. I too tried to say, “No, I have no talent,” but Charlie or Chuck (I am bad with names) said, “Hey, you can hit the middle of the drum, right?” I said, ”Sure…” So I sat down next to him and Rick was leading the drum circle in the middle. Charlie told me to watch Rick and hit the drum when he does. I was hooked!
After the circle broke up I went up to the booth where I met the most amazing lady I have ever known who would become my dearest friend and I her first student. How many hours have we spent together drumming, I have no idea. I just know I went in to get a few lessons so I could surprise my nephews at Christmas.
By picking up one of their drums and playing with them, I have been given one of the greatest joys of my life – my Drum Family. What a gift! All the wonderful people I have met through drumming. I used to take Carolyn’s beginner’s class over and over just so I could see the new student’s faces when they suddenly realize that they were making music. The smiles that would come over their faces was priceless! When we are playing together, seeing people of all ages out in the crowd moving and smiling makes performing in front of them worth all the fears and knots in my belly.
Ok, I can go on and on for a long time here so will end it like this: May the sun shine warm your shoulders down the path way of life as your smile warms the hearts of all those you meet.
Keep Drumming my Family.
~Randy Merryman
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Walking into Rachel’s dance class I had no idea what to expect. In retrospect it seems silly to not have connected drummers with an African dance class. I stood at the back of the class and as soon as the drumming started it spoke directly to my core. I took the dance class for almost a year without talking to the drummers let alone thinking about drumming.
One day I found myself on the Drum Central page. There was an Beginning Beginner’s class starting that week. I emailed to inquire (am I good enough? Do you have to know what you are doing before you do it? Blah blah blah) and Failla responded almost immediately with words that left me no reason not to try.
I loved that class. I loved that class so much I took it like 4 times. I am blessed in that I have a teacher that makes me feel more capable than I feel I am. My questions are usually answered before I ask them. The blank stare is read with amazing accuracy (and no judgment). I am learning to play, and I am learning to appreciate music in different ways {class field trips are fun! Listening to bands and picking out pieces}. I think what gives me the most is being given permission to creep outside my edges and not be whatever it was I decided I was going to be before I became who I am. Plus – I get to go once a week and be around people I like, playing music I love and beat on something for an hour an half without hurting anyone’s feelings! It’s waaay cheaper than therapy!
JLJ – Boise
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I spent my entire life as a “musician” and had drummed on a kit only a few times. Then one day a friend lent me a Book by Mickey Hart and for some reason I became obsessed. I ended up meeting Failla at a local Green Dayz festival and watched some local drummers from drum central perform, i decided I had to join in.
I have since started to build and design drums and have been told by my wife I drum on her in my sleep, I have made so many instant friends because of the connections built with people through music…
Doc
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It began for me a few years ago while I was watching a drum group play at an earth day celebration. I thought it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen and I decided then and there it was something I wanted to do. The universe heard my wish and provided me with multiple opportunities to make my desire come true. So I stepped outside of my insecure box and took advantage of the opportunities.
Drumming is a very natural thing but it did not come naturally for me at first, simply because I was trying too hard. Then one day I showed up at Failla’s drum class after a very emotional day and I spoke my truth through my drum, that day changed my life. For the first time I played from my heart.
My journey as a drummer has enriched my life with wonderful people I would have never known and the pleasure of playing with/for others. Seeing people dance, smile, clap and play along is a feeling of joy that nothing else compares to. Drumming has given me the pride of being part of something very special. I am more than a middle aged single working Mom, I am a drummer.
All I want to do is play and if I do good things will happen.
PL – Boise, Idaho
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I started drumming in the fall of 2006, beginning with an impromptu 10 minute lesson from Failla at Drum Central’s tiny studio on State Street. I was hooked! Six short months later, I moved from Boise to Singapore, and drumming has been a vital part of my happy overseas experience. Besides the fun of drumming itself, my drum classes introduced me to people I never would have crossed paths with otherwise. Expats like me from many countries, and Singaporeans of all ages and backgrounds are now good friends. I didn’t know it when I picked up the drum, but making music with other people will add unexpected richness to your life.
The immediate catalyst that made me seek out drum lessons was Burning Man. On the night they burned the man in 2005, me and 20,000 other people were standing in a huge circle in the Black Rock Desert, digging the fire spinners and anticipating seeing the man go up in flames. About 50 feet behind me in the darkness was something like a school bus with the roof cut off. So on this platform there were, I don’t know, 10 or 20 drummers just jammin and groovin, non-stop. Powerful and invigorating. I didn’t even see them really, but I heard and *felt* them all through the show and the burn. I loved it!
Sometime between then and when I got back to Boise, I knew that I needed to try drumming for myself. I didn’t know anything about drumming–latin? African? drum kit? Who cares, but I knew I wanted to feel that rhythm again and be a part of it. I can’t remember what pointed me to Drum Central. Probably a web search for drum lessons, and I bet the price was right. Whatever led me there, you saw I was ripe for the picking when I walked in to inquire. Failla were welcoming, encouraging; she just handed me a drum and said “Here…you try it.” Bass, tone, slap. It’s that easy. Come on in for beginner classes on Wednesday.
When I moved to Singapore 6 months later, my biggest worry was that I wouldn’t be able to continue my newfound joy. Fortunately I found out about Lila Drums, which had only opened a year earlier. (Lila means “play” in Sanskrit. Nice.) So I still play west African music with my class today, and continue to learn and improve. One of my classmates, Gordon, got his start in drum circles, not African music. He just wants to whack! So he encouraged us to get together to jam outside of class, without the formal song structures, just what he calls “hippie thunder jam”. His free spirit has loosened me up a lot and got me to just play, without concern about whether I’m doing it “right”.
He’s started a monthly full moon drum jam at one of the parks in town and it’s got regular attendance of 10-15 people, still going strong after 6 months. So the playing continues.
I didn’t know it when I picked up the drum, but making music with other people will add unexpected richness to your life.
~ Erik, Singapore
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I began drumming around 1995 when I met someone by the name of Arthur Hull. It was my first drum circle and I haven’t stopped drumming since then. I play ashikos, djembes, dununs, congas, bongos, and batas. It’s been a very fun journey thus far and I hope to drum for many years to come.
Pa Ta Gun!
-LC, Boise
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I was lucky to have grown up listening to music. Jazz, pop. lots of rock & roll! It was the ’60′s and much of the music we listened to made social and political statements. it was more than just background. I listened to music and found how all the parts fit together, and how things could be said politically in a way we’d remember the message. [We all learned the alphabet because of the ABC song....] And we sang! There were always musicians coming in and out of our house and at that time, I understood that it was just everybody that played. But somehow, that got lost. It was MUSICIANS that played and the rest of us cheered.
In 2002, when I was 42-years-old, I was transferred to Boise for work. it was mid-March. Boise’s downtown has a monthly “open house” called First Thursday; and shoppers are lured into businesses by offerings of music, snacks and fantastic art displays. I walked into a small art gallery to inquire about the big, intricately decorated tube thingies in the window. [Didgeridoos, but I had no idea!] The artist responsible for the art was in the center of the place with a group of people, and they were all playing hand drums. I was captivated by the sound! They asked me if I cared to join them. “Thank you no. You are doing fine without me. I’ll just listen.” My response was one I hear quite often. I was aloof, distant, totally unwilling to participate. They knew what they were doing and surely, if I touched one of those drums, I would ruin their song! And I was pretty much a loner. Just passing through. I really never joined anything.
I stayed my distance from the drummers, but the music was so compellling, I couldn’t leave the room. It was time for the evening to end and the gallery to close. I started out the door and the artist – his name is Aaron – stopped me at the door. “Are you from Boise?” “No. I just moved here.” WELCOME HOME” he said, “I teach a drum class on Mondays. Will you come?”
Welcome home? That was it! I started playing drums the next Monday. i had NO ideas what I was getting myself into! It wasn’t so much the instrument, but all the places that instrument took me. Discovering the history and culture of Guinea, West Africa, the therapeutic benefits of drumming, the nature of community, collaborative business enterprises, the world of non-profit arts organizations…. how everyone on the Globe is connected with the same pulse; the same heartbeat. I learned from the drum how we truly need each other to make a song. Play the pulse. The drum teaches you that home is where the heartbeat is.
CF, Boise
