I’ve been playing the drums since I was in the 2nd grade. I was proud to be the youngest ever to be in the elementary school orchestra, under George Scott. Usually you didn’t get in there until 3rd grade. Since the elementary school orchestra was cut later on, I may still have that record. We would play all kinds of music during the year, and then at the end of the year we would alternate years between music from My Fair Lady, and the Sound of Music. Those were the only songs on which we played harmonies. I got to play each of those twice.
I could have been a great drummer. I know it because I have my moments, even now, and I know that if I kept at this from early on, those moments would have become the norm.
But I doubted whether music was my calling. I was interested in acting, and writing and photography and politics and math. Could I change the world by playing the drums? Probably not. Maybe that made it selfish.
But now I see that I could have been a great drummer and it would not have interfered with being just as mediocre as I ultimately became at all of those other things. Yes, I had my doubts, but maybe we don’t choose our callings. Maybe they choose us, and we just have to go with it.
2nd grade. I’ve always been a drummer. If that’s not destiny, what is?
And I don’t procrastinate it so much. I didn’t pursue it because neighbors stopped me from practicing, not because I wasn’t motivated. Even now, while I hesitate to exercise, or write, or work, or read, I don’t hesitate to go down into my basement sanctuary and hit the skins.
I don’t have a lot of time though. So there’s that.
Yeah. Maybe I should have been a drummer. Maybe it’s not too late. Maybe I’m a natural.
Andy Glasser 