There was a time I was always telling myself years back when I was still a beginner that when I get on a good drum set I will play more better.
So I was opportuned to play on a good drum set during that period, and guess what, nothing changed, I still played and sounded the same way, the only difference was that I was enjoying the rubbish I was playing on the good drum set.
Before I met my boss YD Groove, when I was the drummer for church of God mission Ilorin, I think they organized a concert and my boss came with the singer he was playing for.
The same drums I was complaining for, my boss played the drums and the sound coming out from the drums was different, the drums sounded like it was a good drums. That moment I had to change
my ideology of thinking that the reason why I am not playing well is because of bad drum set.
“It is not always about the drums, but about the drummer. The drums doesn’t define a drummer playing, but the content in the drummer is what defines a drummer playing.”
So some time ago this year, my friend pressured me to come to his church to play for their special program, so when I got to his church, the drums wasn’t a good one, but it is manageable.
When I sat down on the drums, I kicked the pedal, and the pedal was very good, I hit the snare drum also, the snare drum sounded well, I hit the toms, it sounded like trash but I fixed that and the cymbal was not good to my taste.
So I played the drums throughout the program, and the sound engineer around that axis was like, where did you guys get this guy from? This guy is good.
Immediately I and my friend got back home, the first thing he said to me was, guy you are good. He said the drums sounded different, that the sound coming from the drum was like that of a good drums, I just smiled and waved that off.
I don’t have issues playing with bad drums, but
the painful and annoying part is when I am in a church that has bad set drum and I fix it to be
manageable, and someone else comes to scatter what I have done. I have been in a place that I
will fix the bad drums, before Sunday somebody else has scattered it, this continued weekly and I got frustrated and stop attending Sunday service in that church.
To all sincerity, the drums doesn’t really define your playing, if you don’t know anything in your head, you will still sit on a good drum and still play rubbish. It is about what you know and not what the drums look like. If you know something, when you get on a good drum set you will do more.
Learn, learn and stop waiting for a good drum set, make do with what you have.