How am I turning my aspiration into my new professional career? Before I can answer this, I need to give you some background on how I got to where I am now..
In January of 2012, I had a stress induced amnesia which has caused me to lose all my past memories and normal abilities / skills to do anything more than the basics of what it would take to do normal things. By normal things, I could still speak like I did before, new how to drive a car, could do math, but what I didn't have was knowing who I was, who my family is, the skills that I went to college and spent many years honing.
On a cold day after returning home, having no memories and trying to make sense of everything, I sat in my living room sitting across from me was a digital drum kit, I couldn't image knowing how to play the drums, after all I did not know my own family and friends. So I looked across the room and asked my brother if I knew how to play the drums, and duh, the answer was "Of Course", after all they are sitting in my living room. He informed me that I spent a lot of time sitting behind my kit banging out tunes and playing along to the Xbox game Rock Band..
Not long after my brother said, lets fire up the game and see if anything comes back. Feeling like I had nothing to lose, I took to my throne and got basic instructions from my brother on how to play the game as I had no idea as to what to do.. After struggling for about two or three songs, something clicked, like a light bulb being turned on and in a dark room, my body just started playing to the beats. My brother and I was amazed, I could not explain how I was doing this it, but I was playing drums; to a game of course. After some discussion, my brother and I came to the conclusion that it must be muscle memory, developed after years of playing. This also showed up later in the year when I went out and started to play golf; which I was really good at before my memory loss.
The Journey begins!
In August 2012, I put must thought into seriously playing drums; possibly in a band, or just to be able to do in a garage somewhere. I pulled out my drum books, and began to hone and advance my technique. I can say this, playing to a video game like Rock Band is one thing, trying to play a real song is another thing and trying to play something that would be respectable is another.
The next step that I considered to evolve my skills was to search for a drum instructor. For several month's with no luck in finding someone that could mentor me in the Louisville, Ky area; so it seemed. I believe it was just not the right time as I was struggling with money issues and trying to get a grip on this memory loss thing while also trying to foster a career as a golfer.
February 2013 Facebook comes to the rescue! We all know, love or hate this social media juggernaut, but of all places to find the answer that I was searching for an answer. Willis Music Store, whom I had recently subscribed to their page, placed a post about them starting a guitar workshop / lesson group. Curiously, I replied to the message and asked if they had anything like this for drums or if they knew of any drum instructors. The reply came later in the week and to my surprise, they have drum instructors and with the reply, they included the information about drum instruction. I could not believe this, I had bought my drums from them, my books, my sticks, cymbal stands and other items but never thought they would be the ones to have drum instruction. With this new information in hand, last Friday I signed up for my first lesson that will be on Monday, March 11, 2013 with my new drum instructor Jack I. Hall.
Looks like life really does present to you what you need when you need it as the story above can be a testament too. There will be many more posts in this series as I included things that I'm taught and document my progress and maybe by doing this can assist others with the information that I will be providing.
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