According to my mother, I started drumming one month before I was born, but that had to be with my feet (in utero double-bassing?). First pair of sticks in my hands wasn't until I was age 10 (with the ubiquitous Haskell Harr Method Book), and I was very fortunate that my elementary school had a marching drum and bugle corps. Developed my rudimental chops on the street, and I've been marching ever since.
Mike
I was 14 when I got my first snare and kit a few months down the road. Wow that was 20 years ago. I've spent more of my life as a drummer than not, as I'm sure many of us here have.
About 3 or 4. Here I am at 6 standing, with my,little cousin behind the old type paper head, cardboard set I got for Christmas in 1963. I so wish that was a color picture. I can remember to this day how vivid the colors were on that bass drum head. Green, Blue, Yellow, tropical birds. It was beautiful. A few months later I saw a group called The Beatles on Ed Sullivan.
Pie tins,pillows on the couch around 1962 With a set of SEARS 3-pc drums with a 12"cymbal Christmas 1965
I was 11 when I started playing drums in grade school, 1965! My parents rented me a very nice Slingerland silver sparkle Hollywood Ace from Wallach's Music City in West Covina! After the 3 month rental was over, they got me a blue sparkle snare drum from Sears. Yes, it was an MIJ, but what did I know?!! I loved it...and it came with a cymbal stand and small, cheap, cymbal. I used our white hassock, turned on its side, as a pretend bass drum! We had a Sears Silvertone console stereo and I played along with whatever 45's my older brother bought. Aah, good times!
-Mark
Got interested at 14, bought first kit at 15.
Al
I played the trombone from 6th to 9th grade.A friend sat me on his set at 19 and I played John Bonham ****, so I play drums now at almost 60 years old.
Lessons from my grandfathers friend,an outstanding rudimental drummer, at 8. No drum of any kind, only a breadboard till 12. Kent BDP set with a home made FT. Grandfather and mother were drummers.
11 right after i saw Peter Criss doing promo for the Rock'n'Roll over album....There was live footage in the commercial and that was it for me. My Uncle from New-York showed up with a full kit after a few weeks of me crying and rolling on the floor because i had to get some drums to bang on. Plus my parents were sick of getting all the pots and pans from my bedroom because i was putting on a show pretty much every day. My first kit was a Maxwin 22-13-16 and a 14' Pearl snare with amazing 602's... And of course, i knew nothing about how ****ty the drums were or how good the cymbals were....
LoLoLoLoLoLoLoLo Me too brother !! Peter Criss was the reason i started i took a true interest in drumming. !
I didn't actually start drumming on a real drum kit until i was 10, thanks to my big brother who knew i had something after watching me smack away on groceries boxes and books from the age of 3, which was actually the time i started. I got a "stainless steel" toy drum kit for Christmas that came from a long since defunct distribution department store here in Canada called "Consumers Distributing". It was destroyed within about 2 hrs, and i put a hole right through the snare drum. After that, it was pile driving away on anything that made a sound, with wooden or steel spoons. Then one day after coming home from school, my brother pulled up to the back alley entrance of our house with his '78 Pontiac Grand Prix, opened the massive trunk and began pulling out toms from an early 70's Westbury kit that had a red leatherette wrap on it. I played to kiss records and any other records that my older siblings had which ranged from Queen, kiss, Styx, Pat Benatar, Rush, Diana Ross, April Wine, and many others. This started just before i began playing in a wedding band with some friends for about 7 years. There was only one brief period in my life (1990-1992) when i didn't drum at all, and that lasted for 2 years because i had nobody to play with and couldn't play at home either. Two long and boring years later, i started playing with anyone i could.. Haven't stopped since.
cheers,
Rob
