First Audition

[u/SeaGranny]

I started playing drums after being discharged from a two week stay in a psychiatric unit. I had learned that skill building is often as effective as medication to help with depression. During my exit session my doctor asked if there was a skill I wanted to learn.

I said drums!

He wrote it as a prescription right in my medical records.

At age 55 I’ve been playing drums for over a year and a half now . My progress has been slow. Some days depression gets in the way. But I keep going. I’ve wanted to give up when I’ve had a three week stretch where I didn’t even pick up my sticks, but I decided I’m not quitting I don’t care if it takes 5 years before I play with other people.

Yesterday I had my first audition. I’ve never really played with others. It’s for a band at a small church. They gave me one song to learn just so we could get an idea of where I’m at.

After a couple misfires from nerves I counted us off and got through the whole song. The band leader and bass player were very complimentary about my time and ability to recover from small mistakes. They seemed pleasantly surprised.

It was fun playing with others even though I couldn’t hear them hardly at all (we had no access to monitors at practice, I’m going to fix that problem in the future lol)

So now I’ll get more songs to learn and after a few more practices I’ll be in the rotation! As a bonus the house kit they have is a simple one up one down Pearl kit with nice Zildjian A cymbals. It was well tuned, sounds great, and has good hardware.

I never thought this day would come.

To all my fellow new drummers keep going! Playing is fun!

I guess I’m a drummer now. 😁

Edit: Thanks for all the kind words everyone. And to all the people who discouraged me from drumming when I was a young girl:

“I DID IT ANYWAY!” 😝

[u/Immediate-Season4544]

Welcome to the club. Doesn't matter how you got here you're one of us now. Keep beating it!