I was 12 when I got my first drum set. It was my stepgrandfather's when he played in big bands during World War II. He handed it down to my stepfather, who, for at least a few years, handed it down to me.
It was an old four-piece Ludwig set, with caspian heads. Man, did I love that thing. I played it all the time. It had an organic thumping sound, almost like a natural goat-skin covered djembe.
Eventually, I returned the old set to my stepfather and started to piece together a new one from odds and ends and many trips to the pawn shop. After repainting and refinishing, my "new" set became a nice, solid eight-piece double-bass kit.
Once I got it working, my mom had to literally drag me off it. I played night and day. As soon as I got home from school, I'd grab my sticks. On weekends, the first thing I'd do was put on an album and grab the sticks. And on nights when Mom was away at dance conventions or recruiting dance students for Wichita State University, I'd play all-night marathons.
Then I got into bands. And my life took left, right and corkscrew turns.
Even now, I still think about my first set and wonder why I took to it so.
Maybe it was because I saw some kids playing drums in my elementary-school band and thought it was cool. Maybe I was drawn to the sound of the different tones made by each of the tom toms and floor toms. Or maybe it was because I couldn't play guitar and bass.
Then again, it might have been the fact that I was only about 4 feet 8 inches tall in junior high school, and I liked the fact that the drum set could hide my small stature.
In fact, the complete set felt like a fortress. Each one of the toms was a cannon or machine gun. I felt protected and powerful.
I was fortunate. I had parents who knew the value of music — although I'm sure my mom would have preferred classical piano to thrash, speed-metal drumming.
There are some kids, for some reason or other, who haven't been exposed to musical instruments. Sure, there are shows like "Barney & Friends," "Sesame Street" and such that introduce kids to music. But they aren't in-depth.
So, Warner Bros. Publications and Power to Create Inc. have teamed to release a video series called "Tune Buddies."
It's a live-action series that introduces kids to various musical instruments. Each video, except for the introductory "Getting to Know the Instruments," features a topic — percussion, woodwinds, keyboards, strings, brass. . . .
The main character, Pachelbel Johann Sebastian Smith (or "PJ"), is a super-sleuth, gathering information on what each instrument does in its musical "family."
Man, if these had been available when I was 12, maybe I would have played piano . . . or trumpet . . . or saxophone . . . or viola . . . or cello . . . or digital keyboards. . . .
E-mail: scott@desnews.com