To: roger@robotics.com
From: Donovan Technology Group <donovan@nh.ultranet.com>
Subject: Drums Stories II
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1996 17:41:12 -0800

Roger,

I had to smile when I read your drum stories. I browsed your robotics site looking for 
information on Electric drive systems, as used in mobile robots. I'm researching a 
project I've promised my 8-year old son that we'll build. (He wants an all-terrain 
vehicle to drive, I suggested an electric tracked vehicle, so we're looking for drive 
system components. Although my son is a healthy, active kid, he has several 
schoolmates in wheelchairs. It struck me that an all-terrain vehicle might let some of 
those kids explore places other kids love.)

My drums set is still partially with me. I started playing at 16, using a telephone book 
and a cardboard box. I had met two new friends who wanted to start a band and had 
guitars. I had no guitar -- instant drummer! Something about locking into a beat 
connected way down in my hind-brain, with two immediate consequences. First, I was a 
natural drummer. Second, I was hooked on drumming.

I built a set one drum at a time. I played each increment toward a full set until I felt 
I had mastered it. By then, I might have scrimped together enough cash for a new 
addition. My first drum was a pretty poor Kent snare drum. I rebuilt it with Gretsch 
snares and mechanism. I bought some other Gretsch toms (second hand) and eventually 
modified a Kent bass with Ludwig mounting hardware.....  You get the thread by now. The 
set had a lot of me in its hardware.

I spent most of my free time for about four years playing, trying to learn from records 
of drummers with innovative, intelligent styles (Ginger Baker hit me pretty hard when I 
first heard "Toad" on the "Fresh Cream" album). I ended up practicing with records by 
Santanna, and playing all the multiple drum parts myself.

I still remember the transcendant feeling when the music was flowing through me and out 
of my drums. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced (I later learned of the concept 
of the "Peak Experience", but I had no words for it at the time). I suspect the 
cognitive processing loads resulting from the Independent Coordination required to play 
a drum kit puts the brain into an altered state of consciousness. I knew of several 
marching band drummers who never could play a full kit, they couldn't master the 
independent coordination required.

Engineering school, career and the rest of "grown-up" life kept me away from the drums 
for the last twenty years or so. But I kept my two red-sparkle Gretsch toms, my 
customized snare, and my Zildjians. My wife thinks I should donate them to a school, but 
my son (the 8-year old) got his first set of sticks last Christmas, and there just may 
be a bass to mount Dad's other drums on in his near future.

Thanks for sharing your drum stories,

John Donovan