Playing drums, how many years?

[Chip Donaho]

I figured out this week that this is my 50th year playing drums. Which makes me curious, any other DC members made a half century? Does this mean I'm going downhill from here?  :-\

[Bill Bachman]

Wow, that's really cool! I'm 37 so I guess I've played for 28 years now. Weird...

[Bart Elliott]

I started playing drums in the summer of 1976; that's 35 years ago for me.

[David Stanoch]

Does this mean I'm going downhill from here?  :-\

Chip!! Not at all! Buck up, Skippy!!

My man, you're as young as you feel. Guys who were really starting to fail physically, but had their mind & talent intact, like Jo Jones & Louie Bellson played gracefully up until their last days. It keep them going!

Ask Hannah - she saw it firsthand w/Louie!

Roy Haynes & Ed Shaughnessy are still throwing down like champs in their 80's!

Ringo is 71 and playing maybe better than ever, although I NEVER heard him sound anything but fab.

Remember this guy (seen here in his 70th year)??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rRnpvV5qoM#]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rRnpvV5qoM#

You're as young as you feel. I hear a lifetime of experience in his every note he plays (great mix, BTW).

And let's not mention the fact that I STILL can't play as well as he did just months before he passed...

So, "Happy Birthday," as it were.

Now get downstairs & wail!!! :D

BTW, 2011 marks 40 years that I've been playing drums and, looking ahead, I'm making plans now so that in thirty years time I'll have my Yamaha Kit permanently mounted on one of those electric riding carts I see folks w/mobility issues using.

That way I can go anywhere ready to play and make all the noise I want 24/7... "Coming through, sonny!!" CRASH!!!  ;D

[NY Frank]

It's - gasp - 40 for me.   

[Larry Rankine]

I'm thinking it's 9 years for me........6 years when I was a kid and almost 3 since I started playing again.  Can't really count that 36 year "break" I took in between.   ;D  But anyway.......I have to agree wholeheartedly with what David said!  You're only as young as you feel!  And personally I feel like a teenager whenever I'm behind my kit!   8)  That BR clip David posted says it all..........I dare say THAT'S the stuff that probably inspired all of us to take up the drums!  At least that my excuse!  All the best to my DC family out there!   ;)

[Chip Donaho]

Thanks Dave, that clip makes me want to play even more.   8)

[Rusty Beckett]

I figured out this week that this is my 50th year playing drums. Which makes me curious, any other DC members made a half century? Does this mean I'm going downhill from here?  :-\

I started in drum corp stuff when I was 10, that makes 51 years for me.  About going downhill - absolutely not, I'm still learning new stuff and working on keeping the old as polished as possible.  AND having more fun playing than should be allowed.

[MOUSE]

1972 at tender age of 12  joined a pipe band and have been playing either snare or kit. Wassthat then er .... 39 years.

[Hannah Ford]

Chip!! Not at all! Buck up, Skippy!!

My man, you're as young as you feel. Guys who were really starting to fail physically, but had their mind & talent intact, like Jo Jones & Louie Bellson played gracefully up until their last days. It keep them going!

Ask Hannah - she saw it firsthand w/Louie!

Roy Haynes & Ed Shaughnessy are still throwing down like champs in their 80's!

Ringo is 71 and playing maybe better than ever, although I NEVER heard him sound anything but fab.

Remember this guy (seen here in his 70th year)??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rRnpvV5qoM#]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rRnpvV5qoM#

You're as young as you feel. I hear a lifetime of experience in his every note he plays (great mix, BTW).

And let's not mention the fact that I STILL can't play as well as he did just months before he passed...

So, "Happy Birthday," as it were.

Now get downstairs & wail!!! :D

BTW, 2011 marks 40 years that I've been playing drums and, looking ahead, I'm making plans now so that in thirty years time I'll have my Yamaha Kit permanently mounted on one of those electric riding carts I see folks w/mobility issues using.

That way I can go anywhere ready to play and make all the noise I want 24/7... "Coming through, sonny!!" CRASH!!!  ;D

WoW, this is a fun thread!

My Dad ALWAYS encouraged us to pick up a musical instrument for no other reason than it was something you could build your soul around for your entire life...no matter how old.  It wasn't about being successful, or playing for the masses or any of that...just the simple "self" satisfaction that would come for a lifetime.  Now, I had two brothers try their hand at the trumpet, it just wasn't for them, but because my Dad shared his love for the performing arts I do have a brother that is a Rap Artist, a brother and a sister that are professional dancers and choreographers, and a little brother that just recently won his 6 national championship as a dancer.

The passion and desire that surround playing a musical instrument can burn hot until your very last breath.  As David mentioned, I was fortunate enough to call Louie Bellson friend, have special conversations and spend special time with him.  I actually got to perform with Louie at one of his last performances before he past.  Now, he wasn't as fast as he once was, it was obvious.  However, in his eyes, in his face, he was as much in love and as passionate as he ever was....he was that way right up to the very end.  What an inspiration and an example for the rest of us.

I have to admit, reading through this post and seeing that so many of you have been playing longer than I've even been alive is so exciting to me!!  Each of you in your own way by sharing with us here inspire and assure us that we do not EVER have to stop.  Yes it's great to see Buddy, Louie, Ed, Roy and those guys doing it....but it's also great to see YOU GUYS doing it.  NEVER STOP....Keep hittin' em!

I promise you, they will have to pry the sticks outta my hands on my very last day. 

Peace Love & Drums....

Hannah

OH...(lol) by the way, I'm 21 and have been playing now for 14 years.

[William Leslie]

Chip, don't feel blue. I just realized it's been fifty-five years for me and some days I feel everyone of those years banging on me.

[Hank Gagnon]

started  in '65-'70 then again '02-present.  14 yrs overall. it's so much fun.

[Daniel Heier]

Congrats! 50 years of drumming, that is simply awesome!

To this day, the two greatest and most memorable drum performances were by cats that were 70+. I saw Ringo with his All-Starr band summer of 2010, shortly after he turned 70 and I saw Roy Haynes twice in his 80's. Both look about 30 years younger than they are and play with the energy and fire of a teenager.

[Michael Beechey]

Happy belated Bday Chip!

glad to see you're still upright and grooving (as opposed to horizontal and resting/rotting!)

fellow oldie (63.vertical AND rotting)

[Chip Donaho]

Happy belated Bday Chip!

Thanks, never thought I'd see 64 and still playing drums. In todays World I may be just a kid.  ;D