The pandemic sent everyone indoors and into themselves for several years, including me.
During my time shut up in the house, I dove harder into the things that brought me pleasure, especially drumming and my fascination with practice pads. I’d been into pads for over twenty years, and when I couldn’t work and had too much time on my hands, I spent a lot of it researching the history and development of drum practice pads. I went down all sorts of rabbit holes to find out the history of pads, which led me to the history of pad-making companies, and along the way I spent a bit of the money from the Covid relief checks on some very special and rare pads.
I enjoyed my adventures in research and all that I learned along the way.
I also enjoyed learning from each pad too, playing them gently and educating myself about which materials lent to the more realistic drum feel, and why.
I was also invited to share what I learned with others, by way of an interview on a drum podcast and by joining a Facebook group devoted to drum pad history and development.
But things change, and evolve, over time. During the lockdown, I got Covid and later on, Long Covid. I also developed worsening arthritis and exacerbation of other autoimmune issues. In the end, after three frustrating years of waiting for treatment and results, I had to concede that I wouldn’t recover enough to return to work.
So now, I’m moving into a new phase of life, as a person, a retiree and a musician.
The truth is that I can’t make my living from music anymore, and haven’t been able to for some time. So now I drum for pleasure. I do some easy warmups, then sight-read a little something and then, if my hands don’t hurt too much I might play through some familiar things.
I’ve also found less and less satisfaction following the Facebook Pad group. I was an admin for a time, but found it harder to enforce the goal of history and information-sharing when more and more young, marching-focused drummers joined the group and wanted only to blather on about the new crop of marching-specific pads being sold by ten different companies while being made unsustainably by only one of three different Chinese factories. And the truth is that, aside from a handful of older adults, almost no one else in the group really cares about any of that. They just want the coolest pads that the top DCI drummers are using — and of course, whatever they’re given to chop on by former DCI drummers who’ve made it “big” in the marching arts as instructors and arrangers.
The whole thing just feels like a fake universe, and I suppose I can see that because I’m on the outside looking in. A life on the margins can, after all, give one an interesting vantage point from which to watch what’s going on in the cushy center.
So today, I find myself wondering what it’s all for these days, and whether or not I need to be involved anymore.
I still enjoy drumming, and all that I’ve learned from my research and testing of practice pads. I suppose I’ll still enjoy it for awhile to come. But I’ve definitely shifted my focus. I’m mostly just interested in small-batch, sustainably made pads these days, and not so interested in the gajillions of pads made on the cheap from formaldehyde-laden crap being churned out overseas. Whether or not I’ll ramp up my calling out of that crap remains to be seen. But I’ll definitely continue to hurl interest and love at the craftmade pads being made here in North America, and shine a light on the best ones I find.
My blog posts won’t make a difference in the big picture. A few guys in the mass produced pad universe already resent me, and have made their displeasure known on and off Facebook. I may continue to call out the naked emperors where I find them, until I tire of the game. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, I’ll continue to share here whatever I continue to find interesting and worthwhile.
Happy chopping.
