It has long been a dream of mine to get some drummers together and host a Pad Party -- a get-together in some large back room of a pub or similar, where rudimental drummers can hang out, chop on some sprees and solos and whatever, and maybe enjoy it enough that they might want to do it again.
It has been difficult for me to attract drummers who already know how to play.
During Covid, I held a couple of Pad Parties outside at a sheltered picnic table, and put out the word online. The most I had was four people, and that was at the beginning of the Honk! summer season when making music was on everyone's mind. However. I found that none of the Honk! drummers could play a roll or actually read music. So I spent the time teaching rather than jamming.
I taught music for decades. It was fun while I did it, but I'm older and more tired now, and I'd prefer not to teach. I really just want to get some folks together who already know how to play a passable roll and maybe read a little.
That's a tough thing to make happen in a hard lefty town like Portland.
There ARE drum groups here.
There are at least a couple of Brazilian drum groups, and they are very performance focused and very physically active, perhaps too much so for me. It's also not rudimental drumming, which is so near and dear to my heart.
There's the Last Regiment (see previous post), but they don't play actual rudiments, they pound the hell out of the drums, and they play the same ten or twelve street beats the leader learned years ago in high school. They and their audiences have fun, but it's not musically satisfying to me and may actually be dangerous for my hands.
There's a drum corps based in Milwaukie, which has a youth arm and an all-ages arm, and they are focused on growing enough to enter the SoundSport category in DCI, which means weekly practices and touring and stuff. Milwaukie is a serious schlep from where I live (90 minutes to two hours each way on transit, depending on the connections), and more intense than I'd like to be at this point.
There are a few Honk! ensembles. I played with one for three years, until my health got worse and I couldn't keep up. Also, the emphasis with Honk! bands seems to be hard left activism that includes protests and I'm pretty done with that (mostly for health reasons). I know that sounds weird. But honestly, I just want to meet up once or twice a month with some folks to chop. I'm looking for reasons to get out of the house without completely taxing my body, and I'm tired of drumming alone all the time.
I may try again to throw another Pad Party, and see who shows up.
After High Holidays, so later October at the soonest.
Stay tuned.
(below: Crazy Army, no repeats, on a 15" marching snare drum that I occasionally regret having sold. This is the stuff I love to play, and I cannot find anyone else locally who loves it.)
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