Recognition and Reward

I began drumming in 5th grade. Along with me there were 9 others. At first I loved it and thought it was the coolest thing ever, as I began having to practice I began to enjoy it less, but I still planned on doing this throughout my whole life. My parents always bugged me about practicing so I could get a good grade. In 5th grade I was required to practice an hour a week which now is nothing I usually practice an hour a day. During the summer it's usually more. I think the problem was I really had no reason to practice because I was never rewarded for anything I had done. I wanted something in return for it. I wanted the recognition for my work I put into it. I remember the other kids bragging about how they just put down a number and there parents would sign it apathetically. If I did that my parents would use the guilt trip of, "did you really practice that much?" or "Are you sure about that?" I didn't have the luxury of having stupid parents.

However in the 8th grade my practicing seemed to pay off. At our last band concert our director pulled out a Dixieland piece. He was going to have a combo play up front consisting of 2 trumpets, a trombone, an alto saxophone, a tenor saxophone, a tuba, and drum set. I wanted it. Now in between 6th and 7th grade years a lot of people had quit or moved away, in fact there were only 4 of us left. Luckily for me I had been the only who had taken set lessons. However 2 of the 3 others could play, or at least said they could.

I auditioned first and did pretty decent; only 1 of the other drummers tried out. He went after me and could barely plunk it out. Our director asked him if he really wanted to do it. He replied, "No, not really." The director looked at me and said, "Keygan you'll play set." I was excited.

But the recognition didn't come until after the concert. Our combo brought the house down, well as far as 8th graders can bring it down. The parents were thrilled and I had a certain member of the high school drumline come up to me afterwards. Then and there was when I had really felt I was rewarded.

He said, "Hi, my name's Derek and I play snare on the drumline and I just wanna say great job up there on set tonight and I'm really lookin' forward to playing on the line with you next year." I smiled. "Awesome thanks." We shook hands.

My reward and recognition I had wanted finally came, but it took 3 long years. Now I'm not so concerned with all that stuff. Just playing is good enough for me. Instead of not wanting to practice, I look forward to my practice time now, and it has paid off let me tell you.

In January I auditioned for the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps snare line. I was murdered but I still was the first from our drumline to try out for a corps. Also I had been emailing the UNK centerstick about music and stuff for next year. I was trying to pry some useful information out of him about what exactly I had to do if I wanted to be on snare. He told me not to worry, I asked why and this is what he said.

"Keygan, everyone is excited you're coming out here next year, Schnoor (UNK's band director) especially. He told us that he regards you as having some of the best hands in the state. I don't think you'll have to worry about what drum you want to play. If you want snare, you'll get it."

That made me jump. Not even because it was a great compliment from someone high up, but because the last time Schnoor saw me play was the summer before my senior year, and since then I've gotten so much better. For example (I'm about to go into drumspeak I'm sorry), my diddles were fine but all of my flammed rudiments were terrible then. I have improved upon those immensely, now I find myself combining rudiments together. I'd expand upon that more but unless you play drums I will lose you. If you really want to know, email me.

Senior year is a time for recogntion and reward as I found out. However I have learned not to dwell among them because if that is allowed to happen you don't improve upon your ablities, and I for one want to be known for my ability but more importantly my hard work put into practice time. That makes everything worth it in the end.