Drum It Out

Last May 9, I had my first ever drum recital.

When Teacher JP (my awesome drums mentor) told me that he would include me in the upcoming recital, i freaked out!

I'm not an expert on the drums yet because I'm in the just-starting-out phase.

Literally.

I had about two practices before the drum recital and I needed to pick a song.

The first complete song I learned was too fast and too tiring. I can’t finish playing the song without taking a short break, which obviously wouldn't be good during the performance.

So I settled with a song that I sort of learned on my own. It just needed guidance from my teacher and I was happy with it.

Turned out, the bridge of the piece was real fast so it's really a challenge, but it's still easier than my first choice so I decided to stick with it.

I worked so hard on the first day of practice and went home feeling like I nailed it.

During the next practice, I was struggling with the bridge AGAIN. But towards the end of that day, I perfected the song twice. I felt a little bit more confident.

The day of the recital came. Surprisingly, I wasn’t that nervous.

The show started past 1. But we arrived at the venue around 11:30 (they were still setting up the drum kit, that’s how early we arrived. lol) for soundcheck.

Soundcheck was fun because I got to practice my piece for the last time and I got to correct my mistakes with my teacher’s guidance.

By the time the show began, my nerves disappeared.

I played after my sister, Veda (who has her own interesting experience to share.)

Playing in front of a crowd really gave me a great feeling; And I even found myself smiling while playing.

Although it was a nerve-wrecking feeling in the beginning, it turned out to be one of the best things I have ever done and I’m glad it happened.

One of the best parts of the whole experience was drumming it out with my sister.