Drum Diaries #46 - Dec '21/Jan-March '22

Hello, and welcome back to my blog! As was anticipated, there’s been a bit of a break due to our new arrival joining us in December, prompting me to change this up from a monthly update to a quarterly newsletter - with this one covering January to March, plus the bonus month of December - not that I was up to much then besides awaiting (and then adjusting to!) life with baby!! Long story short, our wonderful little boy joined us just a little earlier than expected, arriving on what was actually my first day off! Although that meant I didn’t have any of the baby-free time off I’d anticipated in order to get on top of things, the lovely thing about that was it meant I had a full month from when he was born to when I got back to work in January, which made for some very precious time indeed!

A captive audience from early on!

Naturally, I’ve not been able to resist the urge to expose him to music as early as possible; with me enjoying putting on all my favourite albums while we hang out, “noodling” away on my practice pad around him, one by one showing him the various bits and bobs from my percussion box, and he’s even received his first Gretsch snare drum from one of my best mates as a welcome to the world gift! Whether or not he gets into drumming himself some day, I’m loving taking the opportunity to share my love of drums and music with him, and just knowing that he’ll have every opportunity to try it for himself if he wants to brings me great joy!

A lucky boy doing his first Gretsch unboxing!

His first drum! A 10x6 Ash, Gretsch snare.

Needless to say, my own drumming (as well as everything else in life!) has seen quite the period of adjustment over these first few months of parenthood, to say the least! While I have returned to gigging, I’ve not been up to much on that side of things… To be honest, the start of the year is usually a quieter period for me anyway, so that timed itself quite well - plus, with the nights being somewhat unpredictable, I’ve not been in any hurry to burn the candle at both ends for the time being! Rather, I’ve thrown myself further into the teaching side of things with my school visits Monday to Friday, having taken on one more school from a friend in January, which again, worked out well timing-wise for the added security and regular hours that the teaching offers.

My first gig back since parenthood!

One of the rooms I teach from.

I’ve no doubts that all aspects of life will be under constant subject to change as our little boy grows and his needs continue to develop over time, but I’m absolutely loving the new challenges that life with a baby brings! As any new parent will tell you, some of those challenges are certainly more tricky than others, but I’m genuinely loving life as a family of three!

Drumming-wise, I’ll be continuing to try and find creative ways to stay on top of things while being there for my family, which as I say, I’m sure is something I’ll have to deal with indefinitely now as life continues to change. Rest assured, it’s all totally worth it and I shall look forward to filling you in further next time, seeing what the next three months bring! Thanks as always for checking in, and I shall hope to have more drumming-specific updates for you next time. All the best and catch you soon, Ed.