I have played drums since i was about 7, Started with Rudimentary style Bass and Snare drum on Rope Tension drums. Played mostly Revolutionary war, war of 1812, and Civil War era music as well as did reenactments for all of those in a Fife and Drum Corp.
The Band i was in from about 9-18 did parades, various special events and ceremonies, Living history, and reenactments all over the east coast from Conn. to Fl. We were part of the Filming for the Movie Gettysburg and spent a few weeks on set, most of which was for the Pickets Charge scenes. We can be scene just before the fight although you only see a piece of my drum and not actually a pudgy underage me. We also recorded a few albums of period marching and dance music that was for the most part only sold at these types of events.
in high school i also started playing more drum set with a focus on jazz, swing, big band type stuff although i did play rock with various friends just having fun. in the mid 90s i was recruited (by the same band leader that ran the Fife and Drum Corp) to play in a 12 piece band that played ... jazz, big band, swing, blues and the like. he was asked to put this band together for the 96 Olympics and mostly played in Savannah for the Sailing games Olympians at events held for them. both the Fife and Drum Corp and Big Band went to Georgia for 6 weeks. we played almost every day and even got to play for Margaret Thatcher, Colin Powell and John Forbes at one of the events.
At the time i wanted to be a professional musician however this trip showed me that i had NO IDEA what i was getting into lol. at the end of the trip i decided i was not going to pursue such a career and to be honest... i wasn't really good enough to make it past stuff like this anyway. i was never going to be a band leader, i was never going to be famous, i was probably destined to play events like this and if i was lucky be a session musician for some new artist that didn't have a permanent band yet. so i gave it up, now i just play for fun. while living in Turkey i was part of a Blues band that was made up of all State department and expats. we played at a local bar and just got free drinks out of the deal. Probably the most fun i have ever had with music. we would take pop songs and create blues versions of them as well as play some of the standard blues/rock stuff everyone expects.
Now as i recover from a broken shoulder and torn rotator cuff, i just look at my drums and hope i can play again some time soon. i never learned any other instruments besides a few basic cords on Guitar and can barely read music.
