I have been fooling around on drum set since about 1980 when I was twelve. I am by no means a professional drummer. I suffer from anxiety and the thought that I'm not very good--therefore I haven't really been in any bands or collaborated with other musicians. I want to stop being so afraid, however! At 52 years of age, it's time to get out of my apartment and play/learn with other musicians.

I have dabbled with Apple's Garageband several years ago and had a blast "composing" my own tunes, using the included samples. After my Mac died, I bought a Windows laptop and have been heavily involved in abstract acrylic painting. I sell my paintings when I am can and was given three Zildjian cymbals from a Jazz drummer friend. I'm hoping to sell enough paintings to buy a secondhand drum kit (acoustic) and learn to really play my drums. I just downloaded the free program, LMMS (a few hours ago) and began to create my own composition. Drums first, then bass guitar, baby! ;-)

I come from a family of musicians/singers and I am a soprano 1 or 2, depending on how out of shape my vocal cords are. I sang with the non-auditioned but semi/professional Seattle Lesbian & Gay Chorus in the 1990's. I was also briefly a member of the Atlanta Women's Chorus in early 2002.
I like the vocal stylings of Karla Bonoff, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Florence Welch, Aurora, The Indigo Girls, Imogen Heap and many more. However, my musical aspirations are to play drums and sing in a band styled after Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation, Morcheeba, Aurora, Lucy Swan, Imogen Heap, Moby, etc.

Right now I am WOEFULLY broke. I have an older model Dell Inspiron laptop. I just began using LMMS and have some experience with Apple's Garageband. I am disabled and on a fixed income, so I have to buy MIDI keyboards, drum machines, etc. used. I plan to buy a MIDI keyboard used from Guitar Center in the next few months. Although it would be much easier to own an electronic drum set in my apartment, I don't like any of the offerings under $1,000.00. Cheap crap like Alesis Surge e-kits are a joke and a waste of money. I like the Yamaha DTX 500, 700, and 900 series of e-kits. Roland drum module sounds just don't float my boat.

I'm very new to all of this and just want to explore what people are creating, and collaborating on. At this moment in time, I will be dividing my time half with music creation and half with furthering my abstract acrylic painting.

I own a few Zildjian cymbals and one Toca Freestyle djembe. I also have a stick bag full of drumsticks that I don't use...because I have no drum set! Hopefully, in the next few months that will change.