Daddy FAILED at Drum Set on the Video Game ~Rock Band~

Dear Daughters,

This post is about your Daddy. You've seen him play drums in church many Sundays (when you weren't in kids church). You've also seen him go to church to attend band practice almost every Wednesday night of your lives. He is a great drummer isn't he? OK, well we might be a little biased. I love to hear and watch your Daddy worship our Lord and Savior through playing drums. Seeing him play is something I look forward to. 

Let me tell you some interesting facts about your Daddy's drumming. Some of these you know and some you may not. Some of these are more serious and some of these are funny. 

1) Your Daddy has been playing drums since he was a little boy. I hear that as a young child he tapped and "drummed" on everything he could get his hands on. Seeing his interest in banging on things, your grandparents bought him his first drum as a young child. I hope to be able to post a picture on here of your Daddy with that drum. It was a Smurf drum. (Not a set but one drum. I guess your grandparents were smart that way.) He started "really" playing drums in middle school. He was a percussionist/snare drum player. He continued in the school band throughout high school and college. If I'm correct part of his full college scholarship was for his drum playing. 

2) Your Daddy was never taught to play drumset. He was only taught percussion in general and snare drum. He taught himself the drumset when he was in college for some kind of band he played with. 

3) Your Daddy doesn't like to play "drums" in the video game Rock Band. Why doesn't he like to play drums in Rock Band? It's simple. He isn't good at playing drums on the game. I've personally witnessed him make a whole game, with several other players on various "instruments," FAIL. On the screen it said, F-A-I-L, and the game had to be started over, because of the drumming. The player has to play at a certain level or the game "fails." He's not used to failing and not doing at least OK, especially at drums which he loves. Not to mention that it had to be a little (or maybe a lot?) humiliating to see FAIL and the whole game and all the music stop because of something you did (or didn't do.) Especially in front of a room full of people who see you play every Sunday. =) I wonder if he wondered if they were shaking their heads in bewilderment? So, he has come to not like playing drums on this game. Maybe he will take up the guitar on there. =)

4) Your Daddy doesn't follow any sheet music when he plays. Never. He doesn't even look at the sheet music. He can hear a song once and have the song in his head to play it. He had to learn sheet music in school but no longer uses it. We have no place for a drum set at home so the only practice he he has is at church on Wednesday nights/Sunday mornings. If there is a new song being played, Mr. Barry gives Daddy the song to listen to. Daddy listens to the song a time or two in the car as he's driving so that when he goes to practice he's ready to play it. 

5) Your Daddy has been asked in the past to give drum set lessons to various young men. He started lessons with one great young man but had to stop because Daddy's schedule got very busy. After he stopped he realized that he should probably recommend another drummer to give lessons to this young man and others. He said that he didn't know how to communicate how to play the drum set. Since he wasn't "taught" the drumset, and just instinctively knew how to play, he didn't know how to teach it. These days he is open to showing young drummers a thing or two but declines formal lessons. 

What is the point of all of this you may be asking? Is this just some information for us to remember? Well, no, of course not. I've got to throw a lesson in there somewhere. =)  Here is where I tie it all together to remind you how "cool" God is. I've often asked your Daddy how he can get up there and know how to bang on all that stuff and make it sound so smooth and blend with all the other music, especially with so little practice. I'm not a musical person (though I do love to listen to it!) so my brain doesn't get it. Your Daddy would try to explain it to me the best he could but it still didn't make sense to me how it came so instinctively to him. Then this past Sunday after church on our drive home I was asking him, again, how he can play like he does (and take communion without missing a beat no doubt). As he was driving (whoops) he took his fingers and in all earnestness made the shape of a heart over his own heart. While making his "heart" he said, "It's in here." Ah! I finally got it! He's got the beat, the rhythm, the music in his heart. It's not in his head but in his heart. That's why, you see, that in the music video game Rock Band he made the game FAIL. The music game doesn't go by the rhythm that's in your heart. It wants you to do EXACTLY what the video shows you to do. If the screen lights up green you do one thing. If it lights up red you do another. Well, something like that anyway. Your Daddy doesn't play with his mind per se, so it is too much thinking for him. Way too foreign to his normal playing habits of playing from the heart. It is also why he can't teach lessons. How do you teach someone to play from what is in your heart? 

Here's the lesson. I think God has given us all something beautiful that he wants us to do from the heart and not from the head. Just like the game told Daddy that he FAILED there will be those in your life that will tell you that the thing you are doing from your heart is a FAILURE. The "world" in general will tell you you're doing things "wrong" or that you're a failure if you don't do something "by the books" or that is against the "norm." Even Christians may tell you that you don't measure up or are a failure if you don't live out your daily life just like they do (schooling, parenting, eating, work...). Don't believe it. It's a lie. It's beautiful "music" in God's ears if you are living your life for  Him and for His glory. March to the beat God has put in YOUR heart my dear girls.

I love you,
Momma