Bucket Drumming

Being possessed of no musical talent of any kind other than playing the radio (now Spotify/Pandora, etc) hasn’t stopped me from wanting to have some. At least a little bit anyway. It seemed to me like the easiest place to begin was with percussion. So, that’s where I started.

It began with banging around on things in the kitchen with wooden spoons. These things included at first just a big empty soup pot. Loud and boomy. Very cool. Then, I began to use it while it was actually full of soup. Whole different sound. Not as loud, but a higher pitch. I quickly progressed to a sauce pan, an iron skillet, the kitchen sink and the kitchen counter. Probably looked like I was fighting off bumble bees to anyone peeking in through the window. Fyi, no music practice while fellow tribe members were present. Better for them, better for me. Anyway, that’s mainly as far as I progressed for quite a long time.

I stopped and restarted several times. However, after a decent stretch of positive results I decided to upgrade my equipment and I bought a 5 gallon plastic bucket at the hardware store. That was quite the cool experience. It made way more noise than the soup pot. I figured out it made different sounds depending on whether you struck it directly on top (which was actually the bottom because I turned it upside down) or on the side. It didn’t take long to figure out that it also sounded different if you hit it square in the middle on top or on the rim of the top, at the top of the side, middle of the side, and bottom of the side. I went wild and turned it upside down (actually now right side up if you were intending to use it as a bucket – percussion can become complicated). Good move. Very loud. Very boomy.

After a few more weeks I decided it was time to go full gonzo. I went back to the hardware store and got a metal bucket. This addition to my instruments made me feel so close to being like a real drummer that I went to a local music store and bought two actual drumsticks. Bit pricier than I expected. Worth it.

As time allows I practice my drumming with a few tips from Youtube sources and I feel like progress is going in a mostly positive direction. I can’t report that I have any actual musical talent yet, but one day that will change.

In the meantime, hope you enjoy the videos below of people who really know how to bucket drum.