Second, I picked up the third cymbal “expansion” for the set.

A few years later, I picked up a Roland V-Drum snare off of Craigslist. I remember driving out to some trailer park in the South Bay, but it was worth it. Got a full-sized mesh snare for something like $100.

That was great, until RB finally kind of “fell off”, and I decided I wanted to maybe try learning how to play the drums, instead of just playing souped-up Rock Band. So I picked up a cheap Roland TB-3 “drum brain” off of eBay for $45, I think. Was way cheaper than it might have been otherwise.

The things that became obvious from having something that made actual drum sounds was that the hi-hat was the “least normal” part of this. I’d been using the original RB bass drum pedal as the hi-hat trigger, and it was both really loud (the pedal made a ton of noise) and it was a binary switch, instead of a gradient, so you couldn’t have the hi-hat half open. So that got swapped out with a Roland hi-hat trigger on eBay. Maybe another $45, I think.

Then I picked up a new hi-hat, because the single-zone cymbal that came with the ION kit was a.) fairly loud when you hit it, and b.) didn’t sound right anymore, because it was clear it wasn’t doing what a real hi-hat would have. So off to eBay again for a used CY-5, which cost about $40. It was good, though, because the ION cymbal got used as a 2nd crash, since the drum brain had a spare input that I wasn’t using.

Last, I picked up a kick drum pad. I’d been using the bass drum pedal to hit the pad that the snare replaced, which was just sitting on the ground. It didn’t “bounce” the way a normal bass drum would have, and periodically it’d just “wander off” while playing. So that got replaced with something proper. HUGE upgrade in how things feel.

So now, save *maybe* a CY-8 to replace the single-zone ride cymbal, I’m done! At least I’ve got a kit that is definitely not skill-limited, and won’t be for the foreseeable future, and probably will never be a limiting factor for me. Maybe the kids if they get into it, ever, but that’s a long way off.

The ION tom pads are kind of … dull, when you hit them, but that’s fine. I looked around, just on a lark, and even getting up to kits that are in the $$$$$$$ range, the only thing I’d really want is a hi-hat trigger that has more of a real action – with a pedal, stand, and both “sides” of the hi-hat, rather than just simulating it. But I certainly don’t need it, and couldn’t justify the expense.

So yeah – for less than half the cost of what I think of as a competitive kit (plus a bunch of searching on the internet), I think I’m done! Scratched the upgrade itch.

—

I also took another lesson with Wes Carroll, and man – again – if you ever want to learn … something. Basically anything he’s willing to teach you, you should talk to him. Every single time I’ve had a lesson with him, the process has gone something like this.

Wes: Do this thing. It’ll be difficult.

Me: *tries to do it*, but can’t.

The thing is, at this point, the thing he’s asking me to do is easy to understand, but *impossible* to execute. I get cognitively overloaded to the point where I literally can’t think, or talk, or whatever. Trying to keep track of where to skip a beat, or what have you – I just can’t do it, at all.

Wes: Okay, now let’s try this adjustment.

Me: *tries to do it*, sort of starts to approach something, but much less static-brain than before.

Wes: Okay, now let’s try this adjustment.

Me: *tries to do it*, and can do it. After a minute or two, can do it *automatically*, in a way that seemed incomprehensible five minutes ago. But not only that, by walking through the adjustments he was making, which weren’t to the *task*, but were to *how to think about the task*, I’ve now got a new tool I can try to apply to all manner of similar things.

—

I can’t tell you how mindbending it is – I think you’ve gotta experience it. But it’s really … cool. If I’d been learning like this since I was younger – if I’d had a teacher that could help me understand the mental hangups I was running into this well, I honestly believe that this would be the difference between “powering through” learning, and hating it, and *loving to learn*.

So yeah – if you’ve got a kid who needs math tutoring & test prep, or anything you can find here: http://www.wescarroll.com I’d HUGELY recommend you give him a shot.

And look – I know not everyone’s into drums. But I think honestly, it’d be worth calling him up & doing a drum lesson *JUST* to have the experience of going through this process, whether you want to learn drums specifically or not.