To help with my driving ambition to become a snare drummer my mom, Carolyn found someone that gave lessons out of the basement of a Scottish store on Avenue Road in Toronto.
As fate would have it my teacher Andy Baillie had a lifetime of experience playing the snare drums in Highland Pipe Bands and was also the Drum Sergeant of the Toronto Scottish Regiment.
I still remember practicing 1 to 2 hours a day on one of my many practice pads.
I recently found one of the cassette tapes Andy used to record our homework on and was able to play it on an old cassette player until the tape broke – a bit of a flashback event.
For post analog readers – Google “cassette tape” and marvel at how backwards my generation was technology wise.
Wait a minute, I just googled it myself and it looks like there is still a market for cassettes. Something to do with the purity of the sound – just lIke vinyl records. Who’s backwards now!
My “treasures” include some 20 sets of now vintage drum sticks and a few drum pads made of scraps of rubber insulation used in electrical vaults. Not really sure what to do with them. Maybe wall art?
Ok, I hope you’re not bored yet. The good stuff is coming I promise but bear with me as I go down memory lane and set things up.
Next: The Fort York Armouries.