I found myself the other night shopping on line for snare drums. I don't play drums, so this might strike you as a bit odd. I do have a set of drums, and some cymbals, so to say I don't play drums is not completely accurate, but it is accurate to say that I rarely play the drums I have. I have never played drums in a band and they are not a solo instrument. I live in an apartment and don't want to disturb anyone else. Playing drums was an idea I had several years ago; I have taken lessons and read books, and I know something about playing them, but not enough to say I am a drummer.
I am an aficionado of the varied timbres of cymbals, for example, but my hobby lacks any real substance, because the sound of cymbals is only relevant to someone playing them in a musical context, with other musicians. At some point I am thinking of recording a drum track to accompany my singing and piano playing, and putting together an album of my original songs, but I haven't gotten very far with this idea either. In short, drums are one of the several elements of my life that don't add up to much. There a few other things that fulfill a similarly opaque function for me, or perhaps no discernible function at all. I suspect that most other people are not like me in this respect, although I'm sure I am not wholly unique.
But anyway, I found myself down a YouTube rabbit hole a little while ago, and found a video comparing the sounds of different snare drums, and I went to look at prices on a web site. Soon, ads for snare drums began showing up magically on my facebook page, as well as similar ads on every other website I visited, so I found myself considering different drums, reading their descriptions and specifications. I did not buy one, because I don't need a snare drum: I don't even play the snare drum I do own, not because it is inadequate, but because I do not play drums. Nonetheless, I took a satisfaction in adding an expensive drum to my cart at one of the online retailers, and leaving it in there for a few days without buying it. Even though my mind has been lucid, even though I know perfectly well that I have no real need for this drum, the idea of owning it remains an attractive fantasy to me. I think of entering my credit card information at the website of the drum store, of clicking on a button to buy it, of tracking the shipment every day with great anticipation. When I receive the box with the drum, I will open it and take it out, I can tap it with a drumstick and appreciate its timbre. The only doubt I have is whether the reality of possessing this drum might be, in some sense, superior to this fantasy in any meaningful way.
3 comments:
You could have it as decor, as a talisman, something.
I almost used the word talismanic when writing this.
I am kind of for it getting it.
I have a classical guitar I never play. I was going to sell it about 30 years ago when someone said you should not get rid of "your guitar." I sort of wonder. I've got some other kind of African stringed instrument that I didn't realize was real when I bought it (it's kind of small and was not expensive), and now someone has given me a balalaika labeled Mockba 1980; I've got a German recorder, a Tarahumara drum that's real, and some Bolivian rattles made of sheep's hooves.
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