This one initially ended with the “I’m gonna be a drummer!” line, but when I showed it to my wife, she thought it was entirely too dark, so I changed some of the dialog to make it slightly less ominous and came up with the “shot” bit. If anyone doesn’t know what a rim shot is, this Wikipedia article probably won’t help.
My wife and I were actually completely sober when we bought our son his drum set a couple of years ago, and signed him up for lessons to boot. We’ve been told we’re brave for doing this, but it’s the first instrument he really expressed an interest in playing, so what the hell, we’re encouraging it. His favorite band right now is Anthrax, though, so I really need to get him a double-bass pedal before he hurts himself.
ALTERNATE LAST LINE: “Oh death, where is thy sting?”
MRS. SHOEBOX’S ASSESSMENT OF TODAY’S STRIP (post-adjustment): I like it!
-=ShoEboX=-
My parents bought me a drum set, when I was 11. I’ll be eternally grateful and I don’t think it ever was a problem!
Hasn’t been a problem here either. It’s awesome watching him get better. He’s 7, and gets kinda frustrated when he can’t get things right the first time, but he’s getting really good at reading music and keeping rhythm. He also has a very good sense of pitch, which of course isn’t helping him much with the drumming but will serve him very well when and if he moves on to other instruments.
-=’Box=-
The only thing that wasn’t clear is the Last line the mother screams… is Barry the child’s name?
I was a drummer from age 12 until I could no longer afford to live in a place big enough for a drumset, and I still don’t understand how my parents, sister and neighbors put up with me. (Especially since I’m also a metalhead.) Of course, I work from home and neither of my parents did, so my perspective is different.
….Wait, he’s seven?? Don’t you worry about him quoting Anthrax lyrics where people will hear him? But then, if he picked up a musical instrument at 5 and has stuck with it for 2 years plus, he probably has way more self-control than my son (age 6 1/2) does.
I saw a video before where a drummer — I think it was Dave Weckl — said he was practicing for over a year trying to learn a beat, before he knew about double bass pedals. By that time he had figured out how to do it with a single.
He now does things with one foot that don’t seem possible, and if you’re not watching you’d swear it took two or three tracks to do what he’s doing live.
Heheheheheh, I love it.. That’s a good oldfashioned twist ending
unfortunately I initially missed the ‘ba-dum-bum’ because I’m conditioned to ignore text at the bottom corner of things as just titles or links or something..
*cough* “Resonating impact” – good one!
I would love to see even a reasonable approximation of “Dyer’s Eve” by Metallica one-footed…
omg, this is toooo funny. the twist, the bathos, the puns, ohmylordylordy, the puns!
‘boX- maybe he’ll be able to sing while drumming, like Ringo or Phil Collins. But at least he’s musical!
and good on ya’ll for encouraging him in decent music
Well, here’s a demo of his hand technique: http://www.drummerworld.com/Drumclinic/davewecklsinglehanded.html
Can’t find the foot technique demo I saw before online, but there’s this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-3GU6Nry0Q
Check the samba groove starting at 5:04, and watch through to 5:43.
“..favorite band right now is Anthrax”
Sounds like that kid is being raised properly.
The wife and I have played him all kinds of different stuff, and he’s into a lot of different styles, but of late the heavier stuff is usually his preference.
Granted most music he’s heard has been through us, so we’re bound to approve of his music choices for now.
-=ShoEboX=-