I learned drums in Kindergarten
Drums were actually the first instruments I ever learned to play. Believe me, it’s harder than it looks. Back then my cousin, 15 years older than me, told me that drums are the best instruments in the world, because you cannot have a rock song without a drum set and a decent drummer. That’s not the reason why I started playing drums, but because I thought it was easy? I can’t really remember, give me a break, it was Kindergarten.
While I was in Kindergarten (forgive me for keep capitalizing Kindergarten, it’s just German typing muscle memory), I had classes within the Kindergarten itself, and took lessons outside.
I received an award for drums in Kindergarten, but I forgot the name
It’s not a competition created by the Kindergarten, but an actual competition where the judges sit below the stage and judge you with judgmental eyes. With my surprisingly good memory, I can still recall that on the stage, there were two drum sets, and there were two competitors playing the same song together. I, of course, being the “guy on beat”, won, but I can’t seem to remember the name of the award, because it wasn’t really important.
In age 6, I got onto the programming of DLTV (Dalian Television) for singing and drums playing
It was the first time that I got onto TV. I got into the programming of singing and playing drums. I still have the tape of the show somewhere in China, but it was actually shot from a TV (my family put up a tripod, pulled down the curtains, and recorded the TV).
Either way I didn’t win, but not because my skills were inferior. You know, some richer parents need their kids to have superior reputation, so, can’t really fight money with money.
I stopped playing drums ever since
Ever since the second semester of my first year in Elementary school, I stopped playing drums, because frankly, no one cares. Not even myself.
Picked it back up in my first YouTube video
See the header? Yeah, I picked up drums just for that song, “Daybreak’s Bell”. I actually bought the drums I have now, just for that song. Read more about it by clicking on the name above.
In UCLA, I participated in UCLA Ensemble of China — Ensemble II, and was the percussionist
Since I wasn’t good enough to actually continue to play Erhu in the more advanced Ensemble II, where every Erhu player had at least 10 years of experience before them, Professor Li put me down as the percussionist. Normally I’d be bitter for not being able to do what I want, but in this case, these people in Ensemble II are monsters. You don’t know how good they are with their instruments. There’s one guy who play the Bamboo flute that was so good, I almost cried on stage.
Below is the video of the UCLA Chinese Spring Festival thing. Ours is the first show, just watch the first one and you’ll be solid. I played the “Bangu”, a sharp-pitched percussion instrument with chopsticks like drum sticks. Of course, everyone there were lean, so they looked good with their costumes. I had to wear one size bigger because my biceps can’t fit into the normal costume, hence, me looking way bigger and bloated.
