MyCI Journey: That Was a Good Drum Break

This past Memorial Day weekend will be memorable with me for quite some time. For the first time in 7 years I played bass drum in the Purdue All-American Marching Band with the drumline. I was just beginning to notice significant hearing loss with my hearing aids 7 years ago. I was also 15 lbs lighter and a little crazy at times:

It was a delicious burger. Bob Sanders and Dallas Clark ruined our day in Iowa City.

Thanks to some connections and a pressing need for bass drummers, I was asked to participate in the Indianapolis 500 Festival parade and pre-race ceremonies at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway prior to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

I was looking forward to this opportunity for quite some time once I realized the last time I played with the band I was on a downward slope with hearing aids. Now a little over a year in with cochlear implants, drumming is one of the most realistic sounds to me since it's not overly complex with pitch variation and such.

The 95 degree weekend did it's best to keep us drenched despite a drought. I consumed more water in 2 days than the previous month I think. There were a few times during the parade on Saturday I was really second guessing my 29 year old body. Never have I heard my drum instructor yell at everyone to stop playing, take their hats off and sit in the shade. It was odd.

One thing that never goes away is the feeling of forgetting something. Driving to meet the band at 5:30am on Sunday to head to the track, I couldn't shake the nagging sense that I was wearing the wrong shirt, or forgot something important, like what time the buses left. To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is to be left behind. I was on time.

The sound was definitely incredible. The size of the drumline was about 2/3 of what we normally had in the fall (as the 500 is voluntary), but still I was in love with the sound. The band, however, sounded similar to my first 6th grade concert. A little pitchy at times, but recognizable. One thing I've noticed with CIs is they really limit background noise very well. But with the setting this weekend, it made it very hard to hear the band while playing. Not necessarily bad, but absolutely different from what I was used to. Nevertheless, I heard the cadences amazingly well. Never in my college experience with hearing aids could I distinguish the different snare, tenor, bass and even cymbal parts so clearly. It was like playing the same old stuff again for the first time.

We even played one cadence that I've never played before, yet heard many times since graduation while back at football games. Chunky Munky. In one section of 8-second-bass-drumming-bliss, we had a bass solo comprised of split sextuplets, which are basically fast. And I nailed it. I nailed it like Veronica Corningstone in Anchorman.

The biggest difference between bass drums and the rest of the line is that each bass drummer plays a different part which all come together as a whole to sound like one part with different pitches (since each drum is a slightly different size). Counting is a necessity, and when it comes together the way it did this weekend, and so many times while I played at Purdue, it's magical.

Very thankful for experiences like this past weekend, to the people who made that possible, and for the continued "new life" I'm experiencing with CIs. Thankful as always for the freedom I enjoy thanks to the service of both my grandfathers, and the many men and women who serve our country every day. This was my 13th straight year at the Indy500, and truly an experience like no other.