Oh Yes, I Did

You guys. I can hardly believe this myself, but this actually happened Friday night:

A colossal accomplishment

I.played.the.drums.in.church!

I am still flipping out, as I type this.

So the story is... I've been practicing since around the beginning of summer, I believe. I mentioned in a blog post last month (here) about our drummer problems. These drummer issues are what inspired me to learn the drums myself, and the fact that I have a prolific drummer friend who was kind enough to show me around and teach me a few beats.
I learned a slow 3/4 and a fast 4/4. HAHA!!! I laugh as I write this. I get a kick out of remembering, and it is even funnier to me now considering what all went down Friday night.

It was a spontaneous decision - I decided during pre-service prayer that I was going to play. No time to get nervous and chicken out! I picked out some songs that I knew, that had the right beats. The first one went well. I don't think I messed up. When it came time for the next one, I heard a lot of whispering over by the piano. I didn't know what the deal was since I had already planned all the songs. Mom mouths to me, "Nicole says she doesn't know this one." *eye roll* Suddenly, Nicole busts out singing some random song that I have neverrrrrrrrr practiced in my life. Never have I ever had to more strongly fight the urge to choke somebody. Ha. Ha.
(My prayers started out as "God help me, help me not to mess up, help me not to bust out laughing from nervousness" to "OMW GURL YOU DID NOT JUST DO THIS", and various torturous things I wanted to do to Nicole passed through my mind.)

So I just tried to improvise while trying not to panic, and literally keep my head cool. The song was a slow 4/4, I knew that, so I developed a strategy of trying to do the same thing with the bass pedal on beats one and three. And consistently do the same thing with the snare on beats 2 and 4. And the high hat....I think I hit it twice for each beat? In my head in makes sense, but it definitely was not perfect in person. My main thought was, "Please end this song as soon as possible!" However, I didn't cause a train wreck. That is a plus!

On to the fast songs - I'd say they went pretty well. The only problem is that halfway through, the muscle in the front of my right leg started burning from the bass pedal workout. I spent the rest of the song service doing breathing exercises and chanting to myself, "Don't quit, it's almost over. Don't quit, it's almost over."Overall, it was pretty fun.

In closing: 
To those are you that are guffawing over the scandalous idea of a girl playing the drums in an Apostolic church - I hear you. And I am taking resumes! Your drum skillz are needed down here and I'd be happy to give up my position!
And to those of you that I know are smiling right now, proud of my accomplishment - thank you.

~Bethany~