Our Jake's decided what he wants for his birthday (despite it being 6 months away).

A drum kit. 

Not one of the kid ones you see in Toys R Us or Wally World, but a proper junior starter kit from Musician's Friend. 

The basic kit is $120, and right now they're throwing in the throne for free.  Jake might be getting money for Christmas, and his dad and I have said that if he gets $100 all told that we'd be willing to sub him the extra $20 and he can get his drum kit earlier than his birthday (free shipping on orders over $99).

He's so excited.  He's going around the house tapping out rhythms on pretty much everything he can find.  He's practicing tapping his foot for the bass beat and co-ordinating his hands for the snare and hi-hat.  It's very, very cool to see him getting so excited and enthusiastic about it.

I want to give my kids the opportunity to play music.  I want them to have an instrument to fool around with, to play on and learn from. I want them to have the opportunity to express themselves musically - because I never had that.  I played trumpet, yes, but I had to get it on a scholarship and whenever I played at home my folks would just tell me to 'stop making that horrible racket'.  I got no support, and I don't want it to be like that for my kids.  I want to encourage them; I want to support them. 

Shea took off with my guitar a few weeks ago and taught herself how to play some GreenDay songs.  Jake looks up to his big sister, and I have a feeling that he's going to want to drum along with GreenDay too.  To be honest, I don't care what he plays.  That he's playing is good enough for me. 

So, Jake's getting a drum kit sometime.  I think I'm going to get him a book and a CD of basic drum patterns to start him off with, then let him go wild.

So far we have a guitar player (me), a brass section (Davey), a wanna be bassist (Dave) and a newbie drummer (Jake).  All we need now is for Shea to find something to play, and we've got ourselves a band!