I don’t like posting my kid too much, but a few of you seem pretty invested in his journey, so I’ll post just here every now and then. I have a feeling it strikes the kid in a lot of you, just like it does for me, and it’s nice to share his progress with a smaller community that genuinely relates and cares.

We (his parents) don’t drum, but we call this guy his “mentor” just because he’s way too little (28 months, started at around 15 months) for formal instruction and only really has YouTube since nobody else in the family drums. He’s more interested in having a jam buddy than anything right now. So our friend comes once a week to jam with him, show him a few things, and just… be a human presence so he’s not alone with only YouTube all the time.

My son’s mutant build is entirely his. He tells us where he wants everything positioned and will occasionally ask for adjustments. Alesis Nitro Max and it’s durable as hell. He demands to play every day. I’m pretty sure it’s how he regulates his nervous system. His mentor gave him the hi hat, and he also has two separate kick drums, by his request. He loves Art Cruz right now because he recently discovered “Art has two kicks just like meeee!”

He does some cool things on the drums, and his mentor started working with him about two months ago (before that it was just him binge watching drum covers on youtube every day), but like I said, we aren’t pushing lessons right now. Just letting him explore and letting his love for drumming grow. We told his mentor we can see how our son feels about lessons once his consciousness fully forms. Lol. For now, his mentor’s job is to walk beside him and help clear any brush, giving him the freedom to explore the drum world however he pleases.

And as I said in my previous post, I’m not sure where he is talent-wise yet, but honestly? The love and relationship he’s building with the drums, uncorrected, with the freedom to be wrong… is so, so, so much cooler. And most importantly? It will communicate to him that his drumming is not about getting better, or about impressing the people around him. It’s about playing what he feels inside. Because if he always plays that, then it’s never wrong. ♥️

Here’s my two-year-old with his mentor!