Dan Cryer: Drummer at Heart

by Taigan Rogers

Dan Cryer is a part of the Music Community. “A music community is a group of people involved in a given type of music.” (“Music Community”) More specifically, Dan is a drummer, and he loves it, but being a drummer is a lot more than just a fun thing he does. Being a drummer has affected every aspect of his life and grown him into the man that he is today.

Dan always loved music and connected with it. When he was in third grade, the school band director went around and showed the students all the different instruments they could choose from to play if they joined band. “In fourth grade I started playing the saxophone and I was terrible, and I hated practicing, it was like a chore. So I gave that up.” A few years later he decided to give playing music another shot. He started playing the guitar, and he hated that as well. After these failures, it seemed as if Dan had given up on music entirely, but when he was 15, he got the chance to play the drums at his church and fell in love. He went home and convinced his parents to buy him his own drum set and has played ever since.

Soon after he got his drum set, he and some of his friends started their own band. They practiced twice a week, which caused them to get really close to each other because they spent all the time they practiced together and all day in school together. They never reached a level in which they could play any gigs, but Dan learned a lot from this experience and is grateful for it. When he got older, he became a part of a good band that gigged often. He had even better relationships with the people in this band than he did in the one from his childhood. In this band, they would practice two or three times a week, as well as write their own songs. Eventually, Dan and two of his band mates decided to live together. The only aspect of this that wasn’t as good as the old band was that this one was work. He said, “Creating things with other people is really exhilarating, but it’s also really frustrating because it can be hard to work with other people.”

Dan didn’t take regular lessons until about two years ago, but he wishes he would have. Although he practiced a lot, he mostly did the things that were fun for him and learned about music but not really about his instrument. “I was always learning how to play music because I was playing with people who were really good, but I wasn’t learning as much as I could have about my instrument. I needed a teacher for that.” Now he practices between four to seven days a week, usually for at least 30 minutes.

Finding time to drum now is a challenge for Dan because he is a college English professor, as well as a husband. Because of this difficulty, he basically organizes his day around drumming. He tries to play when his wife isn’t home because it is so loud, but a lot of times that doesn’t work out. He said, “My wife is so cool, man. It’s really loud in the house when I play, like really loud. I try to play when she’s not home, but she’s home a lot when I play, I always ask, and she always says yes. She’s great!” Currently he is living in a house with a basement so he is able to play almost whenever he wants. He used to live in an apartment so he had to do stuff to the drums to try to make them quieter. The problem with this is that, “Playing quiet is not that fun, part of the fun of drums is whaling on them and making a bunch of noise, but you can’t do that in an apartment.” Because of this, when he lives in a place that he has to make them quieter, he doesn’t practice as much.

He is not currently a part of any music communities because he moved to the Kansas City area pretty recently. He was a part of one in Baltimore though, and he said that musicians are smart, creative people that are really fun to be around. He said the thing he liked most was, “Getting to know a whole group of people that I never would not have known otherwise, that for the most part I really loved meeting.” He also said that sadly, some of the musicians were irresponsible, had a drinking problem, or something like this.  “I learned a lot about just being an adult and what it’s like when you have to depend on people who aren’t dependable. It made me want to be more dependable.” Though he is not a part of a specific music community, some would say, “What separates Community Music from regular music making is with the intention in which you make the music. Community Music is the act of making music with the mindset of community and social acceptance.” (McKay) So as long as he is making music for the joy it brings to others, he will always be a part of the community.

He did chose teaching over music, but he has a great reason for this choice. He said, “Writing and communicating is something that is very important, and knowing how to do it well will help you no matter what you do in your life.” Even though he chose teaching, he still incorporates his background as a musician into the classroom by relating his teaching to performing. He tries to connect with his class and make it enjoyable.

He really enjoys playing the drums and is hoping to get connected with the music community here. He also wants to find another band to play with and improve particular techniques, such as jazz and brushes. Some of his favorite drummers are Stevie Wonder, John Bonham, and Elvin Jones. Maybe one day, Dan Cryer will be in the favorites list of future aspiring artists.

Works Cited

McKay, Rebecca. “What Is Community Music.” Lyrical Lines Education Network, 28 Sept.

2014, www.lyricallineseducationnetwork.org/blog/what-is-community-music.

“Music Community.” Wikipedia, 3 Dec. 2017, 6:28, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_community.