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Bella, meet the new girl next door: Drumming not for girls?
Although he couldn’t have possibly known her, the famous scientist Albert Einstein might well have been talking about Bella when he said that we should all reach a little farther than we can grasp. She’s fifteen years old, a native Californian who’s athletic, artistic, spirited and smart. Her dad’s a major recording artist and her mom’s a gourmet chef. She snowboards, skateboards and surfs, rides mountain bikes, does soccer and volleyball. She sings, acts and plays a variety of musical instruments, including guitar, bass and drums.
But before anyone jumps to the conclusion that Bella’s just a precocious blond with a lot of hobbies— a “Jacqueline” of all trades who’s reached a little too far beyond her abilities— bear in mind that, not only are the walls in her bedroom filled with trophies, ribbons, photos and certificates that document her skills, along with a backpack she’s carrying an almost 4.0 grade-point average into the10th grade this Fall.
“When I was little it never really clicked in that I was a girl,” Bella explains. “I grew up with 2 older brothers and I wanted to be like them. I wanted to do whatever they were doing. They were the ones who got me into all the extreme activities and told me it was OK to be smart. They never said, ‘Oh, you can’t do that, you’re a girl’.
“In my early teens I discovered my ‘woman-ness’, my ‘femininity’, and I’m doing my best to find a happy medium between my active tomboy side and my more glamorous, more sophisticated girl side. But I think glamour can be defined in more than one way. It can be lots of make-up and expensive clothes or it can be just being comfortable with who you are. I’ve always been pretty comfortable with myself,” Bella adds, acknowledging both the choices and the challenges of becoming a young woman in today’s society.
In addition to her parents and brothers remaining her primary role models, Bella is closely connected to her friends. Don’t call it peer pressure, though. She’s just as influential on her friends as they are on her. “My friends are very important to me,” she says. “The kids I hang out with realize that we’re all individuals who come from different families and backgrounds. We really try to understand and support each other and encourage each other not to settle for less than our best. That’s what friends do. On the other hand, we’re into all the typical teen stuff, too: movies, fast food, TV and video games and I’ll admit we have a normal, healthy pre-occupation with boys.”
Like most teenagers, music is an important and ever-increasing part of Bella’s life. “I like all kinds of music,” she comments. “Right now I’m listening to a lot of Ben Harper, Jack Johnson and Justin Timberlake. I got an iPod (digital music system) for 9th grade graduation and it’s full of Hip-Hop. I also like my dad’s records and I’ve started listening to more of the old-school rock musicians like Jimi Hendrix, James Taylor and the Beatles.”
And also like more and more teens, Bella isn’t content to merely listen to other people’s music. She’s already starting to make her own. She taught herself some keyboards, bass and guitar, put together a band and, along with a growing number of young girls, she’s way into drumming. “I always thought that drums are the coolest instrument and I was always drawn to drumming. I like the way they look, I like the way they sound and most of all I like they way it feels when I’m hitting them,” she confesses. “It never occurred to me that I couldn’t play the drums because they were a ‘boy’s’ instrument. Plus, when I saw that there are so many great woman drummers out there, drummers like Sheila E., Gina Schock (The Go-Go’s), Cindy Blackman (Lenny Kravitz) and Samantha Maloney (Hole), I figured that if they can dominate music from behind a drumkit, so could I.”
For now the multi-talented teen enjoys the recreational and developmental benefits of playing music as much as she enjoys playing sports. After high school, however, Bella plans to attend a college with a strong music program and hopes to become a professional musician. And, although she knows it’s going to take a lot of luck, talent and dedication to succeed no matter what path she chooses, anyone who knows her won’t be the least bit surprised when the sports trophies on her bedroom walls are replaced by Platinum records and Grammy Awards.
In fact, whether it’s academics, athletics or the arts, by making positive choices, staying active and always striving to reach just a little further than she can grasp Bella’s part of the next generation of teens that are constantly expanding what it means to be a player. And, while that may not be the Theory of Relativity, it’s a powerful contribution none-the-less.
Bella plays Pacific drums, Sabian cymbals and Promark drumsticks.
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4) Piano Keyboard Music Theory
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