There’s nobody in my family who plays music and it’s not something I had thought about before. I like sport and play soccer; so when the opportunity to learn to play the drums came about, I thought I would give it a go.

I have been playing the drums for about five months now. We were about three weeks into the school term when the teachers from the SoundOUT music classes came into school to see who would be interested in joining the music groups. They explained what would be involved and what instruments we could learn. We had the choice to pick whatever instrument we liked. 

It could be keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, saxophone, singing or the drums. I’ve always liked the drums as an instrument, so I thought this would be a real opportunity to get involved in music and play something I really liked.

Our teachers are Graham and Gráinne, and they come in once a week on a Thursday.  We get to learn our own parts, for instance Graham would show me a simple 4/4 beat and I would follow what he was doing and I can now add fills in between the beats. 

I’m really glad I took up this opportunity; not only am I learning to play the drums, the classes are great fun and I really enjoy playing as part of a band. In my group, there’s myself on drums we have a keyboard player, electric guitar and two singers. At the moment we’re figuring out what songs to work on and we started working on a few ideas a few weeks ago.

I’m into all sorts of music. It could be hip-hop, rock, pop. As singers go, I like Sam Smith, but generally I like any kind of music. When it comes to instrument of choice, It’s the drums every time.