The Beat of a Different Drummer

What does music making “look” like when viewed from a leisure studies perspective and the point of view of a drummer as participant observer? This chapter reports on four years of ethnographic research in Liverpool during which the author participated in a number of popular music groups as a drummer. The chapter is presented as an EP-style track listing that spotlights sites of music making and leisure practices in the production of this characterful city. In addition to the neglected experiences of drummers in popular music and leisure studies, it argues that rehearsal spaces also offer opportunities to explore the relations of music making, leisure, cities, place, regeneration, and social identities. Throughout, the chapter shows how a leisure perspective opens up different views of music making in terms of social, historical, political, and economic relations. Such a perspective, especially from a drummer’s-eye view, showcases the worthiness of researching music making as leisure.