Marie and Rona Marie is a contributing writer and
Rona is the founder and editor of FDN
Back in 1995 , Rona put an ad in some local papers, notes
on bulletin boards at music stores and a few ads in drum magazines to find
female drummers in her area. She was looking for someone to practice with
if possible or just correspond with to give and get encouragement. She
knew male drummers but no female ones. Within a week of placing the
ad in Modern Drummer letters started pouring in! It was amazing! Within
6 months she had received letters from over 200 female drummers from all
over the world and started FDN. There weren't any close by for her to practice
with, but she had a great time hearing from everyone.
In 1997 she got the web site up thanks to Gary Barnett over
at Baseline Sound and Graphics. The web site is now maintained by Rona
and JAS Software ( her husband Jerome's company). A few years back Rona
encouraged me to learn to play the drum set. It was something I always
wanted to do but was always afraid. After seeing all the female drummers
out there and hearing their stories I decided to try. (she finally got
some one to practice with too!) That was my first set in the picture.
Since then I have enjoyed playing and Rona and I would get together
every morning and have coffee and spend at least an hour playing drums.
I also love being part of FDN and one of over 350 female drummers on the
mailing list. This is a great forum to write into and talk about what ever
you want to regarding drum and music related issues. I encourage everyone
to take advantage of this and send in your stories! ~Marie~
