There is, of course, no such word as “screamiest”.

But I’ll bet some of my friends will gladly testify to the fact that I’m an aural personification of that word, producing as hard evidence their burst eardrums.

Screaming, for your information, is just a way of relieving tension and stress. I can’t help it if my body’s preferred method of stress relief is screaming, can I?

For example, I was engaged in this very stressful activity yesterday.

Sure, sure, it looks like I was having fun, especially since I even had the presence of mind to smile for the camera.

But it was really quite stressful.

I was giving the World’s Fastest Drummer competition a shot.

Held at the Singapore Drumfest 08 at Youth Park yesterday, the WFD comprises two segments: Fastest Legs and Fastest Hands.

That was me on the double bass drum pedals, which explains the awkward sitting position.

You have to hit the pedals as fast as you possibly can in 60 seconds.

It’s tougher than you can imagine because, like, 20 seconds into it, your legs are on fire and you wanna smash something up in exasperation.

That was when I started to scream.

Okay, it wasn’t so much a screamfest as exclamations and yells. “OMG OMG OMG shit I can’t feel my legs anymore hahahaha OMGOMGOMG aaaaaiiiiiieeeeeeeee.”

After 60 seconds of that (I mean kicking the pedals, not screaming), you will hardly be able to walk because both your legs will have turned to water.

You have to understand that it was my first time trying out double bass pedals.

I scored 616, meaning 616 strokes in 60 seconds. Fastest in Singapore is 778. Fastest in the world is 1034.

I believe I can do a lot better if I can just channel the energy I expend in screaming into hitting the pedals. But you know me, I’m into dramatics.

I tried the hands, too. You bust your gut in single rolls on this pad for 60 seconds.

I totally sucked at it and gave up in disgust even before I reached 60 seconds. I decided that I was generally better at posing for photographs.

I scored like 300 because I wasted 30 seconds laughing uncontrollably instead of hitting the pad.

Fastest in Singapore 1067. Fastest in the world 1247.

These people are crazy lah.

I’m going to train up and take ’em on next year!

This all happened at the Singapore Drumfest 08. Yesterday was the preliminaries of the Drum Challenge Asia and Singapore Band Challenge.

I loved those drum solos performed by the contestants.

And I took photos with some of my favourite drummers in Singapore!

Brandon Khoo (who drums in The UnXpected, with Shirlyn Tan):

Well, to be honest, I’ve only seen the UnXpected perform once, a couple years ago, so I cannot really claim to know anything about Brandon’s drumming, but I’ve heard his name so often since I took up drumming that I’m starting to get the impression that he’s somewhat a legend.

Edmund of PeepShow!

Incidentally, his surname is also Khoo. Here’s Edmund doing the double bass. Can’t remember what he scored.

By the way, this is the fast hands that scored 1067, Alex Tey:

Power!

Here’s Eric, my senior at The Music Lab.

We’re both taught by Alvin Tan, who is also one of the judges for the Drum Challenge Asia.

Alvin testing the drumometer:

I don’t have a picture with him because he’s camera shy, so I snuck a picture while he was otherwise distracted. Haha.

Alvin is a fantastic drummer and instructor. He’s totally cool. And I hope he’ll be totally cool when he learns next week that I haven’t practised in two weeks due to my insane schedule. (I had to skip a lesson last week.)

The Singapore Drumfest 08 is ongoing till September. Semi-finals will be held at The Arena, Clarke Quay, on July 26.

I wonder who I will meet there next!

No more screaming, unfortunately, since the WFD competition was only for yesterday.

But I shall start training up my screaming… no, wait, I mean my drumming (duh!) for next year.

Whatever. Protect your ears!