> I like that.  Can I request a beat, though? 
  Drums are a real weak spot with me. I have a good
sense
 of rhythm and I always wanted to be a drummer instead
 of a keyboard player (but my mom and dad forced me to
 take piano lessons). I love Hydrogen but I always
 feel that if I were to try to add a drum part it would
 sound ultra-cheesy and unrealistic. 
When I actually have everything set up the way I want it and get ready
to make music, I will probly eventually look into electric drum pads (or
whatever you call them). I'm assuming they are all midi. Would midiable
drum pads help to make it more musical for you (assuming one could use
the drum pads to trigger sounds via midi and a linux sequence/sampler)?
  On the other hand, I feel that if I were to START with
 a drum part, it's metronomic nature would restrict or
 prevent more fluid, expressive tempos for the rest of
 the parts of the music. 
When I think of "starting with drums", I think of it as an exception to
the rule, possibly as a way to inspire me to write new sounding music
(instead of my usual approach of writing by playing my main instrument
and accompanying it with my singing *then* adding drums). This way,
starting with drums would actually be a creative thing to make things
fresh and different. And if the Electric Drum Pads helped open up
creativity, then maybe this approach may actually make things more
creative for you.
  In a live band (I was a professional
 musician for about a dozen years), the drummer and ensemble
 are all in "psychological sync" in a way, so that the tempo
 fluctuations sound "tight" and realistic, yet human and
 variable. That seems hard to achieve using software percussion 
Yeah... nothing beats a group of musicans that click and all adding
their personal sound to one complete song. Just being with people and
playing can inspire more creativity.
Just a few thoughts.
Rocco