DRUM TUITION
Playing drums is about playing music. Making the drums sound good makes the musicians you are playing with sound good, which makes the music you perform together sound even better.
There are no real rules to drumming but there are basic techniques, rudimentary studies and practices that all drummers should learn. These will guide you and help make you into a great player. It’s important to remember that all drummers are different. Some like rock and roll, some jazz or then there’s hip hop, punk, speed metal or marching drums. Within each style you will also find differences. No two drummers in the world play the same. Some sit high, some low, heel up or heel down, traditional grip or match grip and if match grip is it French, German or American? All these methods work, what you have to do is find out what works best for you.
The two crucial characteristics of a good drummer are technique and feel. Technique can be taught, feel can’t. You use technique, (theory and rudiments applicable to the style of drums you want to learn play) to make you sound good and to give you control over your fingers, wrists, arms and legs. You practice technique so that it becomes second nature and you don’t have to think about it while you are playing. When you have mastered technique it frees your mind up to allow you to get into the sound of the grooves you are playing, to get in to the sound of the drums and bring out the feel of it, the music of it.
Feel is the spark that defines the great drummers.
My drum lessons are about incorporating these ideas, concepts and practices and passing them onto the student. I teach that the drums are a musical instrument as well as percussive. I use rudimentary studies not just as exercises but as an integral part of playing and I encourage students to learn various styles of drumming in order to improvise and to enhance one’s own individual style.
SUBJECTS COVERED IN DRUM LESSON
Hand technique, snare drum rudiments, co-ordination and independence, bass drum technique (heel down, heel up and heel/toe) and high hat technique. Drumming styles covered are rock, rhythm and blues, funk, jazz, latin, hip hop, and linear beats. Also work on improvisation and developing your own style and creativity.
