Being a Drum & Percussion Teacher Today

[BennyAndTheSkins]

"- What doesn?t kill you makes you stronger."
Absolutely. Without others that are better than us, how would we get better ourselves? This happened to me this year. I play in a straight ahead jazz trio, as the house band for an open mic, and this guy comes in with BLAZING brush chops, and amazing facility (starting out with brushes, and smoothly transitioning over to sticks, etc....). I was SOO shellshocked, and felt like I'd been totally taken to the shed (which I had). However, I just buckled down, and worked on my brush technique, and saw how this guy made the music breathe, etc..., and It paid off in a major way. I'm a 34 yr old father of 2 boys, and I NEVER expected my playing would grow/progress this much at this stage of my life, but it has, and It's largely due to this guy showing me what I need to work on.

As for kids that can "do anything", there will ALWAYS be those. I sit right next to a guy at work that is a GENIUS - there's nothing he cant do/figure out, and he can remember it for 2-3 years afterwards, where I struggle to figure it out in the first place, and forget it 6 months later..... It's not the hand you're dealt, it's how you play it. We each have different gifts - you just need to find yours, and if drumming comes harder to you than little Mr. Wunderkind, well, it just means that the progress you make on drums is so much sweeter, because it's harder earned.

Also, folks like Dazz are right on the money - ask some of these little monsters to play "Home At Last" off Aja, or drive a big band, etc... That's a totally different deal than sitting down with a Virgil DVD in your basement for a month, and learning blazing licks.

[Rhythmatist]

D'ya think Freddy Gruber has this problem with his students? There's always something to learn no matter what level you are. If all teachers gave up because they had a couple of hot shot know-it-all do-it-all students there would be no teachers. Great teachers teach beyond their own capabilities. Teaching is a creative art too.

As far as kids learning to groove...it's called paying dues, getting your ass kicked, the school of hard knocks. They'll learn by doing just like we did. After you get fired a few times, well you either learn how and get back in it and learn to survive or you play in the basement for yourself and enter drum-off contests to show off your flash.

[S.P]

yeah i think vinnie must have been one of those really talented kids or he just practiced hours on end. I've heard he used to practice up to 9 hours a day until he asked billy cobham how long billy thought he should practice and billy said its not about how long you should practice...you should keep practicing as long as your having fun...and since then vinnie cut down a lot on his practicing time i think...well its something like that, sorry i cant recall off the top of my head.

Theres this one case of this kid...man the kid can play some dream theater stuff and some pretty solos that everyone thinks are sick..but all hes really doing is copying ideas from mike portnoy whos his idol!

But then this kid is claiming to me that he can read music when he cant really..well he cant sight read...and he cant even play half a jazz groove and the music teachers still let him be in the jazz band :|. i gave up a long time ago on trying to drum on anything at my school...my schools music department sucks

[drummin1]

Good topic- I see this too in my shop quite often. The proliferation of so many great DVDs, books, magazines etc. has definitely changed the drumming stew. When I was just starting drum set (back in '83), there were only a handful of vids out, the 2 Gadd ones, Weckl(love that hair), and the Steve Smith ones. There's so much info out now that an ambitious student can literally over-saturate him/her self with this stuff. The problem I see is that so many of these DVDs focus on almost purely technique, making that the emphasis rather than the music, feel etc. The really great players out there can of course play with a high degree of technique, but still maintain a focus on the song and what's happening around them musically.
I'm certain there is some 12 year old kid out in the Heartland somewhere locked away in his room with the Minneman and Lang DVDs playing them inside out. I find vids like the new Billy Ward one very refreshing as he has a good amount of facility of course, but he puts the MUSIC first, then applies his own stamp to it. Now don't get me wrong, I love seeing a person like Marco going off as much as the next, but there's just a lot more too it. Most of us in our regular, real-world gigs, would get fired in a heartbeat if we started playing in 7 with our left foot and 9 with our left hand while reading the newspaper on a gig. No one in the band would think it was that cool. Now if the whole point is playing complex music like that, and you can actually find an audience to listen to it-more power to ya!
On a slightly different note has anyone seen the Han Bennick video? I think it's just brilliant, crazy, but brilliant. He does things like tie ropes to his kit and pulls it over as a drum solo, and plays with 2x4s. Steve Smith turned me on to him a while back. The cool thing is the guy's a smokin straight ahead player with the whole Moeller thing happening, but he's exploring all these other avenues.Theres no speaking on the whole video, just noises and playing, very interesting. He's doing it though without a 7 pedal set-up and foot snares.
Peace

[Andy Edwards]

i think the concept of 'technique' changes with each generation. I came out of the Weckl, Vinnie, Simon Phillips 80's school.
I heard vinnie playing in 19/16 when I was 16 and thought that was the stuff I should study and grasped it pretty easily.
I started to doing clinics in 2000 and felt I could hold my own against most drummers.
Then I was asked to open up for Marco on a clinic and it was like the guy had come from another planet.
It seemed like I had nothing to offer.
I really had look at this objectively and try and see what I did have to offer in the field of technical drumming.

Now I don't think these guys have more technique than the the drummers that came before them, but they put emphasis on stuff which drummers hadn't explored as much previously. Young drummers are seeing Thomas and Marco and think that this is the norm. But the exploration of odd timing (a la vinnie) or speed around the kit (a la chambers) has decreased but there is more interest in independence and double bass drum technique.

The goal posts have just changed position.

[davfrancis]

Forgive me for what will probably be a half thought out incoherent post but...

If you think of athletics - say the 100 meters sprint there will surely come a pont when it just isnt possible for anyone to run that distance any faster.

The same may well be true with drumming so people end up loooking into other areas to challenge them - like eleventeen way coordination, double bass drumming, odd-time, odd groupings, polyrhythms, metric modulation etc.

Personally listening to lots drumming that is just really fast does absolutely nothing for me it may affect others differently (cough, John Blackburn cough, cough ;-p)

Just a thought. Kinda geting off the original topic though....

[John Blackburn]

In terms of the origional topic, i teach in some schools and i really like it when my students turn up and do something a bit "un-authodox" with the material ive given them. That said im teaching younger kids, and ive not been teaching very long, but itll be interesting to see how i do deal with having students that are better at things than me. But then, surely thats of the points of teaching, helping someone to take it further than you... Progress...

And as for david's comment [img]wink.gif[/img]
Well, who are they gonna hire, you with your "grooves", "feel", "taste" and "sense of time" or, oh, hang on...... haha

[Riddim]

Whoever plays the music best, dresses appropriately, and is easy to get along with?

[davfrancis]

Hi Riddim - If your post was a response to John Blackburn's response to my response to the orignal topic then I apologise for you have been caught up in a silly joke between myself and John - If not then just ignore me... everyone else does!

For the record John and I are both difficult to get along with and dress terribly.

As for our ability to play music.... the least said about THAT, the better! [img]wink.gif[/img]