Billy Ward Clinic

[PocketPlayer]

Several threads ago, someone mentioned the expansion of different drummers other than the obvious two. I made comment that there is a lot of discussion about other drummers. So here's one I saw tonight that would most likely not be discussed here at HOD. We talk about Jeff, Carlos, Gadd, Keltner?all who have tons of pop sessions under their belt, but little mention of Billy Ward, outside of the price he charges for private lessons. His style is in the category of a Shawn Pelton type of drummer.

Well, I saw his outdoor clinic at West LA Music tonight and the man can play drums! He did some chops stuff, but it was all in application to songs..ala Kieth Moon fills and some funky twisted hat snare stuff. I did miss most of the clinic due to car problems and traffic, but caught the last 30 minutes and then he played four songs with an artist he just recorded with.

First, his drums sounded AMAZING! Whoever mic?d them DW?s was brilliant. Maybe it was the small outdoor amphitheater?bottom line, they were incredible sounding. Maybe the best I?ve ever heard.

The playing of the songs was also brilliant. This guy knows how to play to a song. His performance was a one-taker if they were recording a CD. His feel and balance, light touch, and choice of fills and patterns was SO musical and catered for each individual song. These tunes had a lot of space in them and he filled it nicely without over playing. He played with his hands on one tune, used a towel over the floor tom for a muted effect on another, put a shaker in his sock to keep time on another instead of clicking his hats. Very creative guy. It all worked.

One concept he emphasized was getting totally inside one drummer?pick your favorite. He mentioned selecting one song and playing it note-4-note. Transcribe if you can. Then nail the dynamics between hat, sn, and bd. Lastly, make your kit sound like that of the selected recording you chose. He make it clear that this will not make you a clone, unless you want to be. He also said, select someone realistic depending on your stage of development, and then said, ?Don?t try to start with Vinnie Colaiuta!? The crowd laughed and one guy bellowed out an, ?Oh yeah!?

Good clinic.

[moosetication]

I'm a big fan of his DVD. It's so different from other instructional DVDs. Totally non-chopsy, all about the playing.

He may have done his own mic setup on the kit. There's a short section on it on the DVD.

[Paraflam]

Great session player, nice guy.

[XNavyDrummer]

Thanks Pocket, nice review!

[got_a_matchgrip]

Yeah, BW's fantastic.

1 of if not my pers fave session type player out today [not intending to put a stereotypical "tag" on him]. Ken A, watch out. ;-)

Oh, & he does have some chops, too. ;-)

Thx 4 the revw. Sounds like he covers a lot of the stuff as on the MDF '00 [w Vinnie, Horacio, Jimbo, HilJ, Leim, etc].

We've actually done a quite a few other threads on him than just the "price he charges for private lessons" thing. Maybe during your hiatus ;-)...Don't know if thy're still 'out there' in a search...

Very musical cat...concerned w the tune/arrangmt/music, AOT speed, technq, & chops, even tho he can pull chops outta the bag, but it's always within or about the POCKET awa the MUSIC...worthy successor to the Gadd/ Jeff/ JR/ Kelt/ Carlos/ Marottas/ Pelt/ Krampf/ Schaeffer etc crown.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ July 15, 2005 02:25 PM: Message edited by: got_a_match_grip? ]</font>

[matricks]

He was wonderful to take a lesson with... great guy, down to earth, gave me great advice that still sticks with me today (though... it was only less than a year ago, hehe!) [img]wink.gif[/img]

[Clintuplet]

Great review PP. As was said he is a great drummer. Very down-to-earth guy. Fantastic clinician. He's a finesse feel player, who does a nice job with the matched grip. His touch on the kit is something that should be seriously observed and emulated.

Clint

[PocketPlayer]

Pics on loan from Drumwild at Drummer Cafe.







Best sounding kit I may have ever heard all mic'd up.