Educators who made us better drummers with their Vision

Rarely do we talk about the teachers who have made us better musicians, better drummers, with their vision .

It would be great for all of you guys to come up with your educators who have changed your lives , in your playing and vision of the music industry.

Many of these teachers are lesser known, but, are the most important people in our lives, when it comes to bettering the way we play.

Here in Canada and Montreal (where I Live), several come to mind:

Richard Proven?al (Univ. of Montreal), Camil B?lisle ,
Rick Gratton, Pete Magadini (when he taught at Concordia in Mtl), Quebec City's Roger Juneau who passed away, Luc Boivin, only to name a few, and a teacher on the south shore of Montreal, Mario Roy, who teaches 400 students and motivates them like no other teacher I know !

How about you guys ?

My teacher (his name is Sau Chau) is pretty much the best i could find here in Hong Kong, he graduated from P.I.T in 1992 under the guidance of Maria Martinez. He really motivates me, after every lesson all i want to do is go home and practice. He emphasises the importance of being able to read music and sight read and understand what you are playing etc to getting through a music school such as P.I.T. He also focuses on working on everything with a click (of course there is some stuff that you have to figure out first then practice it with the click) he also focus a lot on working out of stick control [img]smile.gif[/img] and on being able to play different styles...Now that i am more knowledge..i realise how lucky i am to have him as a teacher...

Unfortunately, I was never able to take private drum lessons until well after high school. [img]frown.gif[/img]

My uncle pretty much taught me how to play the drums by physically moving my limbs ("...right foot, left foot, add a backbeat on 2 and 4 and keep time on the hat with your right hand... easy!") and listen to the other musicians around me (he's a bass player). But I think my mom pretty much had the biggest influence by enrolling me in piano lessons. As much as I hated practicing and hated taking those lessons, it made me a better musician, and therefore a better drummer.

To this day, other musicans ask what my primary instrument is, because of my uncle and my ma helping me to be a listener and understand what everyone else is doing, rather than just "hitting things with sticks"!

I'd really like you guys to point out your favourite teachers who have influenced the way you play and have given you the right attitude to make a living out of music. Let's hear about the Freddy Grubers of your lives !!!

Gary Chaffee, by a long shot. He is a true genius, and his methods are brilliantly simple.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 26, 2005 05:22 PM: Message edited by: Henry II ]</font>

Jim Chapin... the times i have studied with him were amazing. He not only was an amazing teacher, he had the enthusiasm of a kid.

Steve Smith of the Seattle Drum School (not the other Steve Smith). Amazing player and a flat-out amazing teacher. One of those teachers who truly teaches a player how to teach themself; that is the most priceless lesson that anyone can be taught.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 26, 2005 09:32 PM: Message edited by: Henry II ]</font>

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Originally posted by matricks:
. . . Steve Smith . . . One of those teachers who truly teaches a player how to teach themself; that is the most priceless lesson that anyone can be taught.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That's the genius of Chaffee as well. His "Patterns" concepts are brilliant. His 2 videos are the best I've ever seen. There's enough material in those 2 vids to keep you busy for the rest of your life because you'll be using his methods to create new music.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 26, 2005 09:31 PM: Message edited by: Henry II ]</font>

Before Gary Chaffee taught at Berklee he was the percussion instructor at Western Illinois University. He had left Western the year before I attended but would return to the area from time to time to give lessons to his former students and anyone else interested who had the cash. I was fortunate enough to be there the last time he visited and was able to spend time observing other's lessons and being able to have 20 minutes of 1 on 1 with him. That twenty minutes provided me with a solid three years worth of material to woodshed and a lifetime of concept and philosophy to absorb.

Three years later, Ed Soph spent a week on campus with several other clinicians where we toured central Illinois on a clinic/concert circuit. I got a half hour private lesson that week but even more valuable were the hours of coversations we had on the bus trips and at parties and dinners as well as the correspondence we carried on after that time. And being able to sit behind him and watch him play and having him watch me and give me critique and encouragement was...priceless.

In the beginning, from the time I was 5 all the way through high school I studied with the local drum guru from the LaSalle/Peru Illinois area Jimmy Brown. It's impossible to describe his teaching. He would just draw the inner talent out of a student allowing each one to develop a syle of their own. He passed many yeara ago but his daughter Sherry (Rubins) has taken up the torch and is now a successful performer and clinician and is teaching at the University of Texas San Antonio.

Lastly, while at Western I studied legit percussion with Richard Cheadle. By junior year lessons became more about concept, philosophy and thought process than mere technique and exercises.
Yes, you had to "get it under your hands" first but then where does it go from there?

These four gentlemen gave me so much, I can't even begin to describe. I learned from each of them the essence of cultivating one's own style; developing the physical and mental tools neccessary to create sounds that reflect your individuallity, personality and emotions.