Brechtlein

I'm listening to the brandon Fields mp3 someone posted and I remembered talking to a drummer who was playing at the club I was working about ten years ago who had gone to LA in search of fame. He took lessons with Tom and said that he was a TREMENDOUS ball buster. Of couI recall he said something about Tom permitted no excuses whatsoever and was a stickler for practicing technique.

ANyone have any stories about ball busting teachers? I had a woman teacher as my first teacher, she had a MA in performance from West Va U, a school with an AWESOME percussion department. Pt it this way, she had a triangle that would make Ed Grimley drool. She took lessons on the tambourine and triangle.

She got very stern whenever I didn't have my Haskell harr down pat. I can still hear the clacking sound of her remo practice pad. Held a stick above mine to ensure I had correct stick heights for accents and didn't go above five inches. She also coached the HS drum line and those were some tough practices and sectionals. We played exercises in union until we were ready to give up...then she pushed us some more.

But it made me a better player and person.

I took a lesson with Tom maybe 2-3 years ago. He was laid back, just answered questions I had. I picked his brain about shuffles since he's done the Robben Ford gig and earned his shuffle wings as a result IMO. He used to be a technical player but I don't think that's the case anymore. Nice guy and a veteran of the LA scene for sure.

Michael Lauren at Drummers Collective is an "ass kicker". He acts and looks like Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. In his introductory speech he proudly told us: "You'll soon find out that I'm the asshole of the faculty and you'll find me on your way". He wouldn't let us graduate if we couldn't play that hard rudimental solo over a complicated feet ostinato.

Very good teacher, but you don't fool with him... Frightening.

A good drummer who used to live & play around here took some lessons from Tommy Campbell back in the mid-to-late '80's, & said it was a real "nutbuster"....

Tombo

I'm having lessons with Michael here in Portugal.
I've only had a couple of lessons, but it seemed to me he was exactly like you said, a cool guy but you better do your homework...
Any extra "information" on the man?

Sergus,
I spent a whole summer at DC doing their certificate. At that time, Michael Lauren was kind of holding the curriculum together. He was very involved. He did the auditions and also classified the players so that the groups were homogeneous. He was meeting with the students on a regular basis to make sure everything went OK. His personality and attitude made us take it seriously. He liked to call the certificate a "boot camp", and in some ways, it really was. What I liked there is that they took very few students and you were really followed. Michael was there to make sure that we don't get out of there without playing certain things right. Like this rudimental solo that he insisted that we played before the end since it's part of the tradition for any serious drummer. At mid-term he asked us to play it and most of the guys sucked. He totally lost his temper and was really pissed off. To make sure we'd work harder on it he said we'd have to perform it at the final exam over a feet ostinato!

I had a couple private lessons with him where we focused on chart reading. He had real good advices and experience to back it up since he's playing broadway shows and you must be an excellent reader to be on that scene.

Is Michael now living in Portugal or do you do distance learning with him?

Michael is living in Portugal, but i'm not sure for how long. he was invited to teach in a university here and that's the main reason why he came. i'm studying with him privately.
Now i'm curious, can you tell me which rudimental solo is that?

I don't remember, it's been quite some, time but I think it was a classic drum corps snare piece.
It was not neccessarily hard if you had that background and all your rudiments and reading together. Guys at DC had different backgrounds but I think everybody had good potencial. At the beginning, some had blazing chops but didn't have a clue about what they were doing, others were total bop heads and could'nt play a convincing rock groove, others were from the classical or rudimental school...but we learned a lot. The curriculum was designed so that we become more well-rounded. It was cool to hang with all those different players from different countries.