stasz
07-01-2007, 03:40 AM
So I just finished my Bands of America band camp today. Pretty cool, some professional instructors coming in and teaching the marching drummers a lot of helpful stuff.
Anyway, along the way we had the opportunity to do some fun stuff aside from banging on marching drums, some drum clinics etc. and among these events was scheduled for all the drum campers to meet the one and only Vic Firth.
It was pretty humbling to be in a room with the man, but he really honestly turned out to be a cool, funny guy, and shared with us a lot about his history, how he was just a normal drummer working in a symphony who one day decided to make his own drumsticks, and he turned out to really make great drumsticks, although he never woke up one day saying "Hey, I feel like starting a drumstick company!" Among a bunch of other young drummers I got my practice pad signed by him and took a picture with him.
I learned some pretty interesting stuff, like how the company that made sticks before Vic Firth (and made the sticks that Vic first used) is now owned by Remo (imagine the drumstick business before Vic Firth!). The first set of sticks that Vic produced were the SD General model in SD1 and SD2. Also, a man from the company who was there said the one thing that kids every year ask is "how do I get a signature stick?" and that was the one question that we weren't allowed to ask the man, apparently it's top secret. Thom Hannum was there, though, maybe I should have just asked him how he got one. :D Also the quote in my signature is a question-and-answer between one student and Mr. Firth, but eventually we were able to get out of him that for concert band playing he used a pair of 5A's. Another zinger that Vic pulled on a kid was when someone asked if Vic had ever considered making a signature model for himself, followed by a response about how if you look hard enough his name is on every one of the sticks.
Just wanted to share this experience with you guys, you get a rarely get a chance like this one to get a lot of wisdom (about drums and just life in general) from someone with that kind of experience.
P.S. Admins feel free to move this to the sticks subforum if needed but I just wasn't sure because as the title says, it's not Vic Firth the sticks but Vic Firth the man.
Anyway, along the way we had the opportunity to do some fun stuff aside from banging on marching drums, some drum clinics etc. and among these events was scheduled for all the drum campers to meet the one and only Vic Firth.
It was pretty humbling to be in a room with the man, but he really honestly turned out to be a cool, funny guy, and shared with us a lot about his history, how he was just a normal drummer working in a symphony who one day decided to make his own drumsticks, and he turned out to really make great drumsticks, although he never woke up one day saying "Hey, I feel like starting a drumstick company!" Among a bunch of other young drummers I got my practice pad signed by him and took a picture with him.
I learned some pretty interesting stuff, like how the company that made sticks before Vic Firth (and made the sticks that Vic first used) is now owned by Remo (imagine the drumstick business before Vic Firth!). The first set of sticks that Vic produced were the SD General model in SD1 and SD2. Also, a man from the company who was there said the one thing that kids every year ask is "how do I get a signature stick?" and that was the one question that we weren't allowed to ask the man, apparently it's top secret. Thom Hannum was there, though, maybe I should have just asked him how he got one. :D Also the quote in my signature is a question-and-answer between one student and Mr. Firth, but eventually we were able to get out of him that for concert band playing he used a pair of 5A's. Another zinger that Vic pulled on a kid was when someone asked if Vic had ever considered making a signature model for himself, followed by a response about how if you look hard enough his name is on every one of the sticks.
Just wanted to share this experience with you guys, you get a rarely get a chance like this one to get a lot of wisdom (about drums and just life in general) from someone with that kind of experience.
P.S. Admins feel free to move this to the sticks subforum if needed but I just wasn't sure because as the title says, it's not Vic Firth the sticks but Vic Firth the man.