Very Interesting Teaching Concept

[Joe P]

One pretty interesting concept my teacher has been presenting to me throughout the entire time I've been taking lessons (but he hasn't really until now told me) is that the sets in the teaching area are not set up in the most comfortable way. The toms and bass are half-shells with no bottom heads, and thick foam circles pressed up against under the heads. The bass and hi-hat pedals are not very high quality (and at least 15 years old, I think). For cymbals there are a ride (with the logo faded away, I think It's an old K) and a hi-hat (some old Zildjian, all logos faded); no crash or adornments.

The reason for all this is that he wants me to be able to play/adapt to any kind of setup because he told me that many (if not all) of his big breaks were on someone else's set. What he does is he tries to set up many different ways to refine his skills of adaptation to different sets. What does everyone think about this concept?

[jayp]

My teacher does almost the exact same thing but to a little less of a degree, always mix matched hardware/pedals and cymbals and 2 diff sets.

[Joe P]

Yeah, what my teacher does is a bit extreme. Periodically he'll re-do his set (the set he sits at during the lessons, which is basically the same as the set I use during the lessons); i.e. sometimes his snare is tilted toward him, sometimes it's tilted away from him. Sometimes his toms are at very flat angles, sometimes they're at high angles. Sometimes he changes the distance between the snare and the bass and toms, very close sometimes, farther other times. He changes the hi-hat height, the ride cymbal position and angle, etc.

[jayp]

whos your teacher almost sounds like my teacher adrian lol

[Cowskull]

Hmmm . . maybe you're on to something here. My teacher does kind of the same thing. It's an old and small jazz set. I'm a pretty big person and my set at home seems twice as large and it's like I'm playing on a kid's set when I go to my lesson. If I ever complain he reminds me that if you're good, you should be able to play on any set. I understand where he's coming from, but my hi-hats are set up about six inches higher at home and my kick is so much different as well.

Ok, it makes for a good excuse for why I'm not too good yet. :)

[balboa]

one day i went in for my lesson and the teacher had it set up for lefty. he said "ok, show me what you've been practicing". talk about trying to adapt! but, by the end of the lesson, i had adapted somewhat to that kit. by him doing this i learned a lot.