“To All The Drum Teachers I Had Before”

I learned by watching and listening. I've never had a drum teacher in my life, but I sure could have benefited from one.

I think you learned the very best way! Very natural and organically. I'm pretty sure that's how Buddy Rich learned too. I don't think I have much natural talented, don't come from a musical family or did grow up in a place with any strong musical heritage like New Orleans, Cuba, Brazil.... Without the aid of a teacher I would've never learned to play very well.....
 
I had a couple of teachers at school, I can't remember their names for the life of me. One guy taught me theory and rudiments and then some basic latin stuff. I used to love having an hour a week from classes just to play drums better.

I had some great teachers at uni:

Steve Palmer (Carls bro) his latin lessons were fantastic.

Malcolm Garratt - Mr Moeller/Fastest Hands in the West Midlands - two years of OCD technique lessons but not whiplash Hollywood bullshit. Highly respected, he sets you up to play drums ache free for the rest of your life. He'd studied with Jim Chapin, Joe Morello, worked with Buddy and lived to tell the tale. He'd been there seen it and done it gigging wise and had backed big touring artists.

Best thing for me was I was last on the list on a Friday for lessons having a surname starting with Y so I used to get a 2-3 hour lesson every week because he'd lose track of time. He was a fountain of knowledge for gear and had some very nice equipment.

The most humble guy I've ever met which is another really important overlooked lesson.

Jim Chapin - He was good mates with Mal so used to stay with him when he came to the UK. (worst kept secret ever!) So if you wanted a private lesson with Jim you just asked Mal. He was 84 when I met him, he sat down on a practice pad, pulled out the heaviest sticks I have ever seen then rolled 50 years off and put them all on me. I've never forgotten how to hold a pair of sticks since.

I saw Mal a couple years back and pretty much hugged him. It's only years after I had the lessons I realised that somebody set me up for life. I was shocked when he said my old uni still owed him money, the guy is golden!

Great list of teachers there. I wish could have had lessons with Jim Chapin too!
 
Whoah! But this guy who argued with his wife, I can't recall a single thing I took from those lessons. I wouldn't be offended by bad language if I was learning and improving.

I attended a weekly workshop doing Stevie Wonder tunes a few years ago, and the guy hosting it just wore all but six of us out. They other guys, including another drummer, couldn't handle his prickly manner and the fact that there was absolutely no hiding. If you got something wrong you had to work it out in front of everybody until it was right. He wouldn't have you saying, 'I'll get it right next week.' It was 'No, you get it right NOW!' But man, I learnt a lot from those workshops. And he gave the remaining guys a lot of respect for toughing it out till the end.

I really don't like learning under pressure/stress but some teachers get good results that way.
 
I think you learned the very best way! Very natural and organically. I'm pretty sure that's how Buddy Rich learned too. I don't think I have much natural talented, don't come from a musical family or did grow up in a place with any strong musical heritage like New Orleans, Cuba, Brazil.... Without the aid of a teacher I would've never learned to play very well.....

I grew up in the absolute heart of bluegrass country. Banjos, mandolins, and old Martin guitars rule the roost around here. I've done ok with learning organically and on my own, but I think I could have used a lot of help with the basics, such as appropriate seat height, how to set up and tear down, tuning/head choice/muffling, cymbal height, etc. In addition, I think it would have been good to have periodic lessons, maybe every 3-6 months so someone could check on my progress and give me helpful hints.

I'm thankful for what I've been able to accomplish so far, but a little help about 25 years ago would have been great!
 
my dad was my first teacher - 3years old until my 20's
also had 2 official teachers as a teen:

Steve Dodge: local drum guru; music theory guru; had him for about 2 years - we mostly did rudiments, reading, and orchestral stuff
Jim Curlis: another locla guywent to him for drum set stuff and jazz

I wish I had paid WAAAYYYY more attention to them at the time, but I was young, and a little full of my self...hindsight and all.

I still see both of them at the drum shop a lot, and

in college, I had Dr. Jack Jenny. He was my studio teacher, and also theory and aural training; he is a member of the Columbus Symphony;

for the past 25 years have done summer Master classes, clinics, workshops, and general "hangs" with these drum corp/marching percussion/education greats:

Thom Hannum
James Campbell
Tom Aungst
Vic Firth
Ralph Hardimon
Scott Johnson
Michael McIntosh
Dennis DeLucia
Steve Houghton
Michael Burritt
Lalo Davila
Julie Davilla
Ian Grom

have learned from soooo many more people though... am a clinic/masterclass junkie. I love to soak in info about music, and teaching it...
 
I've had 1 "in-person" teacher. in 1990 I had a high school friend who got his degree in percussion and had his own studio. He taught me how to read chart & got my overall drumming to gel.

Then the video instruction started with Neil Peart's A Work in Progress video. I paid careful attention to how he broke down his parts, his studies with Freddy and what he taught him about hands & "orbital motion".
I was able to apply much of that to my real life playing.

Fast forward to the COVID time & I hit the online deals. Rob Brown was first as he had an approach that I'd never experienced before. His use of music & focusing on the hands was a game changer for me.
Stephen Clark of the Non Glamorous Drummer was the other. His straight forward and easy-to-understand lessons was very enjoyable for me to do.
 
I've had 1 "in-person" teacher. in 1990 I had a high school friend who got his degree in percussion and had his own studio. He taught me how to read chart & got my overall drumming to gel.

Then the video instruction started with Neil Peart's A Work in Progress video. I paid careful attention to how he broke down his parts, his studies with Freddy and what he taught him about hands & "orbital motion".
I was able to apply much of that to my real life playing.

Fast forward to the COVID time & I hit the online deals. Rob Brown was first as he had an approach that I'd never experienced before. His use of music & focusing on the hands was a game changer for me.
Stephen Clark of the Non Glamorous Drummer was the other. His straight forward and easy-to-understand lessons was very enjoyable for me to do.

I still show parts of that video to my students for many different reasons!!

The beginning of Test For Echo is always the visual answer to :" how will/can I use these rudiments on a drum set"
 
100%!
The paradiddle is my most worked on rudiment & Neil makes great use of it here.

yep...it is the first rudiment I teach as well...in the first lesson, my students get the "how to use your hands/proper grip" speech, then 8 on a hand to work that; we do a "learning to read the rhythms" subdivision page, and then paradiddles reeeeaaaalllly slow; that pretty much gets us buckled in and rolling to the first big hill...
 
yep...it is the first rudiment I teach as well...in the first lesson, my students get the "how to use your hands/proper grip" speech, then 8 on a hand to work that; we do a "learning to read the rhythms" subdivision page, and then paradiddles reeeeaaaalllly slow; that pretty much gets us buckled in and rolling to the first big hill...
Beautiful!
I work on 3: single, double & paradiddle. Most others I'll only tackle if I'm feeling frisky or want a challenge.
 
then paradiddles reeeeaaaalllly slow
20+ years of on and off playing and I'm still right there with the %$^&^($$#%$#&&%$# paradiddle.
I can play 16ths on the hat with one hand, but that *^%#*#%^*^%# paradiddle...
 
20+ years of on and off playing and I'm still right there with the %$^&^($$#%$#&&%$# paradiddle.
I can play 16ths on the hat with one hand, but that *^%#*#%^*^%# paradiddle...

I am the same way wiht my rolls...they will never be as clean as I want them to be....
 
Matt Bucher - A local teacher. Learnt with him for about 3 years. First at school then privately.
Steve White - Private lessons, initially started with him when I switched to trad grip but also did lessons on independence, Jazz, reading..etc

Learned a lot with both.
 
Back
Top