Well what can I say about a week of playing with, learning from and hanging out with some of the best drummers in the world and the nicest guys from the UK and international drum community?
It all started back at the Winter NAMM show this year when Mike Dolbear told me about an event he had organised for serious drummers to do some serious studying with top names including Vic Firth, Steve Smith, Ralph Salmins, Craig Blundell, Stanton Moore, Jeff Davenport and Jason Bowld. I pretty much said “sign me up” there and then and a few weeks later had confirmed everything. Mike was even cool enough to sort me out with a room mate to help with hotel costs and so that I could use my car to chauffeur as many people as possible to and from the residential event. I ended up at a cosy little Travelodge a few miles from the extravagant hotel where the course was taking place and it all worked out very well with travel times and meals and evening clinic/forum/jam schedules.
Day 1 consisted of me not actually being in any of the classes or group sessions as I had to attend a family funeral, this didn't stop me from getting to know hat happened that day though, apparently the attendees were put into 3 groups and did the usual Drummers Anonymous-esque “my name's Bob and I'm a drum addict” routine, and by the time I arrived on the Monday night everyone was best friends; exactly what one would expect from drummers though right?
Although the students and teachers had all met one another, my first 15 minutes consisted of arriving at the Village Hotel in Elstree, which was even easier to find than I had hoped, saying hi to Mike Dolbear himself, being introduced to my room mate for the week, George Barnett who has the title of Young Drummer of the Year 2009, having a bag of goodies courtesy of Vic Firth, Mapex, Paiste, Shure, Drummer mag and Hudson Music and finally after watching George get up to play a blues number with this blindingly good band I had never seen before Mike says “come on Jim. You come and play one”. So across the room I go and the band tell me the name of the tune and that it's a Reggae song. I come back with “is it in 4/4? Let's play something happy, I've been to a funeral” and off we rocked. Double drumming with Bob Henrit of The Kinks, I was happy to just hold it down and have a good time. What a first night!
Day 2, serious time. We all arrived around 9 am and went to one of the nicely furnished tuition rooms and completed a warm up with Mike for half an hour before classes started proper. Over the week several of the students exchanged ideas on warm ups and inevitably all sorts of bizarre diddle combos came to light and everyone left the warm ups, well, warmed up but perplexed I think. Hudson had kindly donated a stack of the TIP books for everyone to make notes in, so off I went to Steve Smith's room to make my notes. The first session of my week was so inspiring, seeing Steve play such simple patterns whilst talking about Jazz giants Elvin Jones and Max Roach and making the whole thing musical and informative was great. Everyone in the room got a chance to play some patterns and no matter what level the players were at, Steve pushed them along like only a world class pro can; with inspiration as much as information. When it was my turn, the plunk-plunk double bass line came out and there I was playing along to a track from the Art of Brushes DVD which Steve co-presented. Could I be more nervous? Not really, but I wobbled my way through the play-along and managed to understand the messages that were being sent. I was a very happy bunny!
The sessions lasted around 90 minutes and the breaks were relatively short, but this was good for pace I found, no chance to stop thinking in this business. After a short break I was in a room with my group again, this time with UK session machine Ralph Salmins. As with Steve, I couldn't have asked for a nicer teacher for the session; down to earth and knowledgeable beyond belief, this was going to be good. Although up to this point I had never met Ralph and knew very little of him, it soon became apparent that if a session was happening in London, then Ralph was most likely being asked to do it, everything from big band arrangements to Harry Potter movies. I spent most of the time writing down one line notes such as “listen to Earth Wind and Fire more” and “Splanky – Count Bassie”, check out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Jim.Farey/ to actually see my scrawled notes, the rate information was coming at me I just had to write it all down to digest later. The conclusion of our session with Ralph was playing a tune called “Louisiana 1927” in turn and as a rule being told to play the hi-hat quieter, apparently there is far too much hi-hat going on in studios (and you can't get rid of it once it's there)!
Lunch, amazing, in house coffee shop and bar and grill which serve amazing pizzas and steaks: happy bunny was a recurring theme on this most ultimate of drum experiences. The afternoon saw my group of 11 or so getting into the militarily disciplined musical practice of Craig Blundell. I had seen Craig in clinic around 2000 and at a charity gig at Drumfest in July 09 but we had never met properly. Craig has such a kind demeanor and really encouraged everyone to try and get a little more speed on the metronome over each session and the week and to continue at home. Craig's goal, it seemed, was to help the students identify weaknesses in their technical ability and then fill them in whilst showing some really simple, effective groove and fill ideas. The only drawback was that just when I thought I was making some real progress with an idea, Craig would play it about 3 million times faster than I could, but it was great to be reminded of how much further we can all be pushed. On that note, it was great to yet again see the drumming community pull together and support its members, there was no competition, not even with all the metronome marking on the 15 Roland TD4 which we were using in Craig's sessions and in between lesson for practice. A few funky electro play-alongs later and we were all moving out of Craig's class to get ready for our tuning master class with Jeff Davenport.
Jeff's master class was very thorough and informative, he demystified many things regarding tuning and tried to make it less of a “dark art” which people shirk away from. We were asked what we wanted out of our drums and then he told us how to get it. It makes me so happy to realise that even after learning so much, really, in the scheme of things, I know a fraction of what is out there; so to get a grip on another area of the art of drumming like this was, in my opinion, absolutely invaluable, especially from someone who has been roadying for most of my lifetime! I wrote some notes on this which you can see in my photos, although the take home message was yet another resounding “there are many ways to be correct”, and I was thankful of Jeff for reminding me this.
Tuesday night saw us all attend a clinic type event where Ralph and Steve playing some brush solos and play-alongs, solos and battles and exchanged ideas on technique, approach, sound and all the good stuff for which we use brushes. Again, I was scribbling names of tunes as play-alongs arose and Steve and Ralph happily answered and discussed questions with everyone present. I also managed to ntoate a few brush patterns whilst they were being played, the whole week made me think on my feet, a great challenge. The drum battle was intense and Steve's Konnakol self trading then unison playing with voice and kit/double pedal was absolutely off the hook. It was at that point that Steve jumped, in my eyes, from “one of the greatest guys out there in the drumming world” to “absolutely ridiculous”. The crowd was impressed, from student to teacher.
Wednesday was much the same, format wise for the day. Get up earlier than I wanted to, do a warm up then get into classes. Steve Smith was up first and explained a whole load of rules about how to construct Indian rhythmic phrases, there were a lot of drummers in my group that morning singing words which we weren't 100 % sure about, but trying none the less. I think it's safe to say that everyone's grasp of displacement , odd time and phrasing and syncopation had been challenged and helped all in one go. For those of you reading this who are like me and can't make your mind up as to whether Prog-Rock is more complex rhythmically than Jazz, well I found it helped on all fronts. The upshot of this lesson? Sing Konnakol syllables to James Brown's funk bands.
The late morning session was with Ralph again, this time talking to us about the importance of time and good feel. We talked about a few books and some exercises from these books, one of which was Gary Chester's The New Breed. Spending time listening and learning with Ralph was invaluable experience as an insight into what skills are required to make it in the pro gigging and studio businesses; the level off insight to both technical skills such as reading and rudiments as well as the musical awareness is huge, this was certainly the information I had signed up to receive. Again I ended up playing a kit, nervously, but this time singing “boom boom boom” instead of playing my bass drum, excellent.
After lunch and a chocolate frapuccino strong enough to stop a rhino the legend that is Vic Firth himself gave a talk to my group. The wealth of knowledge this man possesses is incredible, at his mature age to still have such an active involvement in the stick factory and the personnel! Also, Vic told us how he was still teaching disadvantaged children at an orphanage in Boston, what an example to us all (on that note, if you have any advice or time to help with projects such as the orphanage then please contact Vic and offer help). What did I learn from Vic? I learned that I need to listen to more Beethoven; that, yes, every drummer should learn a tuned instrument; and that the elusive Dom's Pad Stick which my hero Jim Chapin so loved was in fact a double dipped SD3 Thunder Rock which Vic made to play orchestral side drums and tenor drums very loud indeed.
Craig's lesson on Wednesday was more brain bashing, co-ordination confusing, mind melting workouts. This time we were playing Samba foot ostinatos with odd number groups over the top; oh the joy to be had! But yet again, when played well it made our playing more creative and showed us another musical level we could achieve, and when Craig played that stuff, well you could tell he was very disciplined and gifted.
Wednesday night was a round table discussion with some industry guests, including all of the teachers, Vic, Mike, Martin Potts from Korg UK who represent Mapex, Vic Firth and Paiste and Samantha who is the editor of Drummer Magazine who supported the Ultimate Drum Experience week to the full. Once the crowd of mostly guys had managed to stop asking non-industry related questions to Samantha then we were onto the good stuff: advice on seeking jobs in the music press, getting good gigs and self development, how to get more experience and when and whether to move to London to work, the discussion went on for a few hours and yet another piece of the drum puzzle had been solved for the students, the whole experience was proving to be quite invaluable across the board. Late night, some sleep as I tried to work on some projects in bed and passed out on my laptop. The promise of sleep before Thursday kept me sane!
I was excited about Thursday, the warm up with Mike and co was fun and more ideas were exchanged, and I cast my mind back only a few years to when paraparadiddlediddle seemed so infuriatingly difficult and smiled a little smile, I was on the Mike Dolbear week and I was getting better, hurray. The reason I was a little excited was because today I knew that Steve was going to make us do more Jazzy things, Ralph was going to show us how he would construct a chart for a session as I had asked him the day before, Craig was no doubt going to talk more about Prog and King Crimson which makes me happy and I was very excited to see what Jason Bowled had to say. Jason is a stupidly heavy hitter and loves his odd times but has a grasp of a lot of world percussion which let's him really cross of genres, but never losing that brutal edge, which to me is like being able to play fortissimo; I see the point in being able to play Jazz as a drummer who enjoys rock, so I must also not lose sight of my ability to extrapolate Rock studies further than the obvious.
Craig had another battery of handouts to keep us practicing for years, one of which was entitled “Power Doubles, The Samba and Independence”. This was exciting, playing double sticking across 2 different voices (per double) with a foot ostinato and then going back to a 2:3 polyrhythmic idea from earlier in the week, my brain was fried, but happy. Perhaps one day gospel chops will not seem oh so far away.
Steve was back on the Max Roach thing and was talking about yet more foot ostinatos, this time in 3/4 time. “The Drums Also Waltz” and “Drums Unlimited”, how could I have missed these for almost 11 years!? Well no more, once I saw the musicality of these pieces which Steve had clearly studied in great detail in his college days, I was ready to go searching through shops and Spotify to hear Mr Roach doing his thing. Several of the group had a go at the Be-bop style piece “Big Sid”, to say that I failed miserably would be about right, and I was told I needed to listen to more Be-bop; so I am doing, but there's a lot to fit in now. Another successful session of taking notes from Steve's insights and his playing. As a result of all of Steve's great advice and insight I thought it had become necessary to purchase a copy of his Art of Playing Brushes and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants Jazz Legacy DVDs from the shop which Mike had set up in the foyer area along with all sorts of sticks and cymbals to try and buy; lo and behold they had some of the same performances on them that Steve had so inspired me with, not to mention the great Jazz play-along material for my own practice and my students' practice. I highly recommend Steve's DVDs to anyone who wants to learn more about anything drumming related, especially Jazz and drumset hsitory.
And finally for Thursday, Jason Bowld. I was pleased to see that amongst the noise and frantic double bass drumming that Jason wanted to talk to us about not losing the groove during fills by simply playing backbeats inside our grooves whether we are playing unisons around the kit or linear ideas. Jason then moved on to more interested subdivisions over several bars and showed us some blistering ideas for rock drumming which had the nice lilt of Craig and Steve's ideas and all 3 of them came at the continuation of time from very different angles.
Thursday night was a clinic performance with Jason and Craig playing some tunes. Jason played some dark electronic Drum n Bass style pieces with some insane polyrhythmic Bembe patterns against straight rock ideas whilst Craig played a 100 favourite tunes medley, the highlight of which was “Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden with the broken cymbal pattern played like some kind of over the top fusion ride move. Very nice performances by both, I was amazed! Mike and some of the other drummers there also quizzed Jason about squeezing his sticks (which he doesn't), and the message was clear kids: even when you're whacking away you still mustn't squeeze!
Friday: Even more excitement! Stanton Moore was coming to town, this is far better than even when Santa Claus shows up. Another great guy, Stanton was welcoming after our warm up and got straight down to business. “I want to give you a few simple ideas and stickings that you can take away and use for grooves and fills” to paraphrase the great New Orleans player. First up was an explanation and demonstration of Zigaboo Modeliste's “Cissy Strut” groove as well as some history one where Zigaboo got his inspiration from. Stanton gave his famous demonstration of playing “in the cracks” between straight and shuffle and showed how the best New Orleans grooves may be ruined by playing too straight or completely swung. A few more demonstrations and Stanton set his sights on a sticking pattern that his teacher Jonny Vidacovic showed to him and proceed to solo with just one 1 bar sticking pattern going around different dynamics and voices and even hitting his snare with a tambourine as well as the obvious sticks and brushes. This man is obviously insane, and as such I liked him a lot as a drummer. Stanton finished up with a reminder that greats such as John Bonham all had this almost swing to their playing and demonstrated some quite tricky Bonham licks which made me want to go home and practice to be honest; another great insight into more music I felt.
Steve's Friday and final session started with a nice informal chat where we talked about how Ringo Starr was actually a good drummer and we were played some examples of Ringo playing swing brushes in 3/4 time. The message here was loud and clear: Steve said that by the standards of when he was young and being educated, none of the skills he or Ralph had as far as reading and musicality were concerned were rare at all. These days it seems that many people can make a good living out of music without actually having the immense foundation that players such as Steve were given. What did Steve want us to do about it? Get good at running, brush up on our techniques and most of all know how to listen to styles and practice effectively with out time (and by the way, apparently it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something). Steve also showed the group some more ostinato patterns for the feet which he soloed over and then some approaches to introducing broken double bass drum patterns into our playing which answered a question I had been asking myself for years: RLR RLR or RLR LRL???
Ralph's final session rounded up the chart for the Earth Wind and fire tune “After the Love Has Gone” which was helpful as mentioned before to show how the studio players approach their work. Craig's final session, which was the last for the week for my group, was about something I believe he calls the “Mummy Dummy Drumming Method” or something similar. Basically you can get anyone from the street to make you a fill and then practice it until it's part of your soloing vocabulary. This method, although decidedly random, was refreshing and challenging and some of the patterns the class was coming up with sounded great. Craig finished up by showing us some of the patterns he had created this way and they were certainly unexpected and interesting musically which is refreshing when we hear the same ideas so many times over in my situations.
After the final class all the student's got together and Mike presented everyone with a certificate of attendance which had been signed by all the tutors. Photos were taken and cards exchanged; there were certainly many friendships made that week as well as lessons learned by all. I look forward to seeing all the guys again, both young and old and from the UK and abroad and I would recommend any future events to anyone who wants to understand drumming and the industry we work in better whether it be as a hobbyist or a working or aspiring pro!
Thanks for a great Mike and all the teachers and students!
