Tag: Chicago drum instructor

  • From the top. Part 3: the big tackle!

    So, to sum it up, the problem is studying a piece by playing it from the top only every time. No good! Little progress, big frustrations, exit door to quitting playing music. Like I said: no good. No good at all. On the previous post, we saw the road map solution. If you haven’t read…

  • From the top! Part 2: What to do about it!

    Ok, so, we’ve diagnosed the problem: learning a piece by starting from the beginning is not necessarily a good idea. The progress is slow, the feeling is not satisfying, the going is tough. But, you might intervene, there are no other ways to go about it! We have to be a slave to the timeline,…

  • From the top! Part 1: The problem.

    I’ll give you a sure way to mess up your practice and get discourage: take it from the top! So, you have this song, this exercise, this page to play. And, as is logical, you put your hands on your instrument and you start to play it. You know, you do that just to get…

  • How deep can you go?

    I am fascinated by humanity. As a musician, I think it’s the first and last building block to make great music. For example it is common knowledge that pain is helps to reveal artists. Stevie Ray Vaughn started to drink heavily before he was 10 years old. Jim Morrison had a complicated childhood. All the…

  • No, that is not a payment!

    When I first started in Chicago as a drummer, I wanted to explore the blues scene. It was a fascinating thing, really. The Chicago Blues was so popular I had heard of it in my little city of France. So, fresh out of Berklee College of Music, I started doing some jam sessions. For those…

  • Children learning

    People are disgusted with learning an instrument. It happens all too often in this form: an adult comes into my studio and tells me that they were forced to play the piano when they were kids. They hated it. The teacher was tough, the parents didn’t negotiate, the practice was a chore, the times were…

  • Messing around: the secret ingredient

    If you are reading this blog, I am assuming it is because you are studying either piano or drums. Or, at least, you are interested in those concepts. And so, most of the time, the study involves some technique, of course, and some more technique, of course, and some songs to play along with, of…

  • Dynamics are the emotion of music

    Dynamics in music seems to be a concept getting lost in modern music. By modern music, I mean what is played on the radio. We turn the thing on and the sounds come out at full blast. The singer is full blast, the drums are full blast, the bass are full blast, even the commercials…

  • Filling up a void in life with music.

    If you are in trouble. If you are getting lost. If your evenings seem boring and empty. If you find less and less reasons to get out of bed in the morning. If you numb yourself with different medications: alcohol, TV, drugs, internet rants, procrastination, social medias. If you find the burden of life to…

  • Here is what happened, part 2 (The revenge!)

    So, Bob was not doing good. And we talked. One of the difficult part of being a professional musician is to keep your confidence. By confidence, I mean self love, the drive, the energy to know you can do the job. Bob had to retain a little love and appreciation for his own talent in…