Author: mydrumlessons
From the great ones
I am thinking about Chopin, Johann Sebastian Bach or Mozart. They made the effort to pass on their knowledge to the next generation. Bach, famously, wrote a whole book for his wife, some very simple pieces that every piano student has studied at a moment or another. Mozart also composed some short pieces. But his…
That old pad
I remember when I first started, back when the dinosaurs were not yet created, I didn’t have a pad. I had a pair of sticks. That’s it. Sticks and nothing else. I traveled light. But everywhere I would go, I would be drumming. There was always a surface, flat or not so flat, to play…
Building a right foot
As a drum teacher, I often get ask how to build a right foot, a bass drum foot. The subject is extremely important because the bass drum is one of the prominent voice of almost any rock/funk groove and requires a lot of dexterity. To play singles, the training is fairly simple: put the metronome…
Young pupils
Young pupils should be taught music with games. And, the younger they are, the more playful the games. I was almost ready to write : “the younger they are, the silliest the game”. Yet, I am convinced that is the best way to learn, when we don’t think of a task as a chore, a…
Care
Being the main care giver, I have always been very close to my children. It has been a lot of fun taking them to the zoo, the museums, the aquarium or teaching them how to bike, how to swim, how to be nice to each other and to themselves. And, of course, it has been…
With or without you
This song is usually the last one we play on stage. We’ve done it with Louis’s drum solo since the beginning. Only now, he rips it something grand. I am so proud!
I want you to want me
This was done back in the days. We loved playing that song. Although, here, my children are a little intimidated by the cameras, as you can probably tell.
The mission 3
But Music is not a mission, and Music is not an absolute. Music must be tailored to the dimensions of the person playing it. Only then will we have the chance to hear what is inside his heart, which is the only truly interesting part of Music. Music must be practiced and played with a…
The mission 2
That is where we use one lesson to talk. We need to sort a few things out. In particular this all so important question: what is Music? Bob sits down and is willing to talk. He explains to me all the techniques he is not getting, what he should be understanding faster, what he ought…
The mission
It is hard to understand what music is about. As someone’s who’s been teaching this art for almost 3 decades, I must say that sometimes the work gets delicate and complicated. I have a student, let’s call him Bob, who has done everything he was supposed to do. He has picked up the sticks with…