Tag: drum instructor

  • Sleep

    I usually do not write this kind of blog, the kind that’s personal, the kind that hits a bit too close to home. In this case, I’ll make an exception, though, as sometimes it is better to talk about the occasional obstacle that a pro musician will encounter. Who knows? Might help. Here we go.…

  • Those arpeggios.

    In piano playing you get two very famous exercises in technique. One is the scale and the second is the arpeggio. Now, the scales are fairly easy. Yes, any scale is easy. The fingers have little to cover at a time, the thumb do not twist in awkward ways and you get a lot of…

  • The fun.

    I play and teach drums and piano. Now, you say, of course, that’s what the name Sol Garnier is attached to on the internet. Yes, that’s true, but there is much more than that… for the student. I get to play piano with the drummers and drums with the pianists. I don’t do it every…

  • Self employed.

    What does it take to be a musician? Many things. And some of those things are mysterious, like what skills you need on the instrument, or which person you need to know to succeed. But some can be answered in a more mundane way by saying that being a musician requires a lot of the…

  • The legend.

    There is this story that Steve Vai tells about an extraordinary player. The musician is talking about is Vinnie Colaiuta, drummer or unsurpassed skills that started his career with Frank Zappa, where Steve Vai met him. Steve Vai states that he wanted to develop sight reading and worked very hard at it. But he couldn’t…

  • Always busy.

    One of the normal question about the music business is: What do musicians actually do? Usually people will assume two things: play or teach. Now, although we’re not far off, it’s not exactly like that either. So, in the interest of furthering human knowledge in particular and the fate of the universe in general, here…

  • My piano.

    Today is the day when my piano gets tuned. I can hear the tuner, Randy, doing his work right above my head. As I listen, I always wonder if I could have done his job. The answer comes pretty quickly: no! It seems impossibly difficult to hear the minute little difference between the tones. So,…

  • Moving the continent.

    There are many reasons why you should pay a teacher to study an instrument. One of the benefit that’s not talked about vey often is the fact that a teacher can hear/see your progress from week to week. If you are serious about your playing and you diligently practice every day hoping to get a…

  • How long should one practice?

    Loaded question if ever there was one. Usually teacher throw a fake card to evade the subject, something like “It depends”, or ‘What do you want to achieve?”. I’ll give you the skinny, I won’t try to avoid to answer: “You give me a half-hour 6 times a week and we’ll be good friends”. There!…

  • Beethoven trivia.

    Here are a few facts. The professional orchestra came to be, in large measure, as a vehicle for the incessant performance of Beethoven’s Symphonies. And the art of conducting came from just that. The first 33 1/3 r.p.m LP, in 1931, contained the Fifth symphony from Beethoven, and the duration of the first-generation compact disk…