December News

December News

As you'd expect December was a hectic time for Paul, with many Messiah's and Christmas concerts to perform in.

The ones to remember included a superb performance of the Messiah with the Bournemouth Bach Choir at a packed-out Christchurch Priory.

Also memorable was the Portmouth Church carol concert in Pompey's Guildhall. Audience queues for the evening snaked all the way round the Guildhall Square and the hall was packed out with thousands coming along. 

Woodfalls Band shared the stage with some great acts including a fab steel band, African choir, dancers and actors. Our band played three new arrangements of carols written by myself - Silent Night, Hark the Herald and O Little Town of Bethlehem - all played wonderfully by the band and choir.

Have a great Christmas!

Recent News'

November Happenings...

The last week of November was a busy time at Poole Grammar School. Dr Jack Stamp, percussionist, composer, conductor and chair of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania visited the local school for a week of music making.

Fellow PGS percussion tutor Graeme Thew and myself gave the UK premier of Jack's new Concertino for Percussion and Band.

Dr Stamp also put several people (including myself) through our paces at a conducting workshop in Blandford with the Band of the Royal Signals. It was an intense experience and we all learned so much.

And just to top a busy week off, I got to play timps in Neilson's notoriously difficult 4th Symphony on the Saturday with the City of Southampton Orchestra!

Take a peek at what we played below:

Starting Drum Lessons

This introduction tells you what we expect from you whilst you take drum lessons at school and hopefully it will help you become a great musician.

1 - Lesson Times

It is important that you know your lesson time each week. Check at the beginning of school on the day of your lesson. Please allow at least five minutes to get from your classroom to the drum lesson and try to be on time – if you are late by five minutes to every lesson then you will have missed over two hours worth of lessons in a year!

If you can’t make a lesson because of a trip, exam etc please try and tell me about it. We will try and rearrange your lesson times but can only do this if we know about your problems early enough. Preferably we need to know about any problems a week in advance or at the very least, early on in the morning on the day you have a problem attending.



2 - Sticks and Books

You need:

• A pair of drumsticks - Drumsticks come in many different sizes. We would recommend 7a or 7b to start with for people with small hands. Some people prefer slightly bigger sticks and use 5a or 5b’s (available from most music shops for approx £5 - £10).
• Rockschool Grade _______ (available from most music shops, Ebay or Musicroom.com).
• A folder to keep your book and sheet music in.
• If you also study orchestral percussion you will need xylophone and timpani sticks plus the relevant music books.
• Earplugs – if you have a kit at home, then a pair of earplugs is also essential to protect your hearing. You can buy these at any drum shop or from me for £4 a pair.
• A notebook for recording what you need to practice

You may also like to consider getting hold of a stick bag to store and carry your sticks in, a practice pad and a metronome to help you keep time when practicing.
You need to bring your book, sheet music and sticks to each drum lesson. If you forget then it will slow your progress down.
It would also be a help to have internet access as a lot of free material will be used in lessons (see 6 below).

3 - Practice

Regular practice is the only way that you can improve as a drummer. By practice we mean that you go over the techniques and pieces we have learnt in lessons, concentrate on the stuff you find hard and repeat it lots until you find it easier to do. Often you will have to slow things down at first – don’t worry, everyone has to do this.
As a beginner, you should be aiming to practice for 10 minutes every day and that should roughly increase by 10 minutes for every year you have been learning. The “every day” thing is important – much better than doing an hour’s worth of practice on the day before your next drum lesson. At each drum lesson you will be given work to practice. We cannot do the work for you, it is up to you to work regularly by yourself at home.
After a short while, you will have covered a number of different aspects;

1. Rudiments – these are patterns used by drummers – start each practice repeating several of these patterns from your book (at least 10 times each a day)
2. Pieces and new grooves – (grooves are what we call rhythms used on the kit)
3. Improvisation – making music up by yourself
4. Listening and copying – try playing along to your favourite CD

When you practice, try getting into a routine of doing all of these four elements above in one session. Use the rudiments as a warm up (like a footballer warms up before a match). Then work on your pieces – practice the sections that you find difficult first. Once you are comfortable with the music then try and run the whole piece. Then have a go at making your own music up – called improvisation. Finally, try and listen to recordings of your favourite bands and have a go at playing along. At the end of each practice session, try and warm down by using the rudiments again.


4 – How do I practice if I do not have a kit?

If you do not have a kit then you can use your lap, or practice by setting out some cushions/pillows and using these. If the school allows, you may also practice on the school kit – but you need to ask permission first and treat the kit as though it were your own. They cost a lot of money to repair or replace so please look after the school kits.
Also, once you get used to reading, you will be able to practice by just looking at a piece of music, and trying to hear it inside your head. This type of practice is just as important as actually physically hitting the drums.

We generally find that students who do have a kit at home learn a lot faster. So if you feel that you are progressing well, please start to think about getting a drum kit for home practice.


5 – Where can I buy a kit?


We are lucky in that we have two good drum shops in the area (Poole Percussion Hamworthy Poole near “Toys R Us” and Classic Drums in Boscombe Bournemouth) if you want to buy a brand new kit or any other gear.
Kits come in different shapes and sizes. There are normally two standard size of kit – fusion (smaller) or rock (slightly larger). Both are perfectly okay. Kits also vary on price. Generally as a beginner you would want to start off with a “student” kit, priced from £250 - £400. This should come with stands, cymbals and a stool (higher priced kits often come as “shell packs” – i.e. you are buying just the drums, not the stands, cymbals, pedals or stool). Second hand kits are also widely available. Free Ads (the yellow paper) or Ebay have quite a few for sale. The advantage of buying a used kit is you will get more for your money and can often find a good mid-range kit complete with cymbals, stool, pedals and sometimes lots more. If buying 2nd hand, look out for the following makes: Premier, Pearl, Yamaha, Mapex, Tama, Pacific or Sonor. We have seen good useable second hand kits sell for less than £100 although expect to pay around £250 for a decent make.
If you have space or noise problems at home there are also several options that will help. Pads can be put on a normal kit to silence it (sometimes called “Sound-Off” Pads). An electronic kit is not only much smaller than a regular model, but can also be used with headphones. Whilst you can also get hold of special kits that are flat and can store away underneath a bed (Flats) or an entire practice kit with pads made of rubber that again is silent and can be folded away easily.

6 – Internet learning


I have lots of worksheets and songs available free on this blog.
Click on Drum Charts. Then simply select the worksheet/song that is appropriate to your standard and print it off. To download these onto your computer, you will need a tiny plug-in called Scorch. Just follow the on on-line instructions after selecting your worksheet.

7 – Playing in school groups and ensembles

Your school has lots of groups and ensembles that you can join and play with. We find that students who join ensembles learn a lot lot faster. Once you get confident about reading and playing in time, then we would recommend you joining one of the groups at your school.
It may be daunting at first, but stick with it – this is what playing an instrument is all about!
Playing in groups is also important for…..

8 – GCSE Music

Once you get to Year 9, you should start thinking about your options and whether you would like to take GCSE Music. For the course, amongst other things you will need to be able to perform solo pieces, play in a group and compose music. We can help you with this in your drum lessons.

9 – Orchestral Percussion

We also encourage you to study orchestral percussion in your lessons – this will mainly involve timpani and xylophone. If you are a drummer, then this gives you an added dimension to your playing. It also opens up many more opportunities for you to play in different groups and ensembles.

10 – Recommended Listening – further study

Listening is the most important thing we can do as musicians. Below we have listed a few great drummers and bands that you need to be familiar with. We have included mainly older drummers and bands, as you should be familiar with some of the more current artists.
YouTube, Spotify, your local library (or the Music Library in Bournemouth) are good places to get hold of some of the recordings listed below.
Don’t be afraid to experiment – listen to music that you don’t normally listen to – you might be surprised at how good it is!


Jazz

Louis Bellson – countless bands, Art Blakey - Jazz Messengers - Free For All, Jimmy Cobb - Miles Davis - Kind of Blue, Elvin Jones - John Coltrane - A Love Supreme, Gene Krupa - Benny Goodman - Sing Sing Sing, Joe Morello - Dave Brubeck - Take Five & Blue Rondo a la Turk, Buddy Rich - Buddy Rich Big Band, Max Roach

Rock

Ginger Baker - Cream, John Bonham - Led Zeppelin, Terry Bozzio - Frank Zappa, Bill Bruford – Yes & King Crimson, Vinnie Colaiuta – various bands, Stewart Copeland - Police, Steve Gadd - Steely Dan, Dave Grohl – Nirvana & Foo Fighters, Manu Katche’ - Peter Gabriel, Mitch Mitchell - Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon - The Who, Ian Paice - Deep Purple, Carl Palmer - Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Neil Peart – Rush, Jeff Porcaro – Toto, Phil Rudd (among others) ACDC, Danny Seraphine – Chicago, Chad Smith - Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Ringo Starr - The Beatles, Robert Wyatt - Soft Machine

Latin

Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, Mario Bauza, Celia Cruz, Chico O'Farrill, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico Grupo, Niche Machito, Noro Morales, Oscar D'Leon, Santana

leaving school?

When you leave school, wherever you go, try and find yourself another drum teacher. No matter how good you are (or think you are!) you’ll always learn something new off a good teacher. If you can, try and get lessons off several people – different teachers will teach you different things and often there is no right or wrong way to do things, just diverse approaches – another teacher can help you explore that.

If you really want to learn, go for consultation lessons with a big name in London (but make sure you thoroughly prepare several pieces first otherwise you’ll waste your time and and a lot of money) or try one of the numerous summer courses available. If you’re off to university, find the music department and ask if they have a drum teacher. Find the local music shop (or even better, drum shop) and ask if they keep a list of teachers. Or search in Rhythm magazine or on the net (www.mikedolbear.co.uk is a good place to start).

self study:

Hopefully by now your reading skills are developed enough to allow you to pick up a book, read the dots and teach yourself a lot of things, that’s been the idea of reading in lessons – to develop your understanding so that you can become independent and think for yourself. There are thousands of books out there, some of them are not worth the cover price and you can easily waste a fortune. So below are a few that I’ve found helpful – they tend to lean towards the technique side of playing.

• Rock School – Grade books with CD published by Rock School
• The All American Drummer – Charley Wilcoxon published by Ludwig
• Modern Rudimental Swing Solos – Charley Wilcoxon published by Ludwig
• Perpetual motion around the drums – Joel Rothman published by JR Publications
• Practical Percussion by Kevin Edwards published by Kirklees
• Matt Savage Rudimental Workshop
• Rhythm and Fills Mike Dolbea
• Stick Control – great for hands but also for developing double bass drum technique!

Also try some of the DVD’s on the market – especially those from well-established drummers.

Always try and remember though that musicality is far more important than technique. Technique is just a tool to get you where you want to go but try not to be too obsessed by the latest trick or fashion (and that goes for gadgets too!).

practice, practice, practice:

As you should have guessed by now, regular practice is the only way that you can improve as a drummer. However, if you’re heading off to university regular shed building (that’s practice to you) presents a big problem with halls of residence and shared houses and the like. A practice pad or practice kit (they fold up real small) comes in really handy.

playing

If you’re not playing regularly then you’ll soon loose interest in playing drums full stop. So get yourself into a band. Again, find your nearest drum/music shop and see if they have a notice board – drummers are often highly sought after. And don’t turn down gigs, no matter how small or odd they may be – you never know who’ll be in the audience waiting to offer you a decent gig if you impress. If you have to audition for a band try and prepare a couple of pieces from memory; a solo (try adapting one of your grade pieces) and a cover version in a style similar to the band you are hoping to join.

broaden your listening & Playing

One way of improving is by listening to and playing in as many different styles of music as you can. Don’t just stick with your favourite type of music (although many will forgive you if you don’t include country and western in your listening list!).

Keep in touch & Good Luck in the future!

practice makes perfect

Regular practice is the only way that you can improve as a drummer.

By practice we mean that you go over the techniques and pieces we have learnt in lessons, concentrate on the stuff you find hard and repeat it lots until you find it easier to do.

Often you will have to slow things down at first – don’t worry, everyone has to do this.

At each drum lesson you will be given work to practice.

We cannot do the work for you, it is up to you to work regularly by yourself at home.

Take a read of the guide below, hopefully it will give you some ideas as to how to practice.

when & how much?

• Starters & Grade One students should be doing 10 minutes a day.

• For each year you’ve been learning, add an extra 10 minutes to that.

• Personal practice is the only way you’ll improve as a musician .

• Practising every day for a short time is much more important than trying to cram your whole week’s work into one Sunday – your brain will learn more from doing a task every day rather than once a week.

• If you miss a day, then it won’t harm your playing but you might find that you have gone back progress wise when you next sit down to practice.

• Try and have a set time when you do your practice. For drums, it’s often good to work in the afternoon – most of your neighbours will still be out at work!

warm up first:

Practically everybody wants to skip the warm-up. But warming up helps you switch on your brain and co-ordination skills.

• Warm up using technical exercises like scales (on tuned perc) or rudiments (on drums).

• Once you have done your scales or rudiments, then start practising something easy first – again this helps switch on your brain

• Try and concentrate on how you control the instrument, breathing, posture, and grip and relax. Often when you are playing harder music, this is the type of thing that you will forget so if you start nice and relaxed for each practice session, your technique will improve.

playing

• When practicing a piece – work out which bits you find hard, and concentrate on those.

• Work out where the hard bits are for you

• Try and concentrate on the hard bits

• Try hearing the hard bits in your head first

• Slow them down – repeat short chunks of the music

• If after slowing something down, you still can’t play it, don’t get upset – it happens to everyone. Practice something else, and then try again in a few minutes or even tomorrow. If you still can’t get it, ask for help from your teacher.

repetition & muscle memory

Repetition of really hard sections helps a lot. You are basically training your brain and body to move in a certain way. David Beckham practices free kicks for hours each day. Some would say he’s already pretty good at free kicks! But he repeats the exercise over and over again to make his mind remember exactly what moves he have to perform to kick a perfect free kick. Beckham is trying to get to the stage where the kick is automatic, like breathing or walking – that way, when he gets nervous he won’t get too distracted and his mind can take over.

• Play individual bars with a metronome – slow things down – put in a loop (repeat lots) and concentrate on getting one pattern right at a time.

• Make sure you’re practicing the correct notes when you slow things down – otherwise you’ll be learning how to play the passage badly!

• Then play the whole section

Divide and Rule

If you have something really hard to play, simplify it first – take it apart, then build it back up

• On the kit play a ride, snare and bass groove with added left foot hi hats

• Take out hands – play just feet (hi hat and bass drum)

• Take out feet – play just hands

• Take out left foot

• Put it back all together. Again, try it slowly first, then build up

Using a metronome

Use a metronome when you practice

• Metronomes really do help you keep in time, especially when you slow sections down.

• If you haven’t got one yet, they are relatively cheap nowadays – go for one with a headphone jack so you can hear it above your playing.

balanced practice

Always try and keep your practice routine balanced. Ideally you should be doing:

• Warm Up with rudiments

• An easier piece

• A more challenging piece

• Some reading practice (pick a piece you don’t know and try and play it)

• Improvisation work – making up stuff

• Playing along to a recording
  

cool down

Cooling down after practice is just as important as warming up

• Try doing rudiments again or working on something easy

• A good method for kit is to play along to a song that you find straightforward
  

Practicing without a kit

• If you do not have a kit then you can use your lap, or practice by setting out some cushions/pillows and using these. If your school allows, you may also practice on the school kit – but you need to ask permission first and treat the kit as though it were your own. They cost a lot of money to repair or replace so please look after the school kits.

• Practice Pads are also very useful and very cheap as well.

• Also, once you get used to reading, you will be able to practice by just looking at a piece of music, and trying to hear it inside your head. This type of practice is just as important as actually physically hitting the drums. It’s also really useful when you’re traveling – just take your music with you and practice in the car, plane or train by reading the notes.

• We generally find that students who do have a kit at home learn a lot faster. So if you feel that you are progressing well, please start to think about getting a drum kit for home practice.

• If you have space or noise problems at home there are also several options that will help. Pads can be put on a normal kit to silence it (called “Sound-Off” Pads). An electronic kit is not only much smaller than a regular model, but can also be used with headphones. Whilst you can also get hold of special kits that are flat and can store away underneath a bed (Arbiter Flats or Traps Kits) or an entire practice kit with pads made of rubber that again is silent and can be folded away easily.

Assisted Instrument Purchase Scheme

Here’s a neat way of getting hold of an instrument with a huge discount. Most schools run an Assisted Instrument Purchase Scheme – it’s a scheme that allows students to purchase musical instruments with the VAT knocked off. That’s a 17.5% discount!

criteria

There are some criteria you have to meet:

• The student must be in full-time education at a Local Education Authority School.

• The student must be receiving tuition at the school as part of their curriculum or privately in support of curricular activities (e.g. GCSE Music)

• The instrument must be appropriate to the students needs. (A beginner cannot buy a £30,000 drum kit !)

• The instrument must be portable

• The instrument must be charged to the student/parents at or below the schools cost (excluding VAT)

The “instrument must be portable” clause is the tricky one for drummers. Some schools say that a drum kit is portable, others don’t. You will have to ask your head of music. If that fails, you can always purchase a portable kit like an Arbiter Flats, the Traps Kit, the Sonor Jungle Kits or the Yamaha Hip Kits.

more than just drums

What’s more, the Instrument Purchase Scheme can also used to purchase cymbals, stands and a whole host of other accessories like latin gear (congas etc). You would even qualify when buying tuned percussion as xylophones, glockenspiels and some makes of timpani are highly portable.

to find out more...

So if you want to know more, speak to your Head of Music at your school.

The Dorset Percussion Ensemble

The Dorset Percussion Ensemble

We are a group of professional percussionists who come together to perform as an ensemble and also as a section for orchestral, chamber and choral concerts. We were formed in 2005 to perform a specially arranged four-player and two pianists version of Carmina Burana with the Grange Choral Society at the Regent Centre in Christchurch. The Bournemouth Echo wrote of our debut

"....the musicians, two pianists and four percussionists, set pulses racing in the opening O Fortuna and impressively underscored the entire performance....the spirit, both liquid and lusty, was licked into place with tremendous aplomb."

And since then we've met regularly to perform for orchestras, choirs and for our own enjoyment. So if you are after a full blown percussion ensemble to make your event go with a bang (or two!) or simply want help booking percussionists for a gig (yes we know we can be a pain!), then you've come to the right place. We can provide players for large or small concerts anywhere in the South no matter how many or how few percussionists you need and we will also supply all the gear needed (unless it's very very specialist). Our musicians are all experienced professionals with a wide range of skills suitable for all styles of music, whether it's chamber, choral, orchestral, jazz or rock. We also offer instrument hire, teaching, coaching & workshop services - take a look below for details. repertoire: Our orchestral/choral repertoire includes the following big works;

• Carmina Burana (a special four player version is available)
• Chichester Psalms
• The Armed Man
• War Requiem
• Belshazzar's Feast
• Noyes Fludde
• St Nicholas
• The Rio Grande
• Rutter's Gloria
  

Plus lots lots more....

Ensemble Work

The DPE can also provide music for any occasion from Varèse's complex Ionisation through to Scott Joplin rags, from Dave Brubeck numbers through to Bach keyboard transcriptions. Our team can even specially arrange virtually any music that you require for that special occasion.

Workshops

Several of our percussionists are also highly experienced in giving educational workshops both inside schools and to the wider community. instruments: Our instrument list includes;

• 4.3 Octave Musser Marimba
• Premier Vibraphone
• Concorde Xylophone
• Adams Xylophone
• Set of 5 Premier Timpani
• Baroque Timpani
• Deagan Glockenspiel
• Set of Tubular Bells
• Tam Tams
• Orchestral Bass Drums
• Lion's roar
• 2 octave set of Crotales
• Orchestral snare drums
• Concert tom-toms
• Congas & bongos

Plus lots lots more....

To discuss your requirements, contact us here