*Weekend Chat Thread 20/21st June 'Run for All'!!

Burlesque_Babe

he could have had his phone pinched scaredy but even so he could have contacted you even if it meant going to the library to go online.

Bit cowardly if that's the way he works, but as it seems he was a bit too keen for things to move faster than you were, probably best to move on.

Have a hug from me though.

scaredy_cat

i know this sounds like i'm giving him an excuse but he's dyslexic and so probably doesn't know where his library is!! :rotfl:

well, i feel better for leaving the message, and if he does contact me, i'll just see what he says and take it from there.

there have been a few men on the dating site 'winking' at me and there is 1 i've been chatting to who would like to meet up....;)

daphne_descends

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

fell asleep onthe sofa last night. Started having a weird dream that I was working in a very French style cafe bar and everyone was very laid back and although I was in charge everyone was there having a bit of a sing a long to a really cool song even if they were staff and it was all really cool and happy.

I woke and this was on the TV just finishing on a concert on BBC4 - I had to write it down before I went to bed to look it up today as it was so weird how it affected me whilst I was asleep (I felt very relaxed and happy) and I had no idea who it was etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7e_enQD4JU


random insight into my head!!! :rotfl:

Is that what you would call a 'calling'? I'll come and work for you!

schoolrunmum

Well DD and I have just returned from hunting round in her mates houses/gardens, but no luck with her fone...guess whos grounded then??

Burlesque_Babe

scaredy - go for it - if the other guy has gone cold for whatever reason - he wasn't meant for you

Hey DD - you can start tomorrow! All the staff kind of took up seats at the bar to sing along and had small glasses of beer - it was all very French!!

Toto

LouiseJ wrote: »

Toto, may I pick your brains if you dont mind?

LouiseJ wrote: »

DS2 just loves playing drums, to me he seems to have something. He is 14 and has just started taking drum lessons where they have put him straight in for his grade 4 exam.

He loves it Toto and will practice for hours (I thought it was just a phase but obviously not). When I ask him what he wants to do as a career he just says that he doesnt care so long as he can play drums doing it.

I just wondered what his options would be as I can only think of the most obvious ones and what courses are best for someone wanting a career in drumming?

I know its a big question but some pointers would be greatly appreciated.

That's ok Lou. The best advice I can give anyone is to find a decent teacher and stick with the lessons. 14 is a good age to start learning the craft. He needs to learn every style he can, don't just think, I want to be a rock drummer and stick with that. So, make sure he is being taught everything from Jazz styles Latin, salsa, rock, fusion to classical, country, blues and gospel. That way he is opening himself up to a huge range of potential gigs. Most people think drums=rock star but the vast majority of my work has been doing stuff like TV and movie soundtracks, adverts for TV, cinema and radio, plus a lot of studio sessions for artists who want a particular feel for a track on their CD, maybe their drummer can't shuffle too well, so they get in a session muso to play on that track.

Make sure he is being taught to read too, sight reading is the most important thing he can learn (I know it's boring) but I have made a decent career out of being a session musician just because I can sight read any style to a pretty high standard. If he is doing grades he will be learning to read but do make sure he is being taught sight reading.

Once he leaves school he can go off to a music school. Personally I would go out of the UK for that. Sad but true the musicians from the USA and Canada are taught to a higher standard than they are here. If he's very good he could consider PIT in California. But, when the time comes for that I will advise more. If he's still playing and wanting to train that far i would probably drive up and take a look at him to see where he is at before he starts auditioning. I have the full 4 year course here from the musician's Institute (PIT) and it's tough. I've used it to teach students in the past. It's very very long and hard going though so there's no point in thinking about that for a good few years yet.

Going back to thinking about now though, he needs to select what he is practicing to carefully. It's tempting to just play along with what he likes, but I would get him to make sure he is structuring his practice well.

I always make my students do a practice plan. So, 15 minutes of warm up, 30 minutes of rudiments, 30 minutes of sight reading practice and 45 minutes of free play. I would ask them to free play to bands with decent drummers such as Toto, both jeff Porcaro and Simon Phillips, Journey and Rush. it's useless playing along to bands like coldplay where their drummer is utterly shocking.

There are some great instructional DVDs out there, do check out the jeff porcaro one, simon phillips, deen castronovo and even Steve Smith. Most of the good ones are old but very good. jeff porcaro is the dude to learn a shuffle from, that guy was amazing.

I've waffled on far too long If he ever wants any help or advice, if he is stuck on anything, cant master something or just needs someone to moan at, point him in my direction and I will do whatever I can.

Hope that helps.

edit to add some links for good dvds

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeff-Porcaro-Instructional-Drums-DVD/dp/B0000TPAB0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1245594581&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steve-Smith-Drum-Technique-History/dp/B00007CWI6/ref=pd_sim_d_h__4

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simon-Phillips-DVD-US/dp/0739040251/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1245594818&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jojo-Mayer-Secret-Weapons-Drummer/dp/B000S6TNLI/ref=pd_sim_d_h__3

Some of them are pretty expensive. So, check out ebay etc. If you were only going to get one I would get Jeff Porcaro (excuse the slightly drugged up feel to the whole thing, the content is excellent)

Burlesque_Babe

fab post Toto

As another musically minded person (but nowhere near Toto's league!) I'd also say sight reading is really important. Luckily I was good at it and there is a real buzz about just picking up a sheet of music and just playing it straight off.

scaredy_cat

i had a hot dream about Dolph Lundgren the other night... :D:D

Toto

Talking of being musically minded. Our little lily is the most musical baby I have ever seen. I guess having both parents who have been proffesional drummers helps She loves music though, when she is in her bouncer she will always start bouncing along to any bit of music that comes on the TV. And, 9 times out of 10 she bounces in time It's amazing to watch.

The other day she was in the garden and this pigeon was making its pigeon noise do doooo do, do dooo, do. She started bouncing to that

So, we've been thinking about what we are going to teach her. I think we're going to start her off on the bass and perhaps percussion, we've got loads of percussion toys here and Fran has a bass (frustrated bass player that he is).

Doomcow

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

unfortunately it isn't that easy - it's the same with breaking any addiction (and then keeping that addiction out of your life - for the rest of your life - which is part of the problem)...

Losing weight needs a similar kind of LBM to getting out of debt. ...

i duno, i stopped spending & smoking just like that. yeah sometimes it is hard, but learn the triggers and avoid them if possible.

willpower and self-belief can significantly stop you doing x, y, z - currently on the path to doing this with takeaways myself, down to 1 a week unless someone (like ma dad) invites us out for it.

schoolrunmum wrote: »

Well DD and I have just returned from hunting round in her mates houses/gardens, but no luck with her fone...guess whos grounded then??

d'oh! does she really need a phone if she's gona lose it so easily?

scaredy_cat wrote: »

i had a hot dream about Dolph Lundgren the other night... :D:D

ew. end thereof.