057Drum Lesssons

posted by davegardner on April 19th, 2010

I recently picked drum lessons back up. I decided taking them through Just Drums. They are in the Hugoenot Trade Center off of Midlothian Turnpike. I figured would be the best option given the choices. My instructor Chris has an extremely challenging approach to percussion. He regularly teaches at Longwood University and so far has robbed me of all confidence in my ability as a drummer. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a very good thing. So far, I’ve learned a lot about form and how you’re actually supposed to sit while you’re playing. It’s amazing how big of an impact some of the small details have on your ability to play.

I’m hoping to get better at being able to play really traditional patterns, similar to what you would hear in a military setting. The other thing I want to work on is being able to play jazz style music. I enjoy watching and learning from a lot of older drummers like Buddy Rich, Joe Morello, Steve Gadd, and even back to Gene Krupa. Some of these guys have a degree of showmanship that I know nothing about so I think I can really learn a lot from watching them and studying.