A Sample of What I Get to Read Everyday

I hear from you guys daily...I went out of town this past weekend and it took me 2 hours to catch up last night with the emails, messages, and comments...and I ain't complainin'! I really do love talking with all of you and being able to provide a place for drummers to hang and hopefully motivate you to become a better player...and person in the process. Here's a sample of some of the things I get the privilege to read everyday...

From FB:

"Hey steph what's up!! That's with pleasure that i saw you answered on my wall's post. I'm fabian, 29 from belgium and i felt in love with drum long times ago but i decided to achieve my dream 5 month ago. I bought advanced funck studies (rick latham) stick control (g lawrence stone) drum set warm-ups, drum backbeats encyclopedia, the breakbeat bible, mini monster book of rock drumming... At the moment i'm totaly hypnotized by funck, and the patterns you've put on drummer connection is very good, you're kind of a good teacher... my problem is fills, so i try to work on that... i whrote all that book just to thank you.. because my only teacher is the internet ;)
take care!"

fabian aka the belgian ;)


Email:

"Hey bro,
Love your site and I guess I have to admit I'm not really a drummer. I do have a kit and took a few lessons but I'm ancient (don't ask) and I suppose being able to keep a simple rhythm doesn't make you a drummer. I love the diversity of styles that you teach, it reflects much of what I gravitate towards. I think I actually found your blog looking at Stewart Copland stuff online. You could probably guess my age based on that alone but I grew up musically in that transition zone, loved prog rock/hard rock but latched onto punk/post-punk especially stuff like the Clash, Police, Slits, etc that were adventurous enough to incorporate more interesting textures and rhythms into their music. I was originally a bass player (probably explaining some of my drum fascination) but now play guitar and sing on a worship team in a crazy contemporary Saturday evening service at our church.
So I'll continue to set up my drum kit every now and then and make all kinds of racket.
Would love to see a lesson based on the style of Sly Dunbar.
Thanks again for the great lessons and website."
Dean the drummer wannabe.


You Tube from GIDDISDRUMMERBOY:

"You're an inspiration
Hey man I just want to give you a word of encouragement. Your videos are very very helpful and have improved my approach and technique alot. Hopefully you will notice that in my new drum covers when I upload them. I showed my friends in Nigeria your videos and they were blown away.

God bless you and keep doing what your doing man."

You Tube from Rydmking:

"First off thank you for making these videos. The quality of your instruction and the audio quality is first rate. I can tell that you have a background in audio engineering. The mic placement and types of mics you use are clearly on another level. Your overhead mics look like the coveted AKG EB414. Nice!

Anyway, enough of gear porn. Just wondering if you could at some point break down the Porcaro/Rosanna groove. Even the master himself (Porcaro) explains it on Youtube but I prefer your style of teaching instead. Seriously.

I know you have the Purdie half shuffle and Bonham lessons up already. I just think your teaching style would be much easier and concise to follow.

Thanks for considering! Keep up the great work. You've managed to help me get back into practicing again. Thanks!!!"

Twitter:

From @wmdrums
@DrummerEtc Hey Stephen, just found your drum blog! Just want to say very cool and I will be checking it frequently!

You Tube from maluguita


"Hi, i have just seen videos of you playing the drums and it liked me a lot.
You are soo good :)
I play drums and i want to learn of you !
I am from Barcelona, and my english is not soo god.
Congratulations of your good work ;) :D"

You Tube from cssmoke1234

"Thank you so much

Your video's are helping me 1,000 times more then my school band director ever could.

Thanks to you my chances of making the U.S.M.C Jazz band are increased vastly. Keep the video's up please!

Me:

"Man, that makes my night! I'm really glad they're helping so much!

If you have any particular questions or you get the audition requirements and need lessons on a particular subject, let me know. I'll do my best to help ya out!"

-S

Jakub Cipny Grác from Facebook:

"Hey dude! Finally joined the FB page up here aswell. I have to say I´m REALLY digging your lessons and your blog posts. The Pyramid warm-up is a really sick idea. It sounds so simple but I actually have a pretty hard time with keepin´ that hi-hat straight. But since I understand that hi-hat independance is pretty much essential, I´ll keep going. Also those excercises ya come up with actually make it interesting to practice, so really really happy that ya do what ya do, and I hope you´ll keep at it!"



I posted these simply to say THANK YOU...seriously, I think it's really cool that a bunch of drummers can jump online and hang. The fact that you guys enjoy it makes it all the more gratifying to me. Cheers to you guys.