Archive (previous news bulletins)

A great website with downloadable audio and video of the world solos and the Worlds Grade 2 band final from 2006 and much more.  Visit www.GusWeb.org 

This years World Solo Drumming Championship TOP 6 placings:

1st Steven McWhirter N.I.

2nd Jim Kilpatrick SCO

3rd Barry Wilson SCO

4th Eric Ward N.I.

5th Blair Brown CAN

6th Gordon Brown SCO

Full Details from the RSPBA

Audio available from Gus Web

Drumming Mad 3 ~ 2006 workshop details are now complete !!

When: December 9th and 10th

Where: Hannover

Full Details

Drumming Mad 2 ~ 2006 workshop details are now complete !!

When: April 29 & 30

Where: Ravensburg near the Bodensee

Full Details

Our first workshop for 2006 runs well.

Full Details Click Here

Drumming Mad 2 ~ 2006 workshop details are nearly complete.  

When: April 28/29/30

Where: Ravensburg near the Bodensee

Full Details coming this week

Drumming Mad 1 ~ 2006 workshop details are finalised.  This is a 2-day course based in the mid-West town of Xanten.  The course theme is ‘Dance Time.’

Full Details Here:     English     Deutsch

The plans for the next Drumming Mad workshop are being finalised and I hope to have them available before the weekend.  The workshop will consist of up to 3 classes for Advanced Snare, Bass & Tenor and possibly an Experienced Snare Class.  It will take place in the Mid-West in Xanten (near Dusseldorf) on Saturday/Sunday February 4^th and 5^th, 2006.  The full details will be available this weekend.

Plans to run a Drumming Mad! series of workshops was unfortunately not able to be realised this year due to time constraints.  We haven't abandoned the idea and plan to run it next Autumn.  Details will be published here as soon as they are finalised.

Plans are afoot to hold Drumming Mad! workshops in the South and the North of Germany this Winter.  The 4 locations that are being considered are Ulm, Hannover, Dortmund and Weilers Wist and the plan is to run 3 workshops in each region.  The 3 workshops will take place 1 month apart from each other and offer the student a solid 3 weekend plan to work on his or her drumming skills starting possibly in November and running into February '06.

Keep your eyes on these news pages for the latest information.  If you are on the free newsletter subscription then I will also contact you direct.

in the meantime, Happy Drumming!

The 56th District Pipe Band Koblenz present the Koblenz Drumming, Piping and Drum Majoring Workshop. From 01.10.2005 till 02.10.2005 for, Side Drummers,Tenor Drummers, Pipers and Drum Majors.

Snare Drumming-Workshop: Dean Hall (L/D Clan Pipers Frankfurt,

ex-L/D St. Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band, Grade 1)

-          Maximum 12 Students

Tenor Drumming -Workshop: Maik Reckziegel (Clan Pipers Frankfurt)

-          Maximum 10 Students

Piping-Workshop: Bendikt Groh (P/M Clan Pipers Frankfurt)

-          Maximum 10 Students Intermediate

Christian Grammel (Clan Pipers Frankfurt)

-          Maximum 10 Students Beginners

Drum Majoring-Workshop: Billy Jordan (ex-D/M The Argyll & Sutherland

Highlanders, World Champion Runner-up 2004)

Where: Koblenz and Lahnstein

D/Ms: Festung Ehrenbreitstein in Koblenz

Pipers and Drummers: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Schule in

Lahnstein (right next to Koblenz!)

When: Saturday from 10am till 6pm

Sunday from 9am till ca.5pm

Registration and more information from Heiko Breitenbach:

By E-Mail at: westis@t-online.de  or mail to: Waldstr. 6, 56206 Hilgert. Or by phone: 02624/948028

Drum Corps Results: 1st House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead (L/D Jim Kilpatrick); 2nd Strathclyde Police (L/D Eric Ward) Best Bass Section: Strathclyde Police

Band Results: 1st House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead; 2nd Field Marshal Montgomery; 3rd Simon Fraser University; 4th Strathclyde Police; 5th St.Laurence O'Toole; 6th 78th Fraser Highlanders

Thanks go to the RSPBA for the results on www.RSPBA.org The date for next year's world pipe band championships is set for Saturday August 12, 2006.

The day was a great day of music and a fantastic chance to get right in there and hear the bands while they were tuning up.  The days leading up to the big event were also crammed with loads of musical delights in the form of concerts and rehearsals.  A great location if you are planning to travel next year to the World Championships is to stay at the University of Strathclyde John Anderson Campus which is the 'hub' of worlds week pipe band activities.  More details and an account of the week can be found at the:

 Drumming Mad EVENTS page

The workshop will be aimed at drummers of the Breuberg Side Drum Levels 2 and 3 (Experienced and Advanced) and will be taught by Dean Hall and if more students apply, another teacher will be invited.

If you are interested, please contact by email Registration at drummingmad.net (replace the at with @) or: Contact Us

More information ~ Click here: Contact Us

More information ~ Click here: Contact Us

Last weekend saw nearly 20 participants come together to work on their Drumming.  The course theme was ‘Dance Time’ using the Glasgow City Police Pipers Jig and the Hornpipe Itchy Fingers with extra focus on developing rudiments and phrases. 

Full report ~ Click Here:      Deutsch      English

Sources say that we will be blessed with the presence of Master Bobby Rea who in his 68th year has not lost his talents to play and teach his art at the top level.  The drummers of Germany are indeed lucky to have the opportunity to spend time with the Master and I hope that many drummers will come and do just that.

If you have plans to attend this year's summerschool, now is the time to book.  Each year the pipers are faster than the drummers in booking and we can't have that! So don't delay and contact the BAG and book your spot.  There is a prerequisites page to assist you with choosing the best course for you just click here to go to it.

More information can be found on the BAG website via the BAG Summerschool assistance page, click here.

Click to go to Drumming Mad 1 Details in:   English   Deutsch

A CD is in the pipeline and should be available in the new year.  Keep watching Drumming Mad news for more on that.

Click here to the concert download page.

When: This Saturday Morning September 18, starting at 9:00 am

Where: The Festwiese

Musical Requirements:

Last Saturday saw the first Drumming Mad Workshop held for 2004.  15 Participants attended and worked hard to get in touch with Jig timing and Rhythm.  We had a full workshop with 6 Experienced Snare, 3 Beginner/Novice Snare and 6 Bass/Tenor Drummers from Köln / Dusseldorf / Trier / Ludwigshafen / Darmstadt and one drummer flew in from Vienna!  We had 3 sessions where all 3 groups worked in their own groups developing rudiments, standard march phrasing and jig phrasing.  In the 4th session, all 3 groups came together to create a very big sound playing standard massed band scores and the jig Glasgow City Police Pipers.  The expression on peoples faces was great to see when we got it and from that point on the jig flow was unstoppable!  Jig rhythm is a great one to play because it has a very strong flow and momentum once it has been 'unlocked'.  It is also very good to play Jigs as they help to develop rudiments through 'round playing'.  This time of year should be used to develop everyone's rudiments ready for the competition sets in the months to come.

I was delighted to see so many enthusiastic Bass and Tenor players attend this workshop (the last bass/tenor class had to be cancelled due to insufficient interest) and my thanks go to Maik Reckziegel for his great teaching.  Maik is fast becoming a strong teacher in the Bass and Tenor arena and will do well in the future, good luck Maik.  Germany should be proud and think itself lucky to have such a good potential in your country - there are not many Maiks in the world I can tell you.

Thanks also go to Ferdinand Müller for stepping in to relieve Bert Anhalt to teach the Beginner/Novice class.  Thanks Ferdi!

If you missed this workshop you should book in for Drumming Mad 2 Workshop which is in 11 weeks time on the 1st of May, 2004 ~  Musical theme: Simple March Time.  And Drumming Mad 3 will take place on 12th of June ~ Musical theme: Compound March Time.  Full details, email Dean Hall (click here for contact page) or contact the BAG.

Anyone interested in playing in a tenor drumming contest, there will be one held at the BAG's  Karlsruhe Solo and Quitnette weekend taking place on Sunday March 28, 2004.  Details are:

Solo Tenor Drumming: A selection of 2-4 minutes duration to be played.  Each competitor must be accompanied by 1-3 pipers. Both musical performance (maximum 60 points) and visual performance (Flourishing and feathering, maximum 40 points) will be judged giving a maximum total of 100 points. Tone and introduction should be assessed separately (maximum 10 points for tone and 20 points for introduction), these points not being added to the total. The selection should be started by two by three beats as in traditional pipe band introductory rolls.

The fee to enter this event is 5 Euros and Tenor Drummer Maik Reckzeigel will be the Judge.

The third Drumming Mad workshop was run in Darmastadt last Saturday with great results.

5 experienced and 2 beginner snare drummers took part in the workshop which is now the 3^rd Drumming Mad Workshop we have run.

After a small delay (of arranging rooms and tables) the experienced group kicked off with Standard scores.  Everyone had a good interpretation of these and we were happy to play them.  From there we worked extensively on Jig movements to build up the technique.  This covered flams, fives, 7&9 stroke rolls all in jig time.  After the rudimentary work we learnt 2 parts of the famous Jig, Glasgow City Police Pipers.  This brought the rudiment work into context very well and showed every player what needs to be done for their individual performance.  At the end of the course, we moved onto drums to do some ensemble work and worked on different tempos of 2/4.  Playing different tempos can help strengthen the listening ability and therefore integration between drummers.  That was a great experience to feel the change in playing approach.

The beginner group worked hard on basic rudiments.  7 & 13 stroke rolls, flams, accents and triplet groupings were worked on in detail.  Then Helge took the students into a ¾ march to combine their rudiments into a score.

Everyone worked very hard! And  left with a sense of achievement and more to work on at home!!  I would like to congratulate those who took part in the course and look forward to seeing you at the next Drumming Mad Workshop!

Thanks go to Helge Johanssen for his teaching and to Ferdi for his assistance on the day, thanks guys.

The workshop successes have been due to the good interest in pipe band drumming in Germany.  I am generally happy with the interest in it with one exception.  Bass and Tenor Drummers here in Germany don’t seem to have as much interest as the ‘Snaries’ to improve with our workshops.  That is only going on the last workshop where only 2 drummers registered for a beginner course on Bass and Tenor.   I am wondering why the interest has dropped.  I would love some feedback from those who have attended the last 2 workshops to try and understand the situation.  So if anyone has any idea (or perhaps I have ‘jumped to conclusions’ too early) I would be very interested in your thoughts.  I will report my findings on this news page for you to read.  Bass and Tenor Drummers are as much an important part to the pipe band ensemble as anyone else.  Without the voice of Bass and Tenor we would have a very hard sound to listen to!

So keep on the improvement guys and lets make the Scots that little more worried! ;-)

It will be held on Saturday the 15^th of November at the Akademie für Tonkunst in Darmstadt.  The course will be a triple event with 3 sub courses.  The courses are designed for:

• Grade 4 Snare Drummers with at least 1 year experience playing in a band
• Beginner Bass and Tenor drummers wishing to start drumming
• Grade 4 drummers who wish to revise their skills from the beginning
• Beginner Snare Drummers 

The aim of the workshop is to develop the Drum ensemble idea and experience at the grade 4 level.  You will have the opportunity to fully experience playing in a band ensemble with different ensemble feeling.  To achieve this, we will keep the groups smaller (max 7) to allow more focus on individual technique.  

After all the detailed work has been covered, all the grade 4 players will merge together as one complete drum corps to develop everyone’s ensemble feeling.

 Details :

• Date: Saturday November 15, 2003 
• Time: Start 10am, finish 15h30
• Location: Akademie fur Tonkunst, Darmstadt
• Teachers: Grade 4 Snare ~ Dean Hall 

                      Beginner Snare ~ Helge Johanssen

                      Bass/Tenor ~ Bert Anhalt

• Investment: 40 EUR
• Reserve your place quickly by email (see contact us page) or phone Dean Hall on 0170 664 6105

Anyone wishing to stay in Darmstadt overnight, we can book you in to the local Jugendherberge (Youth Hostel) cost there is approx 25 EUR per person per night sharing.

If you have any questions, please contact me on the contact number/email above.  Can I also ask you to please pass this on to drummers who could benefit from this workshop, thank you!

Last Saturday saw the second successful drumming workshop run in Germany.  A good turnout of 14 students participated, 6 experienced snare, 2 beginner snare, 5 beginner/novice tenors and 1 beginner bass.  The class sizes were optimal with a maximum of 6 in any group, which allowed good individual attention.  The course was run in Darmstadt with drummers from nearby Worms and from as far away as Düsseldorf/Köln, Stuttgart and München!

The experienced snare class studied time signatures, ensemble playing and technical development.  The right mix was achieved to give each student individual points to work on and a feeling of ensemble to go away with.

At the last moment, a beginner class for two drummers was created which went well.  They covered basic notation, score reading and roll work.

The beginner/novice bass and tenor class studied standard 4/4 time with various technical rhythms.  Different scores were played for the same 4/4 to give more opportunity to cover more rhythms.  These rhythms can now be used in other simple march time signature pieces.

The end of the course brought the experienced snare and beginner bass/tenor groups together to form the workshop drum ensemble.  We played the standard 4/4 massed band scores together to gain the insight to ensemble playing.  Ensemble fundamentals are very important at every level of playing.  Whether it is in grade 4 or 1, the basics are the same.  Playing together. This ensemble time was very beneficial to allow all drummers the possibility to experience the integration of playing as a complete drum corps.

There are some points, which need to be looked at by the organisers of Drumming Mad such as more time to be spent on ensemble playing.  The end of the course came at a quick conclusion so we had to pack up very quickly and thus not having the time to let the ensemble playing experience settle.  Perhaps a get together after the workshop to talk about our experiences could be the answer.  Also the time in actually playing together wasn’t long enough to gain full understanding of the experience.

Overall the reaction was very positive and everyone seemed to gain from the day.  The feedback was very good and now we plan to hold 2 more workshops in the next 2 months.  So now is the time to think about your own position in your drumming and consider the trip to Darmstadt.

If you have no instructor or you wish to gain another perspective, please come to our next drumming workshop.  See the Drumming Mad! Website under news.

Our aim is to provide good tuition at a reasonable price.  Good tuition involves good experienced instructors, good material, good facilities and the best possible opportunity to experience drumming in a pipe band ensemble.  That means the class sizes must be smaller than 7 drummers for good information exchange.  If there are more than 7 drummers, we will arrange more experienced instructors.

Finally thanks go to Bert Anhalt for his great teaching and making the location available, Helge Johanssen for his last minute assistance and expertise in teaching beginner snare, Monika Haemmelmann and Jenny Anhalt for their translation help and Karola Brinckmann of the BAG for advertising this event.

The next one-day drumming mad workshop has been finalised

It will be held on Saturday the 27^th of September at the Akademie für Tonkunst in Darmstadt.  The course will be a double event with 2 sub courses being:

• Grade 4 Snare Drummers with at least 1 year experience playing in a band
• Beginner Bass and Tenor drummers wishing to start drumming
• Grade 4 drummers who wish to revise their skills from the beginning

The aim of the workshop is to develop the Drum ensemble idea and experience at the grade 4 level.  You will have the opportunity to fully experience playing in a band ensemble with different ensemble feeling.  To achieve this, we will keep the groups smaller (max 7) to allow more focus on individual technique.  After the detailed work has been covered, the course then has the possibility to merge as one complete drum corps near the end of the day to develop everyone’s ensemble feeling.

 Details :

• Date: Saturday September 27, 2003 
• Time: Start 10am, finish 15h30
• Location: Akademie fur Tonkunst, Darmstadt
• Teachers: Snare ~ Dean Hall 

               Bass/Tenor ~ Bert Anhalt

• Investment: 40 EUR
• Reserve your place quickly by email (see contact us page) or phone Dean Hall on 0170 664 6105

Anyone wishing to stay in Darmstadt overnight, we can book you in to the local Jugendherberge (Youth Hostel) cost there is approx 25 EUR per person per night sharing.

If you have any questions, please contact me on the contact number/email below and please pass this on to drummers that you know would be interested in this workshop, thank you.

7 participants attended, 6 tenors and one bass, and all were shown new ways of musical expression on the tenor and bass.  The levels were varied between intermediate and beginner but that didn’t prevent the flow of the course.  Neil Lyons, 10 times world champion, began the clinic by “bringing everything back to basics” – This involved simple beat exercises followed by basic flourishes.  New flourish moves were taught and players had the opportunity to improve their own technique.

The more experienced players were taken through further flourish work – “I have taught many new moves and some of their own flourishes we worked on which may have needed correcting to incorporate the flow of the tune.”

Neil gave specific instruction to each of the players for their personal development. “This is very important when players return home to their own practice and wish to work on a particular point of their performance” explained Neil.  

At some points of the course, it was difficult for Neil to address the whole group all of the time due to the range of player caliber present.  For instance, the bass and tenors have a slightly different path to follow and therefore one group would be waiting, so there is room for course improvement here.  On the whole, the feedback at the end of the course was very positive and all participants expressed an interest to attend the next event.

The clinic was run by Drumming Mad with close assistance by Bert Anhalt.  We would like to thank those who participated in this event and wish all drummers the best on their drumming journey.  There is a huge gap in the level and awareness of the potential of the ‘Middle Section’ here in Germany, so we intend to help bring German ‘Bass Sections’ up into the correct position within the pipe band ensemble with the aid of these workshops.

We asked Neil what he thought of the standard of the drummers present at the course he had this positive reply  “You have some very enthusiastic players here in Germany, I look forward to seeing their certain improvement in the future.”  And on the clinic  “Overall the clinic went off very well. You could tell by the red hands at the end that a lot of work had been put in!” laughs Neil.

Plans are to run another course in October or November.  It will take the shape of a Bass and Tenor clinic again so keep your eyes on the Drumming Mad website for news on Bass, Tenor and Snare drumming events.  If you are interested in updates via email, please send an email to us and we will add you to the updates list!