Drumming Mad 3
Hannover
December 9 & 10, 2006
Last weekend saw 19 keen drummers hit the northern city of Hannover. It was to be a great workshop working on Grade 4 Simple Time March material and that it was. 12 Snare, 2 Bass and 5 Tenors started on Saturday Morning at 10am in the "Power house" of Hannover City. Some of the participants travelled from Holland and express travel back from Moscow to make it to the 3rd workshop this year. We worked through both days going through the various rudiments and phrases that give us the ability to play simple time marches.
click each picture to see enlarged
As with all Drumming Mad courses, we focus more on rudiments and phrases than actual scores. This gives the player better "tools" and opportunity to work on their own scores after the workshop has concluded and everyone returns to their own material. We finished the first day's session with a round on the drums playing all the standards and the Beginner Drum Salute with great enthusiasm.
The father of two of our participants came to pick up his kids 2 hours early. The best part is that it was Pipe Major Ian Ashford of the Alba Pipe Band, and he gave a spontaneous lecture on 2/4 and 4/4 timing. The drummers were very fortunate! Then we went onto the drums and played some standards with P/M Ashford on the electronic pipes.
So then it was off to the local Irish Pub for dinner and a couple of well earned "cups of tea". Ian Ashford came along and piped and so the 2 drumming teachers couldn't resist but join him for a few tunes themselves. We played some Jigs, Hornpipes and Marches which were well received by the locals who clapped along. But it had to be an early night as we were due back at 9am the next morning.
Following a good night sleep, the batteries were energised and we hit those great rudiments and flourishes. A good morning's work, and after lunch we were back on the drums playing through the standards together and working on accenting. We played the scores a bit slower to allow everyone to come into the technique of the rudiments and then brought the tempo up to a more normal 86 beats per minute.
The workshop ran very smoothly thanks to the organisational skills of Christian Pitzschke of the local Owl Town Pipe Band of Peine, thank you once again Christian for your help!
<= Christian
I am very happy that the course ran well to time and everyone learned and experienced new drumming expression in many time signatures.
Well done to all participants who competed the course and I look forward to seeing you at another Drumming Mad Workshop in 2007!!
Dean J Hall, Drumming Mad Workshops 2006
