due to her recent passing, but I was instantly inspired and curious to learn more about her. As it turns out, she was pretty epic. In a male dominated industry (and world), she was quickly promoted as the ‘fastest girl drummer in the world’ in the 1930’s, alongside blazing a path for women in music. Viola played a giant drum set that included a double bass drum, an instrument that would years later become a tool for hard-hitting rock drummers.

Where did it all start?

​Viola smith took up drumming as a teenager in Wisconsin, when her father assembled the ‘Schmitz sisters family orchestra’ (there were 8 daughters)! Their band played in theatres during school holidays and Viola took lessons from drummers in the orchestra pits. They were soon in demand for weddings and fairs. By 1938, she formed another all-female orchestra - The Croquettes. They moved to New York in 1942, where Viola studied under legendary snare drum innovator Billy Gladstone.

I always loved music and messing about on instruments when I was a kid, but never found that one thing that I just became obsessed with until I sat down at a drum kit during a lunch break at school.

A bunch of my friends played guitar and bass and while I was hanging out with them, the only seat free was the drum stool.They were messing about with some Chilli Peppers tunes and I picked up some sticks and decided to join in. Straight away I knew there was something special about this drumming malarkey.

After swiftly being told off by the music teacher for using what turned out to be expensive beaters instead of cheap drum sticks, I started work on convincing my parents to get me a drum kit for Christmas.

I taught myself. I convinced friends of learn instruments so I would have someone to play with. I ended up forming a band and playing gigs for years around London. We all got a bit older and I became a little lazy.
 
I was so far into my comfort zone that I didn’t even consider pushing myself any further. This was it. This is how I drum and this is the limit of my abilities.
Then I went to a theatre showfor the first time since I was a kid. I saw The Book Of Mormon and it was amazing. The music and the musicians were just incredible.
 
After the show I couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment with myself. I’m not saying I now want to work in theatre, but I realised there was still so much to learn. Why had I just stopped?
 
My partner convinced me to get in touch with Planet drum and think about doing my grades. A year and bit later and I am studying for grade 7 and learning so much.

I realised something very important: drummers need to learn to be comfortable playing on unfamiliar drum kits.
 
You can’t always take your own kit with you, especially when you’ve just started out and you’re playing support slots in dingy London bars.
 
Other people’s bass pedals are weird. Tall drummers have incredibly low seats. Some long-armed musicians have cymbal stands locked in place at a higher altitude than Mount Everest.
 
Before a gig, I would get really, really nervous. Not so much about getting on stage and playing in front of people, but nervous about what the equipment is going to be like.
I quickly learnt that you’ve just gotta suck it up and get on with it.There was one time where there were not enough stands for the amount of cymbals I use. I only had one crash where I would usually have two. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but because some of the songs were so engrained in my muscle memory, I tried to hit a non-existent cymbal on a few occasions during that gig!
 
I learnt to get over the fear of the unfamiliar drum kit by making myself play the same drum beats to my band’s songs on different parts of the kit. I would play the song using less cymbals and think about the pattern of drum fills rather than the actual drums that were being hit. That way I knew if all else failed, I could play them just on the snare and not put any other band members off.
 
Once I let go of having my cymbals in a certain place, and putting up with it if my seat was an inch lower than I usually had it, I realised I could get through any gig regardless.

Laura Barnes 
PD Student

Like all instruments, the voice needs practice and proper training to shine through. If we want to push our singing ability to its maximum potential, and beyond, probably discovering sides of it that weren’t obvious initially, we must work on it, and work hard. 

I believe all musicians agree that, although musicality is to a certain extent inherent in people, it takes a lot of work and practice to master all instruments and to achieve good musicianship. And singing is no exception to that. This how singing lessons with an expert singing teacher can really help unlock our singing talents. 

So, if you love to sing and wished you could do so with more confidence, or if you wondered how to stay on pitch and carry a tune with more ease, a trained singing teacher can show you the ways to develop your voice. Through proper exercises and techniques, the voice range can be expanded, and the sound of the voice can be altered and improved. Most importantly once you realise the gradual progress in your abilities you will have a new-found confidence in your singing, and that really makes the difference when it comes to artful singing with an Impact.

Maria Christodoulou