I have only recently learned her namedue 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. In the same yearas men were being drafted to war and women taking their place in factories, Viola wrote a now-famous article for Down Beat magazine, arguing for the inclusion of women in the big bands of the day. She wrote:
“Many of the star instrumentalists of the big name bands are being drafted. Instead of replacing them with what may be mediocre talent, why not let some of the great girl musicians of the country take their places? “We girls have as much stamina as men. There are many girl trumpet players, girl saxophonists and girl drummers who can stand the grind of long tours and exacting one-night stands. The girls of today are not the helpless creatures of an earlier generation. “Some girl musicians who are as much the masters of their instruments as are male musicians. They can improvise; their solos are well-defined and thought-provoking and show unlimited imagination”. At the height of her success, Viola performed with Ella Fitzgerald and Chick Webb, as well as for the 33rd president, Harry Truman in 1949. Today in 2020, the drumming industry is still very male dominated, with very few female drummers pursuing it as a full time job. I feel it is important to read about these female pioneers and continue to play in their honour. Let’s keep drumming girls!
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I played drums for over 10 years before I decided to actually do my grades.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. Music grades are great because they force you to learn different styles and techniques.Once you’ve discovered genres you’ve never even heard of before, you’ll find ways of being so much more creative when it comes to making your own music.
Not only this, but it gives you a goal to work towards and you get a big sense of achievement when you get your grade certificate. I whole-heartedly recommend it to any musician, regardless of how long they’ve been playing. Planet drum student Laura Barnes I’ve been playing the drums for 13 years nowAnd for a very large portion of that time, I would always practice on my own drum kit. Everything was set up exactly how I liked it and I’d know if a single drum or cymbal had shifted a millimetre. When I first got the drumming bug, I convinced my dad to build an extra shed in the garden and made it my musical home. I playing on the same drum kit, set up in exactly the same way for a good few years before I even thought about doing a gig. When I finally started practicing with a band, we had a rehearsal place that a family member had built. Eventually, I moved my drum kit in, and with few other people using the place, I was still able to fulfil my slightly OCD tendencies of having everything exactly how I wanted it. When the time came to start gigging,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 We often don’t realise that our voice is an instrument we all possess.The ability to sing is embedded in all of us, waiting for the right opportunity and occasion to manifest itself. Thus, singing isn’t just for the exceptional few who are clearly gifted and can turn their gift into a profession but rather it’s for everyone. We all sing in our daily lives, either privately or publicly. So many social occasions give us the opportunity to sing: birthdays, parties, concerts, sports events. Singing is a human activity; the voice was the first instrument humans used to communicate and to express their inner self and emotions. It really goes without saying that the human voice is the oldest and most precious instrument in the world. Although singing comes natural to most people it’s not an easy thing to do.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, you love to sing and wished you could do so with more confidence.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 Ever wondered what the role of the bass guitar is in a musical groupThe bass guitar, with its lower tuning and supporting rhythmic role, stands in the background and rarely takes center stage, like for example the lead guitar or the vocals. The bass allows little space for showing off or improvised soloing. It's an easily observable fact that the bass players usually don’t upstage anyone; they’re all about making the whole tune better, blending in so that the music itself stands out. You could possibly say that playing the bass is an exercise in self control and in understatement, during which the ego subsides to give more space to the collective mission of making good music. Music always comes first with the bass so, perhaps, it's valuable for every musician to learn the basics of bass guitar. The bass performs two basic and important functions:it provides the rhythmic and the harmonic foundations of the music, in this way really underlying and enriching the groove and the feel of a song. With our bass lessons you will learn how to master this fundamental instrument and grasp its potential in music making. Bass is an inspiring instrument that provides the steady pulse and feeling of the music making it the backbone of every group or composition. The often discreet presence of bassists at the back of the stage shouldn't really put you off, as without them the music we are listening to would just be unbelievably poor. The bassist contributes greatly to the rhythm and harmony of the music, having a fundamental impact on how songs not only sound, but most importantly, feel.You can notice this yourselves when listening to music. If you individuate and pay attention on how the bass sounds, you will realize that it has a direct impact on how we receive the music; on how our body accepts and responds to the lower frequencies, the delay or speed in the movement of chords. How expressive or restrained a bassist is, has a direct influence on the emotion of the music.
Even if your focus is on a different instrument, you can only benefit from learning to play the bass. Start taking bass lessons and practicing today, and begin this personal journey of discovering the inner workings of music and live playing. Everything changed on my birthday a few years agoAs a surprise for my birthday, my other half (a tall handsome Irish bloke) led me on a mystery tour ending at the Scar Studios in Camden, the one time home of Planet drum. He had arranged for a few drumming lessons for my birthday. There to greet us was Alain. Becoming a drummer, has been an enjoyable journey but not an easy one. I am not being humble when I say that I am not a ‘natural’… far from it … but I stuck with it and, as they say, persistence is stronger that failure. The love for drumming has never faded, in fact it continues to grow stronger.It took me a while to pluck up the courage to throw myself under the bus in search of a band. I was fearful of replying to adverts looking for a drummer. I had that constant terror that I wouldn’t be good enough, that I was somehow a fake and would be found out… “Call yourself a Drummer!” Having a demanding full time job, a family and that Irish guy I mentioned! didn’t make it easy to fit drumming into my life but I guess when you love something you magically just make time. I am currently a happy member of the noise pop outfit called Bedlam Motel.We are constantly busy with emails, rehearsal times, gigs, carrying stuff, uploading recordings, reschedules, bookings, updating Facebook pages and endless debate about the name of our band. To some this may be a chore but to me it's all worth it. After a long hard day of work, the tiredness of dragging yourself, and in some cases your kit, to rehearsals or a gig may seem a chore but any misgivings soon disappear within minutes of immersing ourselves into the glorious racket we create. Rehearsals nowadays usually consists of a good old crazy jam"About 15 minutes before the end we will do a rendition of one of our “old classics”. Songs are created out of these jams which we record and pour over and dissect over the following few days until next rehearsal when we might be ready to stitch it into something… or not!
I look forward to my commute the morning after a rehearsal, where I can re-live the evening (including chats and comments but also all the mistakes and "bad beats"). Sometimes, it all comes together when I am about to reach the office entrance and then I have to walk once around the block to get a couple more minutes of joy before grown up life begins. We'd like to record and album but this takes time. There should be a couple of songs printed on tape this year.It still brings a smile to my face when I arrive at a rehearsal studio or a gig, or by simply walking in the street with the guys carrying guitars, and I think, I am not with the Band, I am IN the Band. Aurea Garrido Planet drum student Hi my name is Henry LawryI’m excited to be starting a new chapter of my life, teaching trumpet at the fantastic Planet Drum school. From walking through the doors of Planet Drum for the first time I could sense it was a place full of creativity and hard work. Everyone I’ve met so far has been enthusiastic and passionate about their work so I’m looking forward to joining the team soon! A bit about my backgroundI’ve been playing in bands in London since I was 16 years old. This summer has been a busy time playing festivals across the UK with Afrobeat guru Dele Sosimi and the Ghanaian percussionist extraordinaire Afla Sackey to whom our very own Louis Pocock is the drummer for. Most recently we’ve been touring the Chai Wallahs stages at Kendal Calling, Greenman and Shambala Festival. Its truly been a wonderful experience meeting so many amazing people who make it all possible. Anyway, enough about me! What can you expect from learning the trumpet?First of all, I always try to make music fun! Learning an instrument doesn’t have to be boring, we can tailor fit your lessons to what YOU want to do. Of course, the first few months of learning anything new can be tricky but with perseverance and dedication you’ll get there! We can cover a wide range of styles from Classical to Jazz, Rock to Pop whichever path you want to take we can work together to achieve it. The trumpet is one of the most physical instruments there is out there, but don’t let that put you off! It’s also the most rewarding too! If you’re a complete beginner we will work firstly on strengthening your embouchure to meet the physical demands required for playing the trumpet, once you’ve achieved that you will find playing a lot easier. So if you're reading thisand you’re thinking, ‘I’ve always fancied playing a brass instrument’ why not give it a go. Maybe you’re a drummer learning at the school but want to try out a melodic instrument as well or you’ve been inspired recently from listening to someone play the trumpet.
Get in touch with us and try out a taster lesson, you won’t regret it! Now you've got drums you'll need to learn to tune them!Drum set tuning is the process of tensioning drumheads on a drum to produce a pleasing drum tone. A drummer tunes the drums using a drum key, a small, square socket-wrench that fits over the tension rods. Drum tuning styles and techniques vary between different drums, music genres and the preferences of drummers. In addition to tuning drums, drummers often treat drums with muffling material to alter the drum sound. Tom TomsTuning toms is the act of ensuring that the tensions on the individual batter and resonant heads on each drum are consistent and deliver a clear tone and the heads deliver the desired fundamental pitch when struck. The relationships between the batter head and resonant head provide a sound character suitable for your intended use; and that the relationships between individual drums and the overall drumset provide a logical and pleasant sounding combination. When tuning a drum, know that the top (batter) head controls attack and ring, while the bottom head controls resonance, sustain, overtones, and timbre. Snare drumThe thin, sensitive bottom (resonant) head is generally tuned looser than the batter head. The resonant head tensioning is adjusted to allow the snares to sit into the snare beds; and treatment or muffling may be applied to the drum head to control overtones. Bass drumThe resonant (front) head is usually looser than the batter head and is mainly responsible for the fundamental, audible tone of the drum;
The resonant head can have a small (approx 6") offset hole to allow for air pressure escape and for the insertion of a microphone; Some drummers use some kind of treatment inside the drum (such as a pillow, towel, etc.) or one of the many head variations and appliqués to control overtones, this could be that a drummer fills up his kick drum with materials to absorb the sound, or that the batter head has a ring of foam on it or perhaps a kick pad placed on the batter head. It’s all too easy to get bogged down in music theory and lesson material when you’re doing your grades.And when you’ve managed to somehow successfully make it through one grade, you start work on the next one only to find it all gets even harder, more complex and in time signatures you never knew were possible. At times you wonder how you’re ever going to fit all this new information in your head, and when your limbs will be able to naturally jump into action to play these complex rhythms without having to “think about it” for ten minutes. Every drummer has their own way of learning.Some like to be very rigid with their practice sessions, some are determine to play the same rudiment over and over for an hour until it becomes muscle memory, and others find short bursts of multiple exercises work best. Whatever way you prefer, I’m sure you’ve had a moment here are there where you’ve hit a wall and felt like you’ll never be able to play the piece of music sitting in front of you well enough to pass your grade. I’ve had it plenty of times, and I’ve come to accept that I probably always will. But I’ve recently found that the best way I can help myself get past that barrier is to take a little time out to just have fun. You’re playing the drums because you want to.You decided to have lessons because you enjoy playing the instrument – that's what I remind myself of.
There are many moments I can think back to where I sat down at a kit and just had an amazing time playing. But sometimes, when you’re too focused on learning, you forget to spend time just enjoying the act of drumming. It sounds incredibly obvious, but in between work, home life and your lessons, it can sometimes be far too easy to slip into the habit of only finding time for drumming when you’re practicing for your grades or your next lesson. Personally, I stick on a couple of my favourite tracks from when I first started playing the drums and pretend I’m 17 again! Laura Barnes Editor at MI Pro, online platform dedicated to the music industry Planet drum student 2400 times!What are the musical commonalities between famous artists such as Skrillex, The Prodigy, Jay-Z, Slipknot, Bjork, Oasis, Amy Winehouse and Duran Duran? The answer is rhythmAll of these artists have at one point used a specific rhythm pattern that is so identifiable you would recognise it even if you have never heard the original title song. At just 6 seconds long it is the most sampled rhythm in the history of drums. The Winstons, below, were an American funk and soul band who were not very well known, (their drummer G.C. Coleman even more so) and they released a song in 1960 titled ‘Amen Brother’, listen below! Little did they know that a sample derived from the drum solo in this track would become the ‘Amen Break’ - the most sampled rhythm in the history of drums. The Amen Break is a loop of 4 bars that was popularised by the drum sample album ‘Ultimate Break and Beats’ released in 1986 for the DJ population. Since the sample was created it has become a prominent feature in mainstream music, featuring in a host of famous songs such as; Oasis - ‘D’You Know What I Mean?’, Nine Inch Nails - ‘The Perfect Drug’, Slipknot - ‘Eyeless’ and Björk - ‘Crystalline’. The concept of sampling: where did it come from?It was in the 70’s when the concept of using a ‘sample’ was brought about. Musically speaking, sampling is the process of taking a portion of a sound recording and reusing it on a separate piece of music. More often than not, this is done through a ‘rhythm break’ whereby a small section is sampled from one piece of music to form the beat on another track. It is through the sampling method that a piece of music can transform from average to being equipped with a catchy and memorable rhythm, making it hard to forget! So as a result of this, DJ’s, musicians and artists like Skrillex and Jay-Z are continually in search of a melody ostinato/lick or drum pattern, that has the ability to resound in your mind long after it has been heard, leaving the taste of desire to hear it again… which is how the ‘Amen Break’ became one of the most extensively used rhythm across all genres of music. Unfortunately, The Winstons never received any royalties for their original creation. However, in 2015 a DJ from the UK created a ‘GoFundMe’ page in the name of Richard Spencer, the singer and saxophonist from the band, to acknowledge and give appreciation to the ‘Amen Break’, whereby 2,000 people have donated $24,000!! More about the ‘Amen Break’It is a groove of 4 bars, originally played at 136 bpm, composed of 2 sequences. 1st Sequence: The main groove is played twice; 8th notes played on ride, snare accents on backbeats, 16th notes played by the bass drum on the “and” of the 3rd beat and 3 ghosts notes per bar. 2nd Sequence: It is a variation of the first one. The 16th notes have moved to the 2nd bar on the ''and'' of the first beat, the 2nd snare accent originally on the back beat has moved to the ''and'' of the 4th and in the second bar we can notice a tasty punctuation change on the off beat of the 3rd beat, which can be played on the crash or the edge of the ride. Blog post by Planet drum teacher, Sebastien Solsona
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