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Blog

Who is Viola Smith?

29/10/2020

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I have only recently learned her name

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.
Viola smith

In the same year

as 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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It is never too late to do your Trinity music grades

26/10/2020

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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

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Getting comfortable with playing on unfamiliar drum kits

19/10/2020

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I’ve been playing the drums for 13 years now

And 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.
female drummer

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
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Discover the world's oldest instrument: our voice

12/10/2020

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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.
singing lessons london

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 if 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
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Why learn the bass guitar?

5/10/2020

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Ever wondered what the role of the bass guitar is in a musical group

The 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.  
bass lessons in london

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.
bass lessons in london

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.
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