Summer songwriting course:

​Learn how to write songs and how to arrange music. Small class course (4 to 8 participants) 22nd-26th of July 2019, 10am - 1pm
​Price: £120. Call 020 3417 5793 or email to book today!
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Course aim:​
To produce an E.P.’s worth of original songs (1 song per student). Each student will write lyrics, melodies and rhythms using professional equipment and instruments (including keyboards, guitars, percussion, and more). Students will also consider the arrangement of the song in relation to brand and band identity. Students will evaluate the work of their peers in a positive and supportive atmosphere.

Folks Camps has been providing holidays in beautiful countryside, with friendly people, folk music, dance, song and camping for over 50 years. The camps are centred around a large traditional marquee or a village hall and volunteers organise workshops, day-time activities and evening entertainment.  At the week-long summer camps different teams of campers prepare food each day and everyone eats communally. There’s plenty of time to visit the beach, take a boat trip or visit tourist attractions. Campers bring their own tent, campervan or caravan.

Alain Maurel, the co-founder of Planet Drum visited our camp in the Gower last summer and had this to say:  “Folk Camps residential events are a great place to meet terrific people of all ages and backgrounds and for making great music, as well as dancing and singing. The music teachers are all highly professional and will really motivate you.Give it a try, you won't regret it"

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Workshops and Summer performance!
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The summer performance is right around the corner (27th of June, juniors & 28th of June, adults) so make sure you come down to the workshops this month! Email bookings@drumad.com to book.

• 9th of May - Band workshop, 6 pm juniors, 7 pm adults
• 9th of May - Drumkit and percussion workshop, 8 pm
• 16th of May - Improvisation workshop, 6 pm juniors, 7 pm adults
• 23rd of May - Band workshop, 6 pm juniors, 7 pm adults.
• 23rd of May - Drumkit and percussion workshop, 8 pm

from a new strand they’ve recently launched called ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’. It’s all about giving arts practitioners time to explore one particular area in-depth. I proposed that I would embark on a year-long project composing new music for four different sized ensembles. The outcome would be four sets of music accompanied by four separate day-long workshop sessions with the musicians, which I would record as a document. Each ensemble would be a different size to the band I’m used to composing for: my quintet, Entropi. So I decided that I would write for a duo, quartet, sextet and dectet. 

 I thought I would be doing project planning for the year, contacting musicians, booking rehearsal rooms and sitting down to compose music for one of these four ensembles. A very organised and logical approach. This is not what happened. In this blog post, I’ll outline what I’ve learnt so far in the hope that it might inspire you to think about how you approach your music-making, composing and improvising.

Up till now, my composing has been ‘on demand’ for a very specific reason. Normally it’s a gig with my band where we need an extra two tunes to have enough original material for the whole gig, or I need to write one more composition for a recording. The process has often been quite stressful and close to the wire. I’d find myself up late trying to finish a tune off for a rehearsal the next day with my band. Fear played a great part in getting the thing done and I didn’t find the process very enjoyable.

so I forced myself to find another way to go about writing music. This has been quite unexpected. A book came into my hands called ‘Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear’, by Elizabeth Gilbert, which talked about nurturing and unblocking creativity. While reading the book I realised that I was quite creatively blocked when it came to composing. You know when you are blocked when you avoid doing the thing - whatever that is, writing a novel, painting or in my case composing and then make up a load of excuses in your mind about why you can’t do it. I realised that I hadn’t really seriously addressed the practice of composition. Often when I did sit down to write, I’d have an inner critical voice saying: ‘what is this piece of rubbish?’ This is no way to get into the zone and be creative!

Improvisers compose in real time all the time. As an alto sax player who is extremely into free improvisation and jazz, I normally have no problem coming up with ideas and essentially making stuff up on the spot. This is just because I have done it a lot, so it feels comfortable for me to do so. A large part of improvising in any kind of music is interaction with the other band members, listening, reacting, developing ideas all in the moment. To be able to do that you need to be far away from the critical mind and right in the flow of ideas. I wanted to be able to recreate this feeling while composing new music.

 Elizabeth Gilbert talks finding our creativity by following what makes us curious. I realised that I wanted to do some visual art. So I proceeded to spend an hour a day doing A5 sized pieces of colourful abstract art. The rules were: do it everyday and be non-judgmental about the outcome. In other words value the process and not the result. This was hugely beneficial for me: because I am not trained in art, I had no real value judgements on my choices of colour, shape or line. I just did it every day for a month. Over the weeks, I started to notice that this art activity was having a positive effect on the way I was improvising on the saxophone. I was applying the freedom I was experiencing on the blank canvas to music. 

As musicians, we spend a lot of time learning and practicing technique. Obviously this is very important, but I feel that we can sometimes forget to engage with the side of music which is artistic. As musicians we are all creative artists, but do we always feel like that? Expressing ourselves through music is probably the reason why we all started playing in the first place. This must be something to nurture as much as achieving technical prowess on the instrument, I think.

using the same system: one hour a day and no judging what ideas come out. It is much harder to ignore the critical mind when shifting the creative process to something we HAVE trained in. But I had developed a non-judgmental muscle through doing the artwork the previous month. When starting a piece of visual art, it was very unhelpful to question ‘why did you use that colour?’ so using that same principle I trained myself to stop questioning every single choice of chord, melody note, bassline, theme and just let the music unfold - much like improvising. Over time, ideas started to flow more freely when I stopped putting so much pressure on myself. I shifted the focus away from outcome towards process. In the month of January I have composed 16 musical ‘sketches’.

My website is: deebyrnemusic.com if you are interested in what projects I’m involved with and where I might be playing next. Thanks for reading this and I hope to share some of these compositions with you in the future!


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Blog post by our Saxophone teacher, Dee Byrne.

So here we are, Christmas is just around the corner and the Planet Drum family is coming together for our Winter Show on Friday 7th starting at 6 pm.

This year, for a change we’ll be kicking off with the percussion workshop performance followed by the junior performances at 6.30 pm then the adult performances at 7.30 pm.
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The final rehearsals for these will be held on:
Tuesday 4th 8 pm – Percussion Workshop
Thursday 6th 6 pm – Junior Band Workshop
Thursday 6th 7 pm – Adult Band Workshop
Thursday 20th 6 pm - Junior Improvisation Workshop
Thursday 20th 7 pm - Adult Improvisation Workshop

​Please contact the school to book your places for any of these if you haven’t already done so.

Finally I would like to say well done to everyone for the progress made this year and wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Best wishes for 2019!

Newsletter by Planet drum teacher, Louis.

​We all like crazy syncopated patterns, intense solos and intricate rhythms. All that noise can sound cool, but we often forget about the power of simplicity in music. Some of the greatest songs ever recorded have been done with two verses, a chorus and most of the time with a single rhythm looped for the entire duration of the song.

​The first one, is that I spent the whole summer gigging almost every day with instrumental jazz gigs with various acts, electronic rock/pop (http://www.fjokra.com) and last-minute function gigs. The differences of “vocabulary”, sound, repertoire and approach are quite challenging and very often there’s no time to prepare or rehearse the set list.

​There is always a good solution for this kind of situation, it is simplicity. Keeping the rhythmic section clear, minimal and most of all musical helps the music breath more and sound better ( and eventually get more bookings).

I’m not saying that technique and other more academic studies are not important. Indeed, every kind of music requires a specific standard knowledge; what I’m saying is: do not confuse practicing with playing when you're making music with a band. In other words, while you are playing, focus on the “now’ and do your best with the skills you have acquired up until now.
 
Of course, I like watching skilled drummers showing off brilliantly executed chops and taking inspiration from them. But don’t forget that what you really need to do is to play for the song, this is what drumming and making music is about..
 
As Miles Davis used to say “I always listen to what I can leave out”

Blog post by Planet drum teacher, Filippo. 

First things first... We are now offering trumpet lessons with our new trumpet teacher Henry Lawry! Learn the secrets, tricks and tips of pro trumpeters designed to help you succeed.
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Check out our blog on last months masterclass by Ringo Starr's drum collector and historian, Gary Astridge.

This month we are introducing and hosting a brand new improvisation workshop for all instruments. Improvisation is a performance that is not practised or planned, in particular, it is a piece of music that is created spontaneously. In this new workshop we are putting these skills into practice by playing alongside one another and cultivating new ideas as we go! Improvisation is at the heart of great musicianship.

This is a great chance for students of all abilities to Jam and learn the art of improvisation. It is a lot of fun and we encourage students to bring their own ideas to the table...

Hope you all had a fabulous summertime home or abroad, wherever that is for you. With the festival season coming to an end and the temperature taking on a somewhat autumnal feel it definitely feels like ‘back to school’ time.

Here at Planet Drum we’ve already got one eye on the Winter Show so encouraging everyone to get involved and start preparing your performance piece for the Band Workshops. This month they will be happening on Monday 17th at 8pm (adults), Thursday 27th 6pm (kids) and 7pm (adults).

facilitated by Alain and Katy which is aimed at helping you to develop your musicality and musicianship so well worth a look into! This will take place on Monday 10th at 5pm (kids), and 6pm (adults). Please contact the office early to reserve your place for either of these.

The percussion workshop is also on Thursday 27th at 8pm. As always, the more the merrier so don’t worry if you haven’t booked a place, you are welcome to come anyway.
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Following last month’s newsletter, a quick update on my band Afrik Bawantu and the garden.Ok, without meaning to blow any trumpets, we smashed it at the festivals!

with tons of courgettes and cucumbers, tomatoes taking longer to ripen. Apparently some others had the same problem due to the weather so I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. It’s all about trial and error. On both counts I’m already preparing and hopefully improving next year. 

Anyone who would like to see us play is more than welcome to come to The Jazz Cafe in Camden on Tuesday 25th September. The event is called Afla Sackey and Afrik Bawantu present – Ghana’s Highlife Groove, tickets available here.

We’ll be performing a range of classic old-school highlife tunes along with a few of our original compositions. We’re going to take the roof off so would be great to see you there, if you can make it. That’s all for now folks, look forward to seeing you around. All the best for the coming season!

Newsletter by Planet drum teacher Louis.

​Think you know a lot about legendary Beatles drummer ‘Ringo Starr’? Well think again.

Planet drum had the absolute pleasure of meeting Gary Astridge; ultimate Ringo fan, collector and drum historian. As well as being such a warm and friendly person, Astridge shared his Beatle knowledge and marvellous stories about working alongside Ringo himself.

because of your research, I've learned things that I didn't know, and you brought back fond memories of things that I had forgotten." - Ringo Starr

Some of Gary’s achievements include having the distinct honor and privilege of handling and documenting two of Ringo's Beatles drum sets and his Ludwig gold plated snare drum at the Grammy Museum in LA. This also includes being the first person since Mal Evans, the Beatles roadie, to set up Ringo's Sullivan and Let It Be drum sets.

Gary has been involved in numerous other projects. He can say that he has now documented all  five of Ringo's Ludwig Beatles drum sets and his custom Ludwig Silver Sparkle kit used on the Hello Goodbye promo film. All five Ludwig Beatles drum sets are complete with no missing items.

​With the blessing of Ringo himself,  Gary and his friends Jeff and  Scotty (Ringo's roadies), have successfully implemented Gary's plan to photograph, document, organise, preserve and securely store these iconic kits for history and their hopeful future placement in a museum.

Gary Astridge was involved as technical adviser in the "World's Great Drummers Salute Ringo Starr" documentary featuring Dave Grohl, Tre Cool, Abe Laboriel Jr, Max Weinberg, Questlove, Jim Keltner, Stewart Copeland, Chad Smith, and Taylor Hawkins. 

Gary Astridge for sharing his stories and knowledge with our Planet drum students and wish him well as he travels to International Beatle week in Liverpool!
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“I really enjoyed my time with you and thanks so much for your hospitality. I surely will be spreading the word about Planet Drum & the great people that make it work” - Gary Astridge 2018

*Photos copyright of Gary Astridge

Post by Planet drum teacher Hernan Palazzo

As 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. 

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.

​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. 

"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.  

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

Check out Bedlam Motel on Fb.