Drum Teachers Blog
Elliot says:
 
"From the skills that I have built up through studying, teaching, recording and playing professionally around the world, it has been my dream and goal to be able to engineer and record drums from my own purpose built studio. 
 
Fast forward to the present, I am now able to offer both remote drum recording or MIDI drum sessions using the highest possible gear. This may be for just one song, your album or an EP. Similarly, if you are an artist and need other instrumentation, several of my professional touring / session musician friends are only a phone call away. 
 
The studio has been designed by two giants in their profession. The first is Andy Allen, who owned both Cave Studios and designed and built the Coach House Studios in Clifton, Bristol. The later was made famous by the debut albums of Massive Attack and Portishead. Similarly, Andy also became the director of the famous Christchurch Studios Clifton, in Bristol. The studio was previously owned by the BBC and was rebuilt by Andy over a period of four years."
 
Mick Perry is director at Low Profile Productions Ltd. Here are just some of his headline credits as Technical Director:
 
MTV Europe Music Awards - 1994,95,96,97,98,06
MTV Asia Music Awards - 2003,04,05,06 (Co - Producer)
MTV Russia Music Awards - 2005 
Pepsi Dance Connection - 1996
Pepsi Chart Show - Initial tv
Robbie Williams, Bryan Adams, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, U2, all live at Slane Castle 
Madonna at Brixton Academy
Bruce Springsteen in Barcelona
Alicia Keys in Cape Town
and many more working for MTV Europe, MTV International, Done & Dusted, Splinter Films, Dreamchaser Productions, Granada and many others.
 
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"The new Slowly Rolling Camera album ‘Juniper’ is out July 2018. The drums were engineered and recorded by myself at EB Studios. 
All music by Dave Stapleton 
Produced by Slowly Rolling Camera 
 
Juniper is the emphatic and uplifting third album from Cardiff based Slowly Rolling Camera and their strongest and most impactful statement yet. Masterminded by Edition label boss Dave Stapleton, producer Deri Roberts and drummer Elliot Bennett, Juniper fuses expansive jazz grooves with rich cinematic soundscapes marking the beginning of a new era for the group, anchoring new instrumental roots whilst bringing together a dynamic instrumental team of ex-Cinematic Orchestra guitarist Stuart McCallum, bassist Aidan Thorne and Belgian saxophonist Nicolas Kummert. With Juniper the band have returned to the original vision of their instrumental roots and the result is vibrant, bold and excitingly fresh. 
 
The new music sustains their lush aural trajectory, evoking comparisons with the Cinematic Orchestra, blending strong melodies, big grooves and surprising turns of phrase, instilled with an expansive emotional gravitas. Colliding worlds of jazz, trip-hop and cinematic soundscapes, this music is a rich culmination of 15 years of friendship and making music together."
 
Releases July 6, 2018 
 
Credits: 
  • DAVE STAPLETON keyboards 
  • DERI ROBERTS electronics 
  • ELLIOT BENNETT drums 
  • STUART McCALLUM guitar 
  • NEIL YATES trumpet 
  • NICOLAS KUMMERT saxophones 
  • MARK LOCKHEART saxophones 
  • AIDAN THORNE double bass 
Recorded by Slowly Rolling Camera 
Mixed by Deri Roberts and Andy Allan
——————————————
 
Microphones:
Neumann M147 Tube 
Calrec 1050c 
AKG 451B 
EV Elecro Voice 868
Senheiser 604 
AKG D112
AKG 414 B ULS
Sure SM57
Beyer Dynamic opus 65
Senheiser e945
Rode NT2
 
Mic Preamps:
Focusrite ISA One
Broadhurst Gardens No. 1
 
Computer:
Mac Book Pro with Retina Display
2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
Logic X
Steven Slate Plugins
Steven Slate SSD4
Steven Slate Blackbird suite
ICON QCON Pro
 
Interface:
Focusrite Saffire 56
Focusrite OctoPre Mk2
 
Monitoring:
Yamaha HS8
Genelec 1029
 
Cymbals:
12" Studio Recording hats
13" Constantinople hats
14" Constantinople hats
 
18" Breakbeat ride
20" Constantinople Med Thin Low
22" Constantinople Med Thin Low
22" Constantinople Renaissance 
22" Constantinople Flat Ride
 
8"   A custom Splash
8"   Z Bell
10" Piggyback China
17" K Custom
16" K Light Crash
16" Constantinople
18” Constantinople
19” Constantinople Crash / Ride
20" China Low Boy
20" A Custom EFX
 
Snares:
13*6    DW Exotic
14*5.5 Limited Craviotto      
14*6.5 UnLimited Craviotto
14*5.5 Ludwig 400
14*4    A & F Brass Limited
14*4.5 Sonor Designer
14"*10 Gretsch late 50's RoundBadge Mahogany with Maple hoops (Levon Helm)
 
Pearl BRX 20" BD (Owned by Art Blakey)
 
Kit 1:
DW Natural Satin Oil Drum Kit
22*18"BD
8*7",10*8",12*9",14*11",16*13" Toms Fast Size Toms
All Drum Workshop 9000 hardware
 
Kit 2:
Sonor Designer - African Bubinga
22,10,12,15
 
Percussion:
LP Classic Conga & Tumba
LP Classic Bongos
Plethora of LP hand percussion
 
By Julian Marsden
Posted on 25th May, 1:11pm

Welcome to our latest Canadian Drum Teacher in Nova Scotia Mark Di Claudio. Check out Mark's profile on our Canadian site www.drumteachers.ca

Mark endorses Los Cabos Drum Sticks.

By Julian Marsden
Posted on 24th May, 5:31pm

Welcome to our latest UK Drum Teacher in Manchester James A Wilson

 

By Julian Marsden
Posted on 11th May, 12:41pm

Start to beat! - Essential Drum Beats for Beginners

Every time that you are listening to some piece of music you are hearing the melody that is floating in the rhythm in certain tempo. In the modern music most of the rhythm sounds – beats are coming from the drums. The drummer is the one who is putting the whole band in time, that is responsible to be correct when everyone is falling apart, and last but not the least the one who adds the groove, the most important aspect to the notable bands. But, not to be scared, we are here to define the essentials and to get to start in order to achieve the notable level of drumming. 
Two main terms every drummer should know are rhythm and tempo. The rhythm is defined as a strong, regular repeated pattern of movement or sound, and the tempo we define as the speed (beat per minute) at which a passage of music is or should be played. So the key two syntagm are  repeated pattern and beat per minute (bpm) This text will guide you through the basic repeated patterns – essential drum beats to the beginners, and you should pick your own tempo for practice, listen to the songs and try to get into them.

Listed above you could see how the various parts of the drum system are presented in the notation partiture.

For the beginning lesson we’ll simplify the beats on the usage of closed hi-hat , snare and acoustic bass (kick) drum. By learning this it will help you to get familiar with the parts of your drum and how to read the partitures.

Basic Rock Beat – On Beat – 4/4 Time signature rhythm

This is one of the most usage beats, that you’ll hear almost in every classic rock and roll song. The BPM – tempo varies between 80-160 (the best is if you practice with metronome – simply set it up to certain BPM, this would help you to stay in right tempo all the time and to be in the right timing – sometimes the people say that the metronome is for the lame drummers, but it would help you to stay in time and to achieve the feeling of correct BPM in certain time). The time signature is defined as 4/4 which means that there are four beats in the one rhythmic structure.

Start with beating 4 notes in the row with kick drum in tempo of 80 bpm and repeat in your head 1,2,3,4. This will give you the felling of 4/4 time signature rhythm, and of 4 notes in the bar. After this we shall go to something more advance, but as easy as these four notes. We are bringing together snare and high hat along with the kick drum.

To easy a things a bit we’ll translate this partiture in the words. Firstly setup your metronome to the certain tempo and count 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4, ect.. The kick drum and the snare are presented as ¼ notes, and the high hat is presented as 1/8 which is the half of the ¼ note. So we are playing 8 high hat notes, with two kick drum and two snare notes. Try to play this phrase in different tempo, and different loudness (from quiet to loud).

  • Song examples Basic Rock Beat – On Beat - 4/4:
  • Queen – Who wants to live forever
  • The Beatles – Lucy in the sky with Dimond – Chorus
  • Bon Jovi – It’s My Life
  • When the saints go marching in

Waltz – 3/4 Time signature rhythm

Just imagine the waltz. How is it danced? You have to count to three in your head and two move in the structure of three steps with someone in your hands. Waltz beat is closed in so called ternary rhythm, and it is played in the ¾ time signature. That means that there are three beats in the time structure of four.  You could count in your head the following: one, two, three…

In this beat structure for the beginning we would play the six times of closed high hat, while playing one beat of the kick drum (with your leg) and two beats of snare. It would sound like PAM pam pam; PAM pam pam; PAM pam pam.

Song examples Waltz – ¾ Time signature:

  • Beatles -  Norwegian wood
  • Neil Young – Only Love Can Break Your Heart
  • Metallica – Nothing Else Matters

Jazz beat – time signature – 6/8 time signature rhythm

This is the most advance beat for the beginning, but think of it as the challenge, as a step further to the achievement of you as a good drummer. In 6/8 time signature rhythm we have to count six eight notes in the bar. Count ONE – two – thee – FOUR – five - six, etc.

As indicated above, play the six notes with high hat, 1/4 with addition of 1/8 of kick drum (so it last longer then 1/4 and shorter than 1/2) and the same for the snare. And now repeat, as much as you can, by counting as indicated above.

Song examples Jazz Beat – 6/8 Time signature:

  • Simon& Garfunkel  - Old Friends
  • Queen - We Are the Champions
  • Journey - Lights
  • Bee Gees, Al Green - (How Can You Mend) A Broken Heart
  • The Beatles - Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

Conclusion:

Having in mind that you are starting to play, and trying to figure out the basic beats, you need to focus yourself on the building practice routines, even if you are in your room with two pencils without the drum try to concentrate and to thing of the groove of the songs. Sometimes, the good practice is to listen to the song and try to figure out in which rhythm and time signature the song is. Think of it seriously while you are listening to the music you love and this will get you to the advancement in your playing techniques. Also the good thing is to find the suitable metronome, for the beginning there is the google free metronome online, so setup the tempo and start making the groove!

About author:

Paul Mills is one of the most creative mixers with instinct and prowess. His project Beatsbooster is the ultimate guide for everyone buying their first headphones or earbuds on every budget and for any purpose

By Julian Marsden
Posted on 10th May, 1:17pm