My Week In Drums #3

Another week, another post! Last week was a little more relaxed on the playing side of things compared to the first couple of weeks since starting this, but it was very drum focused, nonetheless! Once again, there was the usual 3x days of teaching, then my extra days were filled with taking some lessons (for myself), giving my drums some TLC and reheading one of the kits, gigging Saturday, and then playing at my church Sunday morning.

Wednesday was the drive up to Essex for my lesson with Andrew Small. This time around, I had the pleasure of making the journey with my good friend Darrell, who's also a student of Andrew's, as his wheels were out of action and we happened to have adjacent lessons that day. That journey provided ample time to talk drums in the car as well as have a good catch up! On the way back we swung by PMT Romford to catch up with the guys there and check out some of their tasty gear offerings! I then also had a lesson that evening with Ollie Boorman, who I've probably been seeing for about 10 years now, if not more (crikey!)... As I've mentioned before, some time I'll try and add a post about what I've been studying in my lessons and practice time lately.

Shout out to Andrew Small for releasing his new album this week - picked up a copy following my lesson Wednesday, and it's sounding great!

Friday was my day to give my drums some love. Mainly, one of my kits - a Gretsch Brooklyn in 12, 14, 16, 22 which was due some new heads (shout out to Steve at DrumStuff for hooking me up!). This time, I changed my usual head choice slightly (trying Vintage Emperors over Coated Ambassadors plus a Coated PowerStroke 3) to go for a deeper, fatter sound on that kit. First impressions, I'm really pleased with the combo! Again, at some point I'll write a post about my different kits and how I have them set for different purposes - that'll be one for the drum nerds like me!

The fresh, Remo heads on the Gretsch Brooklyn - sounding sweet!

Saturday night was another of the local functions that I've been doing for the last couple of weeks, so it's been nice to have some continuity with that gig over the last few weeks to get really familiar with the tunes (rather than just reading them off the page, as I mentioned last time). There's a few more of those coming up in a few weeks time, but I've got some different things going on in the mean time.

Finally, Sunday morning I was on duty playing at my church. Sleep-wise, it was worst case scenario - gig the night before, clocks jumping forwards, then up early to play again! It was a great morning though, made even better by playing alongside some good friends. Also, I was able to take the Vintage A's that were previously on my Brooklyn and put them on the Catalina at church, which seems to have given them a breath of fresh air. By the way, as far as drums on a decent budget go, I'm always amazed how good those Gretsch Catalina kits can sound with good heads!

Thanks again for checking in. I'm glad to hear that a few folks out there are finding this blog of interest, so hoping to write up about some more specific topics in the near future... All the best! Ed.