Monthly Roundup #5 - July '18

July is where things have settled down a bit for me after a hectic few months, so I've been taking the opportunity to get back on top of some things, get some practice in, enjoy the sunshine and most importantly spend some more time with my wonderful wife! The school drum lessons obviously slowed down and came to an end for the summer holidays, but I'm able to keep a bit of teaching going through the summer by hiring a local rehearsal studio to do some lessons from. There's been a handful of gigs, but nothing crazy! Here's what I've been up to...

During the first week's teaching I had an end-of-term assembly at one of my schools, where I had 8 primary school students aged between 6 and 11 (I think!) performing some pieces that they had been working on. I'm delighted to say they all nailed it, had a lot of fun, and the feedback from the school was brilliant - I had a few teachers come and find me the next time I was in to say how much they loved it and how inspiring it was, which was lovely to hear!

The first bit of playing in July was with the Throwback Kid guys, where we were playing a local school's summer fete to support the event and try to help raise some money for the school on the Friday afternoon. Pete had donated a load of the CDs to the school which they were able to sell for their own funds at the event. It was a glorious afternoon in the sunshine, and it was a really fun set to play! It was also an opportunity for me to get my quirky 26x5 bass drum out (yep, 26x5!) - I'm always pleasantly surprised with how awesome that thing sounds! The backstory is, I found that drum in a state of disrepair in the back of a school cupboard when putting together some kits for a day of teaching once, and it so caught my eye that after sweet talking the music teacher, he was happy for me to give it a new lease of life! One thing that made me chuckle on this occasion, was that my good friend Peter, who plays keys and accordion in this particular band (but we play together in all sorts of different settings!), said to me at the end that he genuinely didn't notice any difference musically once we were playing, despite the quirky setup - so the secret's out - they know it's only kick/snare/hats 99% of the time!!

My small and simple setup for the summer fete with my 26x5 bass drum!

Over that weekend (as my wife was off on a hen do for the weekend!), I spent a bit of time playing around with my latest toy, the Roland TM-2. I've got this as there have been a few times now that I've needed to have additional sounds available on a gig - whether that's more percussive bits like timps or congas, timbales or bongos, or more "commercial" stuff like electronic drum sounds, hand claps or sub drops. To get by up to this point, I've either used the module and some pads from my Roland V-Drums, or borrowed an SPD-SX, but the TM-2 seems to be the most appropriate bit of kit for my purposes at this moment in time. It's cheap and cheerful (relatively speaking!), and there are load of possibilities with how it can be used. I'm mainly in the playing around/experimenting stage with it at the moment while I get it all set up how I like and figure out the best way to go ahead, but it's such a simple addition to a kit that I hope to be gigging it in no time. Until then, I'll have some fun with it!

The following week, there was more teaching, a couple of gigs, and the addition of a new electric kit! For a little while I've had in the back of my mind that my trusty old TD-6KV is going to need updating one of these days for all my teaching, and as luck would have it I came across someone fairly locally selling a Roland TD-11KV - a similar, but updated model. The two main upgrades I had my eye on going from the 6 to the 11, were that the 11 accommodates a 3-Zone ride cymbal (allowing use of the bell) and a button to switch the snare to a cross-stick, which again was something I was missing from the 6. As it's been well used already, one of my projects over the summer will be to tidy it up a bit and check it's all doing what it should, but from September this will be my new teaching kit which I'll take around a few of my schools.

My new (used) Roland TD-11KV, which will be my new teaching kit from September.

On the Friday night that week I picked up a relatively last minute gig with a friend of mine's cover band, playing a load of tunes at a local bar. It was a lot of fun to go and have a good play, but the whole day before heading to the gig was spent charting out the 30-something songs required for the gig that night. Needless to say, a few endings etc were a bit blagged, but on the whole it was a lot of fun and I had a great time!

Setup for the Friday night covers gig.

The next night I was back out with the Tom Fitzpatrick jazz quartet (trio plus singer) playing at a corporate do. On this one, there was a big question mark over how much space there would be for drums, and so I once again brought my quirky bass drum along - two outings for it in two weeks! The reason for the space difficulties were because we had to share the stage with an enormous "time machine", which was very much the feature point of the evening, so us band members had to find a way to position ourselves around it. In the end, we found a way and it all went ahead as planned.

Sharing the stage with a "time machine" - just another day in the office!

The following morning I had the pleasure of being back to play at my home church for the first time in a little while, as I'd not been able to fulfil my obligations over the last few months with all the madness... It was for a morning of baptisms, so it was a full house and a nice chance to play with some good friends!

Nice to be back playing at my church for the first time in a few months!

The next week was the last lot of school visits before they all broke up for their summer holidays, and on the Wednesday I was up for another lesson with Andrew. We were continuing with diving into the deeper details of timing and listening back to some things in order to evaluate and see what could be improved. That week ended with a gig-free weekend, but I spent the rest of my down-time that week and the start of the following week preparing for my next date with the Alter Eagles, the Eagles tribute band I've started depping with when required. Where last month I had a festival slot with them, doing just a few songs, this time around it was the full show - so there was quite a bit more material to familiarise myself with. I'm glad to say, I've really enjoyed listening through/learning the parts to some of the Eagles material! 

The last week of July had a bit of teaching on the Tuesday, then the Eagles tribute gig came around on the Thursday. The prep paid off and I was able to really enjoy the gig! Another nice touch was that my wife and in-laws were able to come, and it was actually the first time my in-laws had seen me play after all these years as it happened to be in their neighbourhood! But yes, it was great to do the full gig with the Alter Eagles guys after doing the shorter festival set the previous month. It was also a good excuse to get a big kit with 4 toms out too - the only problem there being I don't currently have 10/12/14/16 in one matching finish, so a bit of mixing and matching from the Gretsch Brooklyn was in order! But of course that's a very minor detail, and they sounded wicked as always - it just slightly bothered my OCD ;) 

A bit of mixing and matching with my Gretsch Brookln drums to make the 4 tom setup with the Eagles tribute band!

So there you have it, there's a bit of a rundown of what's been going on through July! Again, I've got a slightly quieter August lined up so it'll be nice to have a bit of time off before it ramps up again in the Autumn, but until then, I'll gladly kick back a bit and enjoy the sunshine! As always, I hope you've enjoyed the update, and I'll catch you next time. All the best! Ed.