Cymbal Drum Set – #NAMM2016

Drum Hand Techniques

A look into the different hand techniques for both drum set and drum line. Enjoy!

Mr. Brett

A look into my past…

Fellow Drummers,

I recently came across an individual frustrated with my bio in my Craigslist posts. Accusations were made that I was providing false information.

First, I would like to say, I’m really honored that someone would look into and research my background. Second, I encourage anyone who has questions about me to come ask me directly. So, below is my response to clear up any confusion, address concerns and give some insight into my past, including Megadeth — thank you.

During my senior year of high school in Windom, Minnesota, I played in a band called Killers. Our band was comprised of David Ellefson, Greg Handevidt, Jerry Giefer and myself. Jerry and I would go to Jackson, Minnesota to practice at David Ellefson’s farm. Afterward, we moved to California to attend Musicians Institute. Later, Greg & David dropped out of MI, and met David Mustane and started the band Megadeth. I began playing with them November of 1983. I only played with them for a short time and never got the chance to tour or record an album with them. I was wrapped up in school (MI) and work and chose to step down. A decision I’ve looked back on many times, but grateful for the path God has me on. Since then, I have gone back stage at their concerts about 4 times (including one time when they were Vic and the Rattle Heads.)

Regarding the other people whom I’ve listed in my bio, please note that I have played with them in studios, on albums or live. My favorite CD I that I performed on was Omnidirectional with Scotty Mishoe. Of the numerous gigs that I played with bands, my favorite group was a jazz fusion band called Wicket Kickit (see pic below), then Hot Tracks, Trilogy, F8 and many more. I played gigs fairly consistently until 2005 and now prefer just to play church gigs.

It was mentioned ‘those who can’t play, teach’, when (honestly) those who can’t make a good living at teaching have to play. I promise you that it’s harder to teach a student 4 to 7 yrs and get him to college than it is to play a top 40 or country gig in your local bars. I am proud of the fact that many of my students have received scholarships to major music universities. In the last two years alone, Kenny Harmon and Gabrial Deshey received scholarships to Berkeley School of Music. I firmly believe that these accomplishments are a direct result of my students’ ability to read, write and study different styles and meters. In my personal situation, I chose to teach vs play due to the fact that I place a huge emphasis on family. When I found that I could continue doing something that I love along with spending quality time with my family, I jumped on the opportunity. Due to this decision, I have been happily married for 27 years. Also, my daughter has graduated from ASU and my son is a senior there (studying micro and cellular biology). They both share my love of music and in addition to his heavy course load, my son also maintains over 20 guitar students of his own.

As a younger drummer, my perspective was that of many young musicians, wondering how the ‘greats’ became so good but appeared to never of had lessons. I had the opportunity to attend a Dennis Chamber Clinic which was an awesome experience. I remember a question was asked if Chamber’s could read music or ever took a lesson. His response was “NO”. I then asked Dennis how he got so good. His answer was that his mother worked at Motown and he was always there, so when the greats came in to work, (like PHILLY JOE JONES) they would show him styles and he would practice like crazy. His comment “Oh yeah, I guess that would be lessons” brought a good laugh from the attendees. Overall, it was truly a great clinic.

Last but not least, I have done drum clinics opening for Ken Mary and once for David Garibaldi. I am endorsed by Yamaha, Aquarian, Zildjian and Vic Firth (and I am also sponsored by Roland). I’m also on Zildjian’s website under Education. Ultimately, I love to teach. God has blessed me with the ability to play and teach and I find that teaching is so much more rewarding–that is why I have taught thousands of lessons and hundreds of students in my life (including 20 years or drumline, in which I have won many captions).

Please fact check me or contact me directly. I would be happy to talk with you.

Thank you,
Brett Frederickson

3/4 Ostinato Pattern

3/4 Ostinato Pattern by Brett Frederickson

A simple 3/4 Ostinato pattern. This is a great exercise to use in developing a solo in 3/4. Enjoy!

Mr. Brett

Brett Frederickson – DrummersRule! Drum Lessons

twitter : https://twitter.com/drummerbrett

facebook : https://www.facebook.com/drummersrule

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Exclusive Interview with Neil Peart

Hello DrummersRule! Fans!!!

This week I have been focusing on 3/4 Ostinato patterns for my advanced players. Recently I watched a Neil Peart Video where he was talking about different Ostinato patterns and how to develop them.

In my next blog I’ll show you how I took this idea and created exercises based on this pattern. For this bLog however, see another great Neil Peart Interview I liked below… enjoy!!

Mr. Brett

Exclusive Interview with Neil Peart

You can usually spot the people who’ve worked in the music industry for any great length of time: they cower in dark corners twitching nervously, constantly running their hands through thinning, grey hair and wax lyrical to no-one in particular about the dire state of modern music. In a business where cynicism seems to conquer even the purest of souls, the challenge of emerging unscathed is a feat comparable to mastering one-handed drum rolls – wearing a boxing glove.

Sitting in a dressing room backstage at Wembley Arena, Neil Peart is relaxed, amiable and perfectly courteous. Having notched up 30 years and 17 albums, driving Rush to new creative heights and consistently breaking fresh ground in rock drumming, you almost wouldn’t blame him for being a little jaded by the trials and tribulations of the music industry. Over the course of an hour-long conversation, however, he talks enthusiastically about his childlike love of drums and of his continuingly fruitful, creative – and personal – relationship with his band-mates. At once deeply interesting and profoundly inspiring, it’s a conversation as far from the cynical jabbering of old hacks as you can possibly get. It is, in short, the stuff of legend. A true drumming legend, no less.

In the beginning…
Neil Peart’s dressing room is as homely as a clinical arena dressing ro
om can be. It’s his own personal room; band-mates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson share a similar space down the corridor. A five-piece DW black and white sparkle sits in the middle, all set for Peart and his pre-show, freeform warm-up. A huge map of the UK hangs behind the kit’s throne, a tool to plan his exploratory motorcycle journeys on days off.

The room is a testament to Peart’s desire to exert a little control in an environment where it would be easy to shrug shoulders and go with the flow. In true Lloyd Grossman style, it’s the room of someone that exudes determination and focus, two attributes that were in abundance as soon as he got his hands on his first kit.

“Oh yeah,” he says with a huge smile, “as soon as I started I was obsessive about it. I’d come home and start practising and play along with the radio. They had to make me stop practising, not make me practice. It was an irresistible attraction, really. The movie, The Gene Krupa Story, was the thing that really got me excited about it, but any time I’d see a drummer on television it was like a visual fascination as well as a musical fascination.”

“I had a teacher for the first couple of years. That gave me a grounding in sight reading and different styles. After that, I went my own way with the foundation that he’d given me, kind of knowing what I had to work on. The teaching aspect was really important. You can’t start in a vacuum. It’s like any subject you want to learn, you have to have some sense of what there is to know and what to work on. You can’t just say, ‘I’m going to work on it’, you have to know which direction to go. You can’t just say ‘I think I’ll play drums today!’ Nothing happens that way.”

So how about tips for new drummers? Is there anything you can pass on?

“Getting a teacher is the first recommendation. You can’t learn too much. I worked on samba for a long time just to learn Latin feels. I’ve never used it, but I understand it and I have fun with it. Timekeeping, too, no one can work too hard on that. Every drummer goes through the stage of playing a fill, getting excited and speeding up, or coming out of the fill and slowing down. Everyone goes through that and it gives you great insecurity – other musicians pick on you, producers pick on you. It’s very undermining because you think, ‘Well, the drummer’s first job is to keep time and I can’t keep time’. Something everyone should understand though is a) that everyone goes through that and b) it’s correctable. It takes the effort to practice and practice until you realise how to play your fills so they won’t speed up and until you get an innate sense of time.”

…READ MORE

Mr. Brett

Brett Frederickson – DrummersRule! Drum Lessons

twitter : https://twitter.com/drummerbrett 

facebook : https://www.facebook.com/drummersrule

google+ : https://www.google.com/+BrettFrederickson

Don’t Miss Steve Smith in Concert at the MIM

Don’t Miss Steve Smith in Concert at the MIM.

Don’t Miss Steve Smith in Concert at the MIM

STEVE SMITH – LIVE IN CONCERT!!
Attention Students and fellow Drummers!!

June 8, 2015, at the MIM (Musical Instrument Museum), Steve Smith with Vital Information will be in concert. The former drummer of Journey, named “one of the top 25 drummers of all time” by Modern Drummer magazine, brings the NYC version of his celebrated jazz fusion band to MIM Music Theater.

I’ve already ordered my tickets. I am encouraging you to not miss this. Steve is a very skilled drummer and is worth seeing live! Contact me with any questions. The links to buy tickets are below. I look forward to seeing you there.

**ALSO, the Next Day, Steve will be holding a “MASTER CLASS”. Come see Steve up close walking us through his experience and techniques. The link is below. **

Mr. Brett

Click HERE or the picture below to buy Concert Tickets.

In a musical world where keeping a working band has proven difficult for many bandleaders, drummer/bandleader Steve Smith has managed to keep three bands working for the past three decades. His jazz-rock band, Steve Smith and Vital Information, has been touring and recording for more than thirty years, while his “straight-ahead” groups Steve Smith and Buddy’s Buddies, made up of Buddy Rich Alumni (with three album releases), and Steve Smith’s Jazz Legacy (a group dedicated to playing the music of some of great drum set masters such as Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, and Tony Williams), have toured for five years and released two albums and a DVD.

STEVE SMITH’S MASTER CLASS

MIM proudly presents the Steve Smith Master Class. Smith is not only a world-class drummer but also a first-rate teacher. He will share his philosophy of musicianship, using a cycle of Study, Practice, and Performance, and his ideas on how to develop efficient hand-and-foot techniques for playing the drum set. Smith will also discuss and demonstrate his approach to playing odd times, referencing his woodshed master class in the article “Drumming in Odd Time Signatures” (DownBeat magazine, November 2013), which includes his concepts for integrating rhythms from India into his drum-set approach. Smith will play a variety of solo pieces and will be open to answering questions from the audience and addressing any drumming-related topic. Be sure to bring a notepad, pencils, drumsticks, and rubber practice pads.

Click HERE or the picture above to buy Master Class Tickets.

To learn more about Steve Smith, go to his website at www.vitalinformation.com

Brett Frederickson – Drummers Rule! Drum Lessons

Call or Text today at show contact info or check us out online at http://www.drummersrule.net.

twitter : https://twitter.com/drummerbrett

facebook : https://www.facebook.com/drummersrule

google+ : https://www.google.com/+BrettFrederickson

Come see why our students keep coming back… We look forward to seeing you!!

MONSTER BUILDER SUMMER DRUM SPECIAL!!

**MONSTER BUILDER DRUM SPECIAL COMING UP**

This is the BEST time to grow as a drummer!!

Starting June 1st, 2015 – August 15th, 2015, DrummersRule! will be offering a summer drum lesson SPECIAL!! Drum line is coming up, don’t go into the season looking like a fool! We’ll build your hand speed and reading to get you prepared.

Summer MONSTER BUILDER Drum Package. . .
Get 15 lessons for the price of 10 (A $375.00 value for only $250.00). The lessons can be used all together or spread out from 6/1 – 8/15. This is the perfect package for those wanting to grow and increase their ability during the summer.

Those whose sign up will get a FREE Unique “MONSTER BUILDER PACKET” exclusive to this special. Sign up now!!

No Music Experience Necessary to begin

Studio in North Phoenix

We offer full one (1) hour quality drum lessons and a competitive price of $25.00/hr.

Location: 3723 W. Monte Cristo Ave, Phoenix AZ 85053 (I-17 and Bell Road)

We offer a Drum Studio with Four (4) top of the line Roland Electronic Kits and a Custom Yamaha Kit to learn on.

Your Instructor is Brett Frederickson (27 Years Experience – see below)

Benefits of taking drum lessons with Brett:
1. Lessons include:
– learn faster and retain more
– read music
– sight reading
– syncopation
– increasing speed
– hand technique
– rudiments
– mastering all of the various music styles
– drum line techniques for snare, tenors and bass drum
2. 27 years experience along with drum line instruction for 17 years.
3. Degreed instructor and a graduate from Musicians Institute of Technology (MIT)
4. Has Performed and done Studio Work with many bands including Megadeath, Scott Mishoe, Keith Horne, Jeff Kollman, Ray Riendeau and many more.
5. Former students have graduated from Berkley College of Music & Musicians Institute and have received full ride scholarships to ASU, NAU and U of A for drum-line, jazz band, and percussion.

Brett Frederickson – Drummers Rule! Drum Lessons
Call or Text today at show contact info or check us out online at www.drummersrule.net.

twitter : https://twitter.com/drummerbrett

facebook : https://www.facebook.com/drummersrule

google+ : https://www.google.com/+BrettFrederickson

Come see why our students keep coming back… We look forward to seeing you!!

Drum Lessons in Phoenix

Drum Lessons in Phoenix.

Excellent Drum Solos from talented young drummers in the Chicago area

This video features very talented young drummers from Chicago showing what they have… enjoy!

 

Brett Frederickson – DrummersRule! Drum Lessons

twitter : https://twitter.com/drummerbrett
facebook : https://www.facebook.com/drummersrule
google+ : https://www.google.com/+BrettFrederickson