It’s that time of year…

Happy Holidays!! Are you planning on shopping at Guitar Center, Sam Ash or any of your favorite music stores this Holiday?

Brett Frederickson, owner of DrummersRule! Drum Lessons, wants to Celebrate by giving away Two (2) FREE Hours of drum lessons with your purchase of any Drum Set or a total purchase of $350.00 spent on any combined percussion sales items from Guitar Center, Sam Ash or your favorite Music Store.

Call Brett today to schedule your FREE drum lessons! **Just print out this Blog Post and present it along with your receipt when you arrive at his drum studio.**

Located near I-17 & Bell Road, the drum studio offers 4 top of the line Roland Electronic Kits and Yamaha Custom Kit to learn on.

Shopping at Guitar Center or Sam Ash this Holiday Season?
Brett provides full 1 hour drum lessons at $25.00/hour.
Whats included:
– learn faster and retain more
– drum styles to develop skills to play your favorite songs
– 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

Call us today at 602-843-3114 with any questions or check us out online at http://www.drummersrule.net.
“Feel the joy of learning to play drums”
Brett

Info on your teacher, Brett Frederickson:
He has been a top drum judge for Guitar Center over 20 years and Sam Ash for the past 10 years. He has also been one of the most “referred out” drum teacher from both stores. He has been teaching drums for over 27 years including drum line instruction for the past 17 years. He is a graduate of MI (Musicians Institute); Featured in Drum Magazine, Drum Business and Modern Drummer
. He has played drums with many bands including Megadeth and has done studio work for various artists like Scott Mishoe, Keith Horne, Jeff Kollman, Ray Riendeau and many more. His true passion is teaching students to play drums, in a fun, quality learning environment. So whether you are just getting started, or have been playing for years, Brett can help you take your skills to the next level.

Come see why his students keep coming back!!

3723 W. Monte Cristo Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85053
http://followus.com/drummersrule

Drum School 101 – Now Available!

DRUMMERSRULE! Drum School 101 – For Ages 10-100

These Drum Lessons are perfect for anyone ages 10 – 100 that are interested in learning to play the drums. In this 4 week Course you will begin to build the necessary coordination and skills to play the drum set. You will also learn how to read and play drum notation and play along to various songs.

These are GROUP CLASSES and last 60 minutes long. They are taught in our ELECTRIC DRUM STUDIO. The Studio has 4 top of the line Roland electric kits for students to use. This 101 Class is very unique, it enables the student to learn faster and retain more while having fun. The Group Classes are affordable, and a great way to see if you, or your child, has what it takes to become a drummer.

NEXT AVAILABLE COURSE:
Saturday, January 9th – Saturday, January 30th 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Price = $95.00 (Price Includes Drumsticks and Binder)
Meets EVERY Saturday for 4 weeks

Students must be registered prior to the start of the first class. New students will not be accepted once the first class has started.

Click here to ENROLL YOURSELF ONLINE!

Look forward to seeing you in class! Call with any questions 602-769-2075.

DRUMMERSRULE! DRUM SCHOOL
3723 W. Monte Cristo Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85053
http://followus.com/drummersrule

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

Why You Shouldn’t Quit Your Music Lessons

This post is a continuation of my previous post “How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain”. Carlos Courtney, a student of mine and drum instructor, found this video and requested it be on my blog. It’s amazing how playing an instrument (like drums) has such a positive impact on us and spurs emotional and behavioral growth. I am putting links to the studies mentioned under the video. Enjoy “Why You Shouldn’t Quit Your Music Lessons” and contact me with any questions.

Mr. Brett

Read More:
Music lessons spur emotional and behavioral growth in children, new study says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sp…
“Parents who have patiently sat through countless music recitals and questioned their sanity at encouraging all those trumpet or violin lessons need do so no longer.”

Using Music to Close the Academic Gap
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/arc…
“New studies on the cognitive advantages of learning instruments at early ages.”

Early Music Lessons Have Longtime Benefits
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09…
“When children learn to play a musical instrument, they strengthen a range of auditory skills.”

 

Brett Frederickson – DrummersRule! Drum Lessons

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

How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain

I have been telling my students, parents and other teachers for years how playing drums or any instrument has a positive effect on our brains. A student of mine and drum instructor, Carlos Courtney, found this video on the subject, so here it is. Enjoy!  As always contact me with any questions and keep drumming on!

Mr. Brett

 

Brett Frederickson – DrummersRule! Drum Lessons

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

HOW TO TUNE A DRUM KIT…

HOW TO TUNE A DRUM KIT… 

One of the most essential skills every drummer must know is how to tune their drumset. The reality is, most drummers do not know how to properly tune their kit – resulting in a poor sound. Take the time in your regular practice to learn how to tune your drums the right way; you will be happy you did. If you have tuned your drum set as much as you can and you are still getting a poor sound, let me know and we’ll figure it out together. There are a few rules that you must consider when tuning in order to maximize your tone, resonance and endurance of your drum head. Tuning one drum is the same as tuning them all. The same steps and procedures should be taken to ensure the best sound from any drum you are playing. So let’s get started.

There are a few rules that you must consider when tuning in order to maximize your tone, resonance and endurance of your drum head. Tuning one drum is the same as tuning them all. The same steps and procedures should be taken to ensure the best sound from any drum you are playing. So let’s get started.

POSITIONING THE RODS
– seating the drum head on the shell. Before you even place the head on the drum, make sure you wipe down both the rim and the head. Any unwanted dirt or chips will cause an uneven sound on the tom. So with a towel, just wipe around the rim of the drum. 
-the next step is seating the drum head on the drum. Once this is done, and the rim is placed over top; screw in the tension rods hand tight. You do not want to screw them in to much right now, or you can throw off the tuning process. 
– Once all the rods are secure, you want to stretch out your drum head. This is an important step to do; it will strengthen and stretch out your skin as well as help it maintain its tuning once it is found. To do this, simply make a fist, and press down in the middle of the drum. Do not press to hard, you do not want to damage your skin.

TUNING THE KIT
– To make sure there is no unbalance, you will have to tighten the tension rods opposite to each other. The best way to do this is to start at any rod, and tighten a few turns with your drum key.
– Once that is complete, locate the tension rod opposite to that one and repeat the process. Do this until each rod is secure and tight. Try to keep each turn uniform by counting the amount of rotations and imitate that on each tension rod. 
– See the attached diagram of the tightening process:
As you can see, each tension rod is tuned opposite of each other. Start at A, and work your way around the drum.
– Once each rod is tightened, try striking the drum. Chances are you will not get the right sound on your first try. This is where you have to start fine tuning. Pick a tension rod to start at, and tap the head around 2 inches from that rod.

Again, use the diagram and tap each rod opposite to each other. Try and hear for any inconsistent sounds. If there are any tones that are not even, tune each tension rod accordingly. 
Remember this is a fine process, tuning a half a turn will change the sound to the whole drum.

Feel free to contact me with any questions…
Brett

Double Bass Technique Using Hands – taught by Brett Frederickson

Double Bass Technique Using Hands – taught by Brett Frederickson

This is a great technique for drummers who want a double bass sound but don’t own a double bass foot pedal. How you get the sound is by alternating your right hand and your foot. The left hand fills up the time by playing the back beat and using ghost notes.

**We apologize for the crappy and low sound volume – this was a quick video I made from my cell phone. **