Two Part Fugue For Drumset by Michael Petiford

Pocket Change

Here's my middle school percussion group performing at their first assembly (mine too!). That's Jose, Tanner, Tristan, Bryan, Logan, Nick, Carlos, and Bryce and they did a fantastic job. It's funny how you can get just as much satisfaction from watching a group of your students perform as from performing yourself, especially when they perform one of your own compostions. They played a piece that I wrote called "Pocket Change". I had as much fun as they did.

Notice the "bass bucket" on the right side of the photograph. I found that at a local pool supply store. It still smells like chlorine shock but it sounds great when hit with a bass mallet.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I teach a percussion class at a boy's camp every summer. I had twenty-six boys in two classes this year. I only get four one-hour sessions to teach them a complete piece for performance on the last day of camp (the tallent show night). This year I combined buckets and body percussion and it was the hit of the whole camp.

A Script for a Clinic

So I wrote myself a script. Since I've never really taught a clinic before, I thought it would be wise to map out what I'm going to talk about, where I'm going to play an example, where I'll ask the audience to try something, etc. I'll run through it tomorrow and see how long it takes.

By the way, I'm also planning to invite a number of musician friends over in the next couple of weeks and run the whole clinic for them so I can get some feedback on what they think works and what don't. Should be interesting. If you know me and you're interested in attending let me know. I would really appreciate your input. You don't even have to be a drummer!

Canon and Fugue

Alrighty, so I'm moving along like this clinic is a thing that's actually going to happen. Of course I'm also considering that this is the music business and, as such, it is also possible that this could all fall through the cracks at the eleventh hour. At any rate, hope springs eternal and I'm assuming a probability of fruition. That said, the topic of the clinic will definetly be Canon and Fugue for the Drumset. I've been working through the material that PAS published and I'm trying to determine the best way to deliver the concept to a disparate group of drummers. So far, I'm looking at about an hour's worth of material to demonstrate the concept and take an audience from Round to Fugue while bringing home the salient points and still playing enough flashy stuff to keep them interested. After all, a clinic is sort of half class, half entertainment. So I'm debating... Do I want to add in other topics, like polyrhythms (I really want to play The Black Page), or do I just stick with the one subject? Hmmmm... the mind ponders.

The Drum God's Clinic

When I think of drum clinics I typically think of a setting where some drum god comes to a local music store sponsored by a really expensive drum company. The drum god then wows the audience with an amazing solo. The drum god then talks about what it was like to play with so-and-so, how he constructed the drum part for such-and-such a song, and how much he likes his new expensive 27 ply birch/maple/zebra wood snare. Then the drum god leaves having imparted almost nothing more substantive than anecdotal apocrypha and advertising copy. To be quite honest, I am very weary of the drum god's clinic. As I mentioned in the last post, I have been invited to teach a clinic. I desperately do not want to be the drum god. More than anything else, I want to actually teach something.

Possible Clinic

I have been invited to teach a clinic on drumset counterpoint, polyrhythms, and ostinati. I'm rather excited about that. Also, the sponsers have invited my band to come along and play a show as well. How cool is that!? I will let you know what's happening as the saga unfolds. For now, let's just say it's all in the planning and logistics phase. I don't know about the band yet, but I have sent the sponsers a note saying that I am committed to teaching the clinic. I sure hope more than three people will come.

Playing for Three

Why on earth would anyone spend three months working on a piece of music and rehearsing a band, only to perform for three kind people and ten drunken fools? What kind of a genuine idiot would waste precious time that could be spent in fruitful labor or endearing relationship, by lugging heavy equipment to a bar where intoxicated buffoons ignore even the slightest semblance of art or intellect? Is there a benefit?
Who are these tiny fools who, in the inimitable words of Lawrence Ferlinghetti are, "Constantly risking absurdity" by performing night after night to utterly empty houses? I really don't know the others, but apparently I am one of them. Would it not have been better to merely perform the work in a salon for the three, rather than a barroom for the thirteen? I'm not sure and certainly these questions are largely rhetorical. I must point out, however, that there is a degree of exhilaration and (dare I say satisfaction?) to be gained from simply performing an outrageously difficult and brilliant work in any public forum. Perhaps that is a large portion of the motivation. Perhaps the response of three special people is sufficient reward. At any rate, my sincere and humble thanks go to you three truly special people for being both a public forum and an intimate circle.

I Did It

I did it
I did it
I really
really did it
I said that I would do it

and indeed I did!
My New Year's resolution was to finally play The Black Page. Well, by golly last night I did it. I played The Black Page live flawlessly... for three people who loved it and ten people who drank at the bar and never heard a note. The band that played after us did a halfway decent Slayer cover.

More On That

In my last post, "Strictly Need To Know", I talked about a teacher who I think is doing his student a disservice. Well, this subject is eating at me and I just can't let go of it. I'm talking about teachers who seem to have some codified, age-old methodology that they believe is the one and only true way to teach a subject. Frankly, that concept makes me sick. I have a student who also takes piano lessons. When his mom told the piano teacher that I was teaching her son to play drumset, he said that's ridiculous, I should be starting him out on snare drum and I should be teaching him rudiments. Well... first off, what the hell does a piano teacher think he's doing telling me how to teach percussion? Second, who says there's one way to teach? As I study modern education theory (and yes, by the way, I am currently studying education theory) it is more and more apparent that the best way to teach is by getting students interested, engaged, and participating in the learning experience. That said, I can't think of a kid in the world who wants to play drums, that thinks it would be great to play rudiments for the next six months. However, if I can get a kid to play drums in a way that he thinks is fun, I'll bet I can get him to play some rudiments in the process. Why does a kid want to play drums? Probably because he thinks it looks like fun. If it isn't fun will he keep trying to learn it? Probably not. If it is fun will he keep doing it? Probably. The kids in the picture I put with this post are from my summer percussion camp. They're playing with their teacher and a full band in front of an entire church congregation. Do you think they're having fun? I know they had a blast. They're nine years old. They didn't know what a paradiddle is, but they played them and they had fun doing it. Now they know paradiddles.