It turns out we weren’t the only ones who had a great time when Craig Blundell was up teaching. The man himself has written us a really lovely guest blog! Enjoy…
“Last weekend, I had the honour and privilege to be invited up to dD drums for another one of my teaching weekenders. This is my second teaching weekender and my 4th Visit to the store for events. The weekend was scheduled as two and a bit days 1-2-1 lessons and on the Sunday I was offering up something a little bit different, A little bit clichéd but I was up close and personal and that’s exactly what I wanted to offer while I was up there and give drummers maximum potential to see what I do day in day out and hopefully help them on their own personal journeys.
I arrived on the Friday morning on a silly o’clock flight out of Luton to Glasgow and was met by Stuart (Dave’s assistant) who is a fabulous guy and quite possibly the geekiest guy I know when it comes to drums. We arrived at the shop, which is an aladins cave of all things cool and I was shown to dDs fabulous teaching rooms. Lessons started at 12 and went through to six O’clock. All the students on this visit wanted to do co-ordination stuff, not just look at me because I can stuff but ideas they could get into their daily practice routine and take to a gig without upsetting the band, obviously I obliged.
The Friday night was a quiet one, I ate in the hotel, and watched a bit of the world cup and charted out dots for a session I had on the Monday. The Saturday was a long day, 9-6 but once again, all the students, who I might say are a credit to the Scottish drumming community, were brilliant and all came with their plans and goals that they wanted to achieve. After teaching it was back to the hotel, and out for dinner with Dave, Stuart and Alan in my favourite curry house north of the border. Naturally a couple of drinks and many laughs before it was time to crash I was pretty tired. I watched the first 15 minutes of the England match and quickly came to the conclusion that it’s the same as it was in previous years. 11 “good” individuals = 1 s**t team!!
And on to the Sunday, three great lessons with regulars and it was on to the venue for the afternoon group sessions. Up first it was the beginners to intermediate class. All the guys had pens, pads, sticks and paper and we worked through loads of Ideas together. There was a simply beautiful Premier Bubinga kit that I was using and I could of played it all day but it wasn’t about me playing, it was about them guys learning. The hour went really quick and after a few pics with the guys and lots of smiles it was on to the more advanced class. This was so much fun. Like a informal two hours of working together. I have my own teaching methods in these scenarios that I’m very comfortable with. The first thing that we looked at was nerves. Even just saying what your name was and how long you’ve been playing in these situations can be quite intimidating which it was for some, but we soon broke boundaries and to be honest once again, the two hours was gone in an instant. I felt the guys did amazingly well with the heavy challenges I was setting them, they were once again a credit to dD and the community he is building.
And that was that, before I knew it I was back home doing washing and repacking for the next week of travels I’ve said this many times. I will ALWAYS help the people that help me and Dave is up on the very top of that list. He’s been championing what I do for sometime and I’m extremely grateful. If I can come up 2-3 times a year and give a bit back then that’s all good by me. If you live 20 mins away and you’ve never been then go and visit the shop. In fact if you live 30/40/50 mins or longer then go and visit the shop. Not only to you see and play great gear. You get a wealth of experience from a team of Scotland’s most passionate drummers that are hungry to pass it on to you. Dave and Stuart are really making a difference up there. They are always looking at things to get people together. Please please please get involved…..
Until next time
Craig Blundell”
