Hello Drummers 🥁
Well, what a good start to the week - the sun is shining, and Phill is free from covid! Yes, after avoiding it for two years, he finally caught it. He’s been very brave though, and managed to spend some time getting in some practice of his own on the drums. He’s very glad to be testing negative again now though, and is raring to go on all the drum lessons and everything else Ravebugs! This past week got us thinking back to two years ago, when we were all going into the first lockdown and Ravebugs was moving into online teaching. We also began our weekly online drumming sessions, which you may remember were a bit of a mixed success - always good fun, but often a bit chaotic, with our little drummers and the dogs making it a bit of an adventure! Here’s a pic of Phill, during one of his online lessons back then. Have a great week, everyone! 🥁🥁🥁 #drums #drummer #drumming #drumlessons #music #practice #practicemakesperfect #drumkit #learning #lesson #musicteacher #musician #tuition #musictutor #skills #rehearsal #learn #eastbourne #afterschool #school #kids #children #adults #students #extracurricular #local #payasyougo
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Hello Drummers 🥁
This week, we’re casting our minds back two years to the last Ravebugs Spring Celebration Concert on 8 March 2020! It’s been something we’ve regularly thought of over these strange days we’ve all experienced between then and now, and we’ve often thought how lucky we were to fit that event in just before the first Coronavirus lockdown. Here’s a photo from back then, can you spot yourself in the audience perhaps, at the Leaf Hall in Eastbourne? Plans are afoot for a 2022 event - we’re thinking this is quite likely to be in the summer months now, but we’ll keep you posted! Whatever you’ve got going on this week, have a great one, everyone! 🥁🥁🥁 #drums #drummer #drumming #drumlessons #music #practice #practicemakesperfect #drumkit #learning #lesson #musicteacher #musician #tuition #musictutor #skills #rehearsal #learn #eastbourne #afterschool #school #kids #children #adults #students #extracurricular #local #payasyougo Hello Drummers 🥁
Is it just us, or does Spring really seem to be in the air now? It’s not just the change of weather (we’re aware it was crazily windy just a week ago!), or the fact that the evenings are stretching out just a tiny bit more each week, but we’re really noticing the change as the seasons shift. The lifting of covid restrictions is making a big difference too of course! Just this weekend gone, we were able to enjoy a brilliant day outside at Bushy Wood with the Girl Guides’ event, Our World. We brought our beautiful African Djembe drums, set up on a really cool outdoor stage, and spend the whole day in the sunshine just drumming! Bliss! Phill has also had loads more gigs to perform at, with more booked every weekend for the foreseeable future, and we’ve even been thinking about putting on our annual Ravebugs Celebration Concert again, which will be the first one we’ve been able to do since the pandemic hit - watch this space for more news on that! Whatever you’ve got going on this week, have a great one, everyone! 🥁🥁🥁 #drums #drummer #drumming #drumlessons #music #practice #practicemakesperfect #drumkit #learning #lesson #musicteacher #musician #tuition #musictutor #skills #rehearsal #learn #eastbourne #afterschool #school #kids #children #adults #students #extracurricular #local #payasyougo Hello Drummers 🥁
This week we’re thinking about independence! Not the kind of independence where you leave home and start having to wash your own socks, but the four-way independence of your body, where you can get your arms and legs to start doing different things separately from each other! Here’s a few simple things to try: ◦ Rub your tummy while you pat your head. ◦ Tap one foot on the floor - one,two. Tap the other foot - three, four. Now bring the hands in, get your dominant hand counting the one, while the non-dominant hand counts two, three, four. Keep going! ◦ Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand (so, if you’re right-handed, use your left hand, or vice-versa if you’re a leftie!). Don’t try this when you’re wearing a suit though, it can get really messy! ◦ Start doing other things with your non-dominant hand! Try opening doors - it’ll feel weird at first, but the more you practice the better you’ll get. Eat your cereal with the wrong hand at breakfast - just make sure you have a napkin at the ready! Now isn’t that more fun than washing your socks? Have a great week, everyone! 🥁🥁🥁 #drums #drummer #drumming #drumlessons #music #practice #practicemakesperfect #drumkit #learning #lesson #musicteacher #musician #tuition #musictutor #skills #rehearsal #learn #eastbourne #afterschool #school #kids #children #adults #students #extracurricular #local #payasyougo Blog post for 07/02/2022
Hello Drummers 🥁 Something we get asked from time to time here at Ravebugs HQ, is about posture. It’s worth getting into good habits with your posture, because if you spend a lot of time at the drum kit, either practicing or performing, it’s easy to end up with aches and pains. A lot of this comes down to getting your kit set up correctly to suit you and your frame, for example the drum set-up for someone who’s 5’3” is going to be a lot different to someone who is 6’3”! Phill usually directs people to this article on the Drumeo website, which goes into more detail - check it out to find out more! https://www.drumeo.com/beat/good-drumming-posture/ Have a great week, everyone! 🥁🥁🥁 #drums #drummer #drumming #drumlessons #music #practice #practicemakesperfect #drumkit #learning #lesson #musicteacher #musician #tuition #musictutor #skills #rehearsal #learn #eastbourne #afterschool #school #kids #children #adults #students #extracurricular #local #payasyougo Blog post for 31/01/2022
Hello Drummers 🥁 Have you seen any of the Beatles Get Back documentary series? It’s well worth a watch, featuring hours of footage of The Beatles as they create the masterpieces we all know and love. Watching this got us looking into more of the inspiration of other Beatles songs, with this particular nugget proving very interesting! It’s the poster bought by John Lennon (this very week in fact, in 1967) from an antiques shop in Surrey, which provided him with most of the lyrics for the Beatles song ‘Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite’. The actual poster dates from 1843 - I wonder what the original creators of the poster would have thought of what they inspired, more than a hundred years later! Have a great week, everyone! 🥁🥁🥁 #drums #drummer #drumming #drumlessons #music #practice #practicemakesperfect #drumkit #learning #lesson #musicteacher #musician #tuition #musictutor #skills #rehearsal #learn #eastbourne #afterschool #school #kids #children #adults #students #extracurricular #local #payasyougo Blog post for 24/01/2022
Hello Drummers 🥁 This week we’re thinking about drum thrones, also known as drum seats, drum stools, and probably other names too! What makes a good one? Something we get asked from time to time is whether it’s important to have one at all, or if you can make do with a stool or other seat you have at home. The simple answer is that it’s worth getting one, and they really don’t have to be a colossal investment. On one particularly memorable gig, Phill’s drum throne’s seat snapped off the spindle and he had to spend the whole night sat on a pub chair! Not easy to get comfortable, and it did result in an achy back the next morning… When deciding what you want out of your seat, a lot depends on how much time you’re going to spend sitting on it - a number of hours practice or performance a day, and you’re going to want to make sure you’re comfortable, but for the odd half-hour every now and then, a cheaper more lightweight option will do. Posture is really important when you’re sat at your drums, there is a great book called “The Anatomy of Drumming’, which goes into this in lots of detail. Split seats are supposed to be good for your spine, but it’s uncertain how scientifically accurate that is! So, backless or with a back? Again, a lot depends on your own frame, whether you need a bit more back support or if you find (like Phill!), that the backrest gets in your way. Gas lifts are just a luxury - they don’t really have any benefit, most drum seats easily adjust in height by just spinning them anyway! One thing to add on the subject of seat height, is that it doesn’t really matter how high or low you sit but your knees should never be higher than your hips. There are so many different types of drum seats out there that this could easily turn into a very long blog post, but really the best solution is to go somewhere where you can try out some different styles of drum throne, and see what suits you. Have a great week, everyone! 🥁🥁🥁 #drums #drummer #drumming #drumlessons #music #practice #practicemakesperfect #drumkit #learning #lesson #musicteacher #musician #tuition #musictutor #skills #rehearsal #learn #eastbourne #afterschool #school #kids #children #adults #students #extracurricular #local #payasyougo Blog post for 17/01/2022
Hello Drummers 🥁 It’s one of our busiest weeks of the year here at Ravebugs HQ! In addition to all the usual lessons, practice and other drum-related work that goes on here, from now until next Sunday Phill will be performing on the drums at the annual Hailsham Theatres Pantomime! This year it’s Beauty and the Beast, and promises to be amazing as always! The sheer amount of hard work and dedication that has gone into putting on this amazing show is staggering, with the cast and crew putting in countless hours. Here’s the link: https://hailshampavilion.co.uk/events/hailsham-theatres-beauty-and-the-beast/#tickets If you spot any available tickets, snap them up quick! Have a great week, everyone! 🥁🥁🥁 #drums #drummer #drumming #drumlessons #music #practice #practicemakesperfect #drumkit #learning #lesson #musicteacher #musician #tuition #musictutor #skills #rehearsal #learn #eastbourne #afterschool #school #kids #children #adults #students #extracurricular #local #payasyougo Blog post for 10/01/2022
Hello Drummers 🥁 Today we’re thinking about protecting your ears, something that is essential for everyone at times, but really important for musicians all the time! Firstly, a little about drums… The snare drum is designed to be loud and heard from a long way away (and you’re sitting right on top of it!), the cymbals are at ear level, and you’re probably not going to be a million miles away from an amp if you’re performing at a gig - all this adds up to a pretty risky environment for hearing damage! The main takeaway from this is that you should never practise without hearing protection, and should never perform without protecting those little shell-likes too. Many professional drummers suffer from hearing loss, and also from the ringing-in-your-ears condition known as tinnitus. Advice for us all, drummers or not, would be to never go to gigs without hearing protection, and don’t have your headphones up too loud! Here at Ravebugs HQ, we provide ear defenders for use on our acoustic drum kit, these are simple ones bought from Amazon and were not expensive. You can buy ones specifically made for drummers, but ear defenders you buy from builder’s merchants are very effective too. You don’t need to have special in-ear monitors, unless you want to go down that route and are spending a lot of time on your drumming! At a minimum, we recommend that people carry foam ear plugs, which are very cheap, you can pop a set in your pocket and use them when you need them. Remember, there is no way to repair your ears once they’re damaged - you only have one set of ears, look after them! Have a great week, everyone! 🥁🥁🥁 #drums #drummer #drumming #drumlessons #music #practice #practicemakesperfect #drumkit #learning #lesson #musicteacher #musician #tuition #musictutor #skills #rehearsal #learn #eastbourne #afterschool #school #kids #children #adults #students #extracurricular #local #payasyougo Blog post for 03/01/2022
Hello Drummers 🥁 Happy New Year, from all of us here at Ravebugs HQ! What will 2022 bring for you? We hope one of your new year’s resolutions is to bring more drumming into your lives, whether that means more practice, more performances and gigs, or even a shiny new drum kit! The turning to the first page in our new calendars got us thinking this weekend - is Sir Cliff Richard, the original Peter Pan of Pop, still doing his calendar? The answer, of course, is yes - he’s 81 years old now, but still producing his annual collection of pictures! Did you know he’s been producing these calendars since 1979, and his is still amongst the most popular for sale each year? Have a great week, everyone! 🥁🥁🥁 #drums #drummer #drumming #drumlessons #music #practice #practicemakesperfect #drumkit #learning #lesson #musicteacher #musician #tuition #musictutor #skills #rehearsal #learn #eastbourne #afterschool #school #kids #children #adults #students #extracurricular #local #payasyougo |