Drum Masterclass November 2010

Jason Bowld came to do a drum master-class with the drummers on the Core Programme.  Here is what they had to say about the day:

Molly Lopresti-Richards
When I heard about the master class with Jason Bowld I was extremely excited! 

We arrived at the Corn Exchange to meet the other drummers in a room set up with two drum kits. We had all brought practise pads to play on. The format of this worked very well, someone would play the kit and Jason would show them what to do by playing the other kit. Meanwhile the rest of us were trying to get around the rhythms on the practise pads. We all had a few goes trying different things on the kit and Jason was very good at adapting his teaching to our different levels of skill. He was very inspiring and helped me a lot with my playing. I really enjoyed the day.

I don't think I could have had the opportunity to have such a great master class along with four other great drummers if it wasn't for South West music school. I feel much more confident about my playing and have taken so much away from the day!

Thank you so much SWMS!

Josh Rose
First of all, Jason was a really nice guy, he was open to any suggestions and encouraged creativity. We looked at a number of co-ordination exercises; for example a Brazilian Baio foot ostinato with an overlapping hand pattern was a real mind-bender. These patterns created interesting melodies around the kit and we looked a lot at how to orchestrate the same pattern in a number of different ways. Rudimental patterns were also a focus, and how to accent and orchestrate them to create the desired effect. Another good part of the day was application of certain patterns we learnt, such as applying a 6-stroke roll into a drum and bass style groove. metric modulation was another topic covered. Personally, I had great fun, It was a great experience to see how proffesionals work and it was really useful to see how developed even the simplest pattern can become.

Sam Fisher

The whole day was such a thrill with Jason, he was so inspirational. First we started with some simple ‘groovy patterns’ but then we went on to some great, more advenced beats, before we knew it we were doing things on the bass drum where you couldn’t even hear separate beats! It was going that fast it was such a great experience! I didn’t want it to end!

Ben Watton

I thought the Drum Masterclass with Jason was awesome!  I enjoyed learning about double pedaling and the paradiddle combos.  It was great fun doing a double pedal play-off with Jules and learning more techniques. Thank you so much for this awesome experience... !!