Anyway, about a week later, my friend Andrew wrote to me to ask if I'd like to open for Benny Greb's only Sydney clinic in August. Feeling like an absolute beginner, I nervously said yes, and then he said, "well, I'll have to run it past Benny and Sonor, so I'll get back to you." I thought, then, that there'd be no way they'd be into it, and so I went about my business practicing matched grip as there was a long way to go...
A couple of weeks later, Andrew wrote back to me and said "Benny's into it!" And so it began. I had to practice like crazy to get my matched grip together as I didn't want to disgrace myself in front of his 300+ audience, nor him.
What helped me get prepared enough was to have had the good fortune to have found Chad Wackerman's course on the Murray Spivack Method on Drum Channel, as well as to have found the Open/Close Technique as taught by the great Gordy Knudtson. Here's my playlist of all his amazing videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KINRsm0yhQ&list=PLhTVsDPOH5EH_6MDs3mPk24Aal17YpNab
To cut a long story short, it was a great night, and we had a great time. Benny was very cool and, when we had about half an hour alone together back stage before I went on, he was very helpful for calming my nerves, and in helping me to feel good about being myself, and doing what I do.
Here's one of the three tracks I played that night, and instead of coming out with a solo at the beginning of my set (which I've never liked doing at clinics), I made a cadenza into a solo at the end of this piece. The solo starts at 3:59, and I hope you enjoy it:
Here are a couple of pics from the night too. It was really inspiring to finish my set, and to sit with my wife and daughter side of stage while Benny played. What an amazing guy and phenomenally gifted creative artist he is on the drums!
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