LAMA

[jean krupa]

rpc:

FORGET SCHOOL. Forget MI, LAMA, Yaba Daba Do.

You dig drumming? Then seek out a teacher whose
playing you dig and respect, study, and when
you are through w/ him, seek another, etc.

Continue playing with different ensemble
experiences, both paying and non-paying,
shed, shed, shed as your vocation allows,
keep listening to Vinnie for inspiration,
keep buying music (also for inspiration)

and this should advance your musical / playing
skills much better, more complete and faster
than paying an institution for what you can
do on your own and with total control.

[Kurtis]

as far as the schools MI has a better facility. it's bigger and its in hollyweird. quite an experience being around that environment. been to lama a few times. it's small but it works. good players there also. teachers come and go. some have been around for decades at both schools. it was a treat to have ralph humphrey as a teacher. it all depends on what you want to get out of it. if your looking for an experience in life go for it. you say your low on cash. if you go the student loan route you will be paying that back for 20 years or so. it's a like a nagging car payment that will not go away. i moved to cally with just 2,500 bucks. that's it. i made it work somehow. 700 of that was for a down payment on my student loan. you can always do the lockout thing and just shred your ass off. buy all the books you want to concur. take lessons here and there to stay on the right track. if you go LAMA or MI your going to get an experience of a life time. there will be good and bad times. builds character. if you have 5 grand saved up go for it. 5 grand will last you about a year. go out and visit first before you jump in head first. visit MI and LAMA. if your to far away to do that jump in head first anyhow. most do. i didn't give a shit about the schools curriculum. i just wanted to practice and get out of suburban life. had no idea what i was getting myself into. life is more fun that way. i miss MI. it was a huge turning point in my life. there are a few people in my year program that turned out very successful. the moderator of this forum turned out ok. after MI he kept practicing and shedding his but off. it paid off. i say do it. put it in motion. you will not regret it. i still miss going to class and having ralph humphrey coming in the door and going over the classes weekly lessons. or going into the school at 3am cause i could and hearing Phil Maturano practicing some crazy 6/8 independence through the door and then hanging out with him once he opened the door so i could in room 391 to see what he was doing and getting a lesson. all in the wee wee hours of the morning. or watching GG Bone blaze away some singles on the practice pad before site reading class starts. talking to joe porcaro period!!!! having efrain toro tear apart your world. meeting the females in school and try to be the first one in line. would you look at that - kirk covington is playing keyboards (he's playing the bass line,chords and solo stuff) and i'm playing drums and i have no idea this guy plays drums. it was my first time meeting him and he talks keyboards and cruise ship gigs and a few days later he's on stage playing drums for tribal tech! hanging with toss panos in an open counseling is a beautiful thing. clinics are held all the time. i could go on and on about going to a music school. your experience will not be like the one i had. but the most important thing about attending school in los angeles county. i cannot stress this enough. it's the best thing that ever happened to me and will take to the grave. SUSHI!!!!!!!!!! there are 5 places in LA that have the best quality sushi. if your a sushi fan you know where these spots are. and here i sit in my suburban home in new cold as hell jersey.

i got nuthin

[Gaddabout]

rpc:

FORGET SCHOOL. Forget MI, LAMA, Yaba Daba Do.

You dig drumming? Then seek out a teacher whose
playing you dig and respect, study, and when
you are through w/ him, seek another, etc.

Continue playing with different ensemble
experiences, both paying and non-paying,
shed, shed, shed as your vocation allows,
keep listening to Vinnie for inspiration,
keep buying music (also for inspiration)

and this should advance your musical / playing
skills much better, more complete and faster
than paying an institution for what you can
do on your own and with total control.

This is always my top suggestion, but I recognize it's really hard to find teachers of that caliber in Wayoutbackistan or wherever someone is hailing from. On the flip side, people tend to learn more when they are forced to make a time and money commitment. There's more incentive to shed.

[Steve Holmes]

Nice one Kurt!

[Gaddabout]

Kurt's doctor must've put him on the GOOD drugs.

[Tombo 7/4]

I remember a couple months ago you posted that you just moved to Austin and were seeking advice on how to make it as a player. But you basically said that you can't play, never practice and were not willing to market yourself...?!?

Now you say that you don't want to be a pro musician and that you're dirt poor but you want to go to a top music school in an expensive city...?!?

Something doesn't add up here.

You either want to be funny and we don't get it or you have serious career choice issues. In the later case, I would seek advice somewhere else than on an internet forum.

Just trying to help us help you.

[Kurtis]

Kurt's doctor must've put him on the GOOD drugs.

bring the insults. what ever. i'm a pessimistic at heart. you see the donut i see the hole in the middle of the donut. i know your just dishing out the usual HOD trash. i love sarcasm and it's cynical overtones.

as life goes on you need to look at the brighter side.

there have been many topics about music schools. all the posts are same shit different day. blah blah blah. nothing new to read. going through the motions without any emotions. i guess just for once i feel that music schools such as the ones in question are a good thing. i had the most greatest experience at MI. i love that school. it got me back on my feet! Owen Goldman is my savoir. he gave me a job taking down and setting up the cymbals in the drum dept. i new what to do since i had been going there for a year. that gave me income! not much but enough. then a few teachers took me on and let me be a paid teacher in their classes. live playing workshops and the like. more income! that was a turning point for me. then i worked security for a year and a half. that gave me 24/7 access! so after my shift ended at midnight i go up and start practicing till 3 am or until the sun came up. i became the player i am today because of the security gig that let me shed like a maniac. fresh out of the year course. now i can take what i have learned and make music out of it. i was all chops! had plenty of it. just didn't know how to make it groove. that took another 15 (or so) years to sink in. now it all makes sense. school can only teach you so much. it just has to sink in. some mature faster than others. i was a late bloomer but it happened. i fucking get it. i told ralph humphrey that when i saw him at la va lee at a michael ruff show. i always see ralph at michael ruff shows in LA because those two are very close. when you go to clubs you pick up on vibes and the sense of community. it's the shit you don't pick up in school. its the guys that teach you in class you go to see in a club at night and it's classified to me as SCHOOL TIME! that's why LAMA and MI are good places to be around. joe porcaro and emil richards playing at this club in burbank near NBC studios. forgot the name long gone i bet. then a few weeks later gary novak lighting it up at that place. that's right folks a 1995 novak. also saw him play at la ve lee back then. that guy was god back then for me. oh how time flies. and did i mention the SUSHI was great!

school for me was good if not great.

[rpc]

This is always my top suggestion, but I recognize it's really hard to find teachers of that caliber in Wayoutbackistan or wherever someone is hailing from. On the flip side, people tend to learn more when they are forced to make a time and money commitment. There's more incentive to shed.

Well said. That kind of sums up my inclination toward going to school. I think of it like the Jedi going to the temple: You can train out in the woods with Yoda - and that's irreplacable - but at some point, you'll also want to get in with the rest of the Jedi and do a little training with them. For me, it's just the money thing.

I remember a couple months ago you posted that you just moved to Austin and were seeking advice on how to make it as a player. But you basically said that you can't play, never practice and were not willing to market yourself...?!? Something doesn't add up here.

You know, almost without fail, in all of the years I've been visiting discussion forums for drummers, whenever there's a thread that's going really well, where people (like Kurtis, for instance) are really opening up and creating a special atmosphere, some hater has to chime and and shoot someone in the conversation in the a$$. I'm not going to explain myself in anty real detail. I didn't like Austin as much as I thought I would. I DEFINITELY never said I "can't play," because I can, though I'm not Dave Weckl. And, since some real juiciness is apparently what you're looking for, I've lived on Maui, in Oregon, in Washington, in Austin and now in Sacramento, all in the last 7 months. Dirt broke.

The numbers on becoming a successful professional player are about 1 in 10,000, dude. No offense. I'm a little jaded now tho too. it's fucking hard. Bottom line. And u have to work ur ass off at the not playing part to do it. it's all about who you know. That's pretty much what music college is tho. A big networking game. Hopefully u get to know someone that makes it and u can ride up with them.

After reading that from a guy who's a close childhood friend of mine, I think I'm going to set my sights elsewhere (again). I have these flare-ups every few months where I start thinking, "What am I doing? I should be playing drums." And I'm sure I'll have more in the future. But what keeps me from really pursuing it, aside from always being broke, is that I hear from so many different people that it's extremely unlikely that a drummer will "make it" in the music world. In fact, it sounds like it's hard even for popular seasoned pros, who sometimes have to resort to taking gigs that aren't necessarily at their level of prestige to make ends meet.

Sure would be cool to just dive in and spend a year or two really maxing out my playing, though.

[Lucas Ives]

i now officially have a man-crush on kurtis.

[Steve Holmes]

Kurt I don't think Gaddabout was intending an insult (Matt?)