Welcome to the new Sevenoaks Drum School blog
Billy Cunningham
December 18, 2017
Welcome to the new Sevenoaks Drum School monthly newsletter! I will be using this to keep you posted of all the latest SDS news, info, practise tips for students, photos, videos, social media and more.
This month feature is about the new SDS studio. The studio took about five weeks to build with work starting in August and completed in September just in time for the new term starting…phew! The studio was designed and built by acoustic specialists Amadeus and I can now highly recommend them! See below for more on them.
The SDS Studio
The inside studio space is 5 x 2.5m creating a spacious teaching studio with two professional acoustic drum kits consisting of Pearl, Mapex, and Yamaha drums, Zildjian and Sabian cymbals and a high quality sound system to play music to drum along with.
The construction is a ‘room-in-room’ structure with a double door entry system where the inside room is not in contact with the outside room. This is standard music studio construction and creates an excellent soundproofed building.
This is an acoustic window for parents to view their children practising from outside the studio.
As a teacher this is the perfect space for me as my students get to stay on the drums for the entire lesson, I can demonstrate drumming on a separate kit. The studio also has the perfect space to view my students playing clearly and also they can easily see me play when I’m demonstrating.
We can also jam together and come up with new ideas by playing and listening to each other, a great way to develop aural skills.
The studio also has a desk for me to write new material, internet access to view online drum videos and an acoustic window for parents to watch from outside the studio.
There is even space for parents to watch/wait. I can provide ear protection for students and parents too!
Amadeus is a fantastic company and provide expert solutions for musicians, music studios, performing arts venues and education establishments. Established in 1994, Amadeus offers over 20 years’ experience and the benefit of their vast knowledge.
Whether you require acoustic consultancy, musicians’ furniture and instrument storage, soundproof doors or acoustic panels, or you wish to develop a new studio, theatre or rehearsal space, Amadeus can provide the expertise and tailored solutions designed to meet your requirements.
I also feel it’s really important for students to learn on real acoustic drum kits as although electric drum kits can be a great practise kit and family-friendly, there are some subtle sound differences that even the very best electric drum kits on the market cannot emulate. Playing on acoustic drums also feels much better and let’s be honest, drummers love to play on the real thing producing that fantastic big drum sound!
The studio is also the perfect space to prepare my students for drum grade exams. We can create exam conditions, as the exams tend to be in studios anyway. This is great for my students to gain confidence and pre-exam experience on loud drums playing along to the backing tracks at a similar volume to how they will be in the exam. My students can work on sight-reading, improvisation and ear test examples too as well as their exam pieces.
Finally I would like to conclude by mentioning that having the SDS studio means that I can offer lessons outside of school time when it suits my students including Half Terms, Easter and Summer holidays too. Some of my students like to have catch up sessions during the school holiday breaks particularly if there is an exam coming up.
If anyone would like to book a school holiday session please get in touch. I would be more than happy to accommodate you.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
Billy
Happy holidays
and seasons greetings to all.