I try to run a paper newsletter - with some degree of regularity(?) for our students at the Dye House Drum Works, though with our new Facebook hub, it would be a shame to not share this a little wider – welcome! Students: There’s no such thing as a ‘typical student’ here at DHDW. One of the great benefits of teaching at an open facility like ours is the variety of characters we come into contact with every day – each with their own idea of what their instrument should be and how they want to express that. This year we have had new student drummers playing their first gigs at school talent shows (some of the older ones cutting their teeth at the local boozer!); lot’s of candidates tightening their playing ready for examination performances and college/university auditions; other local tutors brushing-up on skills ready to pass knowledge to their own student base, as well as other Leicester drummers making use of the shop and repair facilities here at the studio. It really does feel like a drummer’s community drop-in centre here – similar to the old shop days, which is a big part of what we are about. Thanks all for helping to make the place what it is! I have been getting out and about round town and doing a lot of ‘visiting’ too lately! Some of this is related to other topics I’ll talk about elsewhere, but on the DHDW line, I recently dropped in on the Regency Jazz Jam in Leicester: a well run and relaxed, straight ahead jazz open platform for local players. I uploaded a blog post about it here: dyehousedrumworks/wordpress/regency-modern-jazz-jam-visit-september-2013/ I should mention that Regency Jazz also run regular Tuesday night performances through the year – details can be found here: regentleicester.co.uk/j I also enjoyed an interesting tour of studio facilities and an insightful meeting with the music department tutors at Leicester College. This is something I have been meaning to do for some time now, as many of our common students share similar formal education goals and we hope to all work together more through several of the ideas we discussed together – a bit of a ‘watch this space’ scenario. Similarly, the Rock School Academy open day at Quad Studios graciously opened its doors and allowed me to sit in on their taster session for 11 to 18 year olds, where each child/teen had an hours’ coaching on their own instrument from one of RSA’s excellent tutors, before performing the song they had learned to an audience of each other, in bands, in turn. AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’! It really was School of Rock – and brilliant for it! Shop: We’ve had a steady stream of new visitors getting used to the appointment system and visiting Quad at odd (out-of) hours in the afternoons and evenings and responses have been very encouraging. I am real pleased that we have managed to keep a competitive edge on our prices too – it is a bit of an experiment and with so many drum shops closing up and down the country, it’s heartening to know that Leicester still has need for dedicated drum retailer. I won’t go into too much detail here, but check the new updates viewable now at: dyehousedrumworks/wordpress/shop/ Rockschool: Dye House Drum Works is hosting an exam day this autumn for Rockschool’s Period C on Saturday November 9th. We’ll be running pre-exam coaching sessions for anyone entering independently who feels they need help – or even just a look around the centre prior to the day. Drop us a line for details. Thanks for reading – keep in touch, all! Lee x
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:07:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015