ABOUT GUILLAUME
GUILLAUME here. Originally from France, I moved to London, UK in 2006. Small to big and anything in between I gig and record with a wide range of bands, artists and productions. In the last few years I have toured extensively all over the UK, Europe, Australia and Japan with 90’s rockers Reef, detroit legends Electric Six, festival classics Crystal Fighters, indie artist Seil Lien, soul singer Seramic, electro wizard Mr Fogg, Apocalyptica’s frontman, Franky Perez and lucky enough to have shared the stage with the legend Ronnie Wood for a few tunes.
I am a passionate educator and for the last 20 years I have taught hundreds of drummers both privately and in formal institutions such as BiMM London (formerly Drumtech), ICMP and LMA colleges. I remain a keen student myself and regularly check in with maestro Ralph Salmins and L.A heavyweight Dave Elitch.
MY PLEDGE
I want to share the stuff that I find useful, that’s applicable on stage when playing with other musicians.
As a performer, I am committed to make the song move; to make the music feel good, on stage and out front.
Our job is to lead.
Our job is to make the band sound great.
To borrow Steve Jordan’s words:
“To be an ambassador of good will (…) and bring joy to the situation”
NO CHEAP TRICKS OR FLASHY LICKS
Let’s face it, ‘pad practice’ gets pretty boring pretty quickly!
…and I want to change that.
Growing up playing mostly rock stuff I was quite late getting into this sort of stuff. Other than the weight of tradition I never understood why I should ‘bother’ with rudiments and all.
Then I eventually realised that all of the drummers that I was really digging, literally all of them, had great hands. Not because they were necessarily ‘technical’, playing fast or loud or fancy music or whatever. They all had a great sound and real conviction in their playing. That’s what did it for me. These guys, in no particular order and missing just as many more did it for me:
Michael Bland with Prince, Danny Carey with Tool, Brian Blade with Joshua Redman, Josh Freese with A Perfect Circle and NIN… and everyone else, Matt Chamberlain with Fiona Apple & Tori Amos, Steve Jordan with…everyone, James Gadson with Bill Withers, hello! Joey Waronker with Beck, Sonny Pain with Count Basie, Stewart Copeland with The Police, Vinnie Paul with Pantera, Matt Cameron with Soundgarden, Andy Newmark with Sly & Family Stone, Mario Duplantier with Gojira, Keith Carlock with Steely Dan, Lenny White with Return To Forever, Christian Vander with Magma, Vinnie Colaiuta with Sting, Brain with Primus, Terry Bozzio with Zappa & Missing Persons, Carlton Barrett with The Wailers, David Garibaldi with Tower Of Power, Gene Lake with Meshell Ndegeocello, Matt Johnson with Jeff Buckley, Alan Myers with Devo, John JR Robinson, Abe Laboriel Jr with our french Bruce Springsteen: Johnny Halliday, Steve Gadd with Rickie Lee Jones…and everyone else, Carlos Vega with James Taylor, Ringo! Chris Whitten with Dire Straits, Fergal Lawler from the Cranberries, Dave Lombardo with Slayer & Fantomas, Dave Dicenso, Chad & Brooks Wackerman, Gary Novak, Jeremy Stacey, Kendrick Scott and Mark Guiliana with Gretchen Parlato, Zigaboo, John Stanier with Helmet & Battles; Al Jackson Jr and Howard Grimes all over Stax records, Clyde Stubblefield! Jeff Porcaro!! Jim Keltner!!! Zach Danziger, Mitch Mitchell and Buddy Miles with Hendrix, Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Tony Allen, Morgan Agren, John Bonham, Alex Van Halen, Dave Grohl, Jon Theodore, Deantoni Parks….it goes ooooooon.
Somehow these amazing musicians all made me realised that working on my hands wasn’t necessarily about crazy chops, or fancy vocabulary but about building a relationship with the sticks so that you could draw *your* sound out of the drums; at least thats how I see it.
MAINTENANCE OVER PERFORMANCE
I will not pretend to be a mister know it all when it comes to hand technique material but I’ve got a certain mileage and have been filtering a lot of information over the years.
There are plenty of amazing drummers out there that have plenty to say on the subject. It’s hard to know who to listen to sometimes. I tend to avoid those repeating the same old tropes without real depth or musical credentials and I try to listen and get inspiration from those who speak with nuance and actually sound great on the instrument. That’s kind of my (admittedly, subjective) bottom line.
DRUMDRILL is not about training for practice pad Olympics. There are no medals for looking impressive on a pad. This not doing ‘technique’ for technique sake, we are trying to get our hands to feel better to play the music we want to play feel and sound better, more connected. The aim is to sound good ON THE KIT!
Drummers are social creatures, it is so much fun to do this together and if you’re not going to take my word for it listen to Steve Gadd:
“I’m still practicing, because I’m into it; because this thing interests me (and) if you can do it together it’s even more fun.”
Steve Gadd
I want drummers to have better hands to do a better job. To look at their habits and make structural changes.
Not to work on technique for technique’s sake but to develop a better touch, a better sound, a better sense of placement; to lead the band purposefully and better serve a musical, artistic vision.
All of my favourite drummers, regardless of how loud, how soft, how hard, how delicate, how fast, how slow, how explosive, how restrained, how obnoxious, how considered, how elaborate or how simple they play, have beautiful hands and ‘a’ sound, a voice, a pocket. So can you.
I want drummers to stop getting distracted and confused with shortlists, appealing soundbites and gimmicks.
In the noisy age of abundant information, the less sexy, less entertaining is easily ignored or dismissed in favour of the next trend, quick fixes, shortcuts, appealing soundbites and hollow promises.
Aiming for the ‘best’ exercise, sticking or lick is the wrong way to go about it.
We are changing that. The material is here to be used, not just memorised. If you want to see progress you’ll have to start asking different questions…
There are no magic shortcuts.
Diving in and drilling it, yes, AND also pausing a moment to align mind and body; smart, not hard.
I want to show that the Fundamentals hold so many keys to real improvement for the quality of our playing.
It is all right there in front of us if we let it. Rudiments, Stick Control, Hand Technique get a bad rep because it’s ‘boring’, ‘tedious’ or ‘thankless’.
Perhaps it is. Perhaps not.
Perhaps we make it boring.
Perhaps we approach it too literally, with too little creativity and missing the uncomfortable questions this kind of material can raise about our playing and habits as a whole.
