I plan to host a drum clinic featuring three drummers (including myself) on the 11th of February 2025 at the Water Bear venue. The aim is to inspire and educate drummers with varying abilities. Each drummer will give a 45-60 minute lesson featuring demonstrations and performances with a question-and-answer at the end. Audience members should be assured they will walk away with valuable insights and practical exercises to put into practice.

My lesson will be about how to play the double pedal on the drums in a metal music style. The other two drummers will be even more experienced in their field and will be given a longer time to teach and answer questions. My experience in metal drumming is extensive. I’ve played some gigs and have filled in for metal bands professionally. I want to do this because I want to challenge myself not only in terms of instrumentation abilities but also in terms of my organisational and social skills. I’d like for audience members to enjoy the atmosphere of the event and want it to be fun. This will push me and I believe the outcome could be amazing. My assets are my knowledge of drumming/teaching and my ability to organise events. 

I have decided to put on a drum workshop

with Tristan Banks who's a local brighten drummer. I studied Jazz and Latin music with him over the summer, I find his teaching style very interesting and inspiring, so I wanted him to share his knowledge with the other students. I've spoken to him about the idea but need the venue sorted.

The reason I wanted to use this venue is linked to my Uni and hopefully, it'll encourage my Uni to promote the event to students at BIMM and Waterbear

What will be my success metric?

How many people report that they have learned something via a survey at the end 

What are my deliverables?

Drum Lesson content, drum performances 

What will I research?

Drum Clinic's primary and secondary research 

Putting on live events 

I got recommended to book by Stu who is one of my lectures at WaterBear. He told me that Liam studied at WaterBear and is based in the area. I thought it was great suggestion because it would be interesting learning about his career in the music industry playing in heavy rock bands.

His style of drumming is very unique and it would be sick hearing him play the old Black Peak songs I used to listen to as a kid

I find the Steve Gadd clinic inspiring and want to replicate it at my university. In this lesson, Steve discusses Latin drumming. Latin drumming is not covered as much as it should be at my university, so I have asked Tristan to prepare a lesson on the subject. Tristan spent a lot of time playing in Brazil, learning the music and understanding the culture.

I think students will find his lesson useful

I picked the 11th of February

Case studies

Mike Dolbear is a drum instructor based in the UK. He made his website Mikedolbear.com in 2000 to bring drummers together online to inspire and educate each other. Mike wrote a book called “Rhythms and Fills” which has now become one of the top-selling drum books. Throughout his career, Mike has made a real effort to unite drummers across the UK and established communities that now carry the torch for UK drumming. In 2011 Mike auditioned and taught 1000 drummers to play at the 2012 Olympic ceremony. Such an achievement is very admirable. Mike also hosts a drum event called the UK Drum Show every year. The event features drum experiences from masterclasses, drum performances, drum equipment presentations and meet and greet sessions. The event caters for all drummers of any age/ability and encourages community and positivity. Mike Dolbear’s vision is to celebrate the art of drums and percussion and I want to channel that energy into my work when putting on my drum event. 

The School of Drumming, based in Woking is a centre that facilitates drum masterclasses, jam nights and 1-1 private lessons. Adam Bond founded the company in 2017 and has built a team of qualified drum teachers around him so that the company can take on several drummers at once creating more of a community vibe. The company invites big-name drummers like Richard Spaven to come regularly and teach a masterclass. I like the community spirit this company has and they inspire me. 

I asked Tristan in the summer of 2024 if he was available in the new year to teach a masterclass with me for my final major project. I was studying with him at time for about 6 weeks and I find his teachings on Latin music especially very helpful. Tristan has done masterclasses before at his club 'The Verdict'.

Affy Green works with WaterBear and she's a great drummer so I'm going to find her email and ask her to play

Affy plays pop music and she uses a lot of electric drums. It's a very unique approach to drumming and it could be interesting to learn how she does it.

To measure how successful my event was I will need feed back from audience members. My number could be displayed at the venue and I ask people to text me feedback after the event is finished. This feedback will help me understand what I need to do next time I put a drumming event.

I also reached out to my mate Alex Henry, an illustrator under the name 'NoseWise', and asked him to design a poster for my event.

I chose Alex because he's a good friend of mine, we're in the same classes and his art work is very good. His style is cartoon drawings. He sketches on a pad and then scans it into his computer to make into posters, animation etc.

So I need to plan a lesson too, however, it's only 45 minutes and it won't be hard to come up with something interesting

Success criteria

As this is my first clinic, my success criteria are running the event smoothly and making sure the audience walks away with some information. At the end of the session, I will give out a survey, which I hope audience members will fill out. Financially, I need to prioritize paying the staff and personnel expenses. My personal goal is to advertise myself as an event organiser and drum teacher.

How will my success metric be measured?

How many people report that they have learned something and that they had a good time? I will get feedback via Instagram and WhatsApp

I also have rough timing and lineup details, however, they might change.

Affy is clearly very busy so we may have to start looking for a backup option if she can't make it.

I will ask around locally and also see if anyone from London want to fill in

We came across a guy named Kamil Bartnik, who teaches a family friend, Laith.

I know Laith because he plays with his sister Myah, who I went to school with.

Kamil is a professional season drummer, MD, and teacher. He would be perfect for the event.

I got his number and reached out to him.

He responded quickly and said he just needed to double-check his dates, so I'll just have to wait and see.

I am going to pay £ 200+travel costs

This is because I multiply the MU average rate for a group teacher (around £40) and times it by 5 hours. (MU, 2025)

I am prepared to lose money, having a job means I can recover from the loss. I would be great if we make some back but that's not a desired outcome in this project.

I am also going to print posters and investigate advertising; however, the cost will have to be minimal.

My budget for the advertising will be around £20-30.

Places I'll target.

The Verdict is run by Tristan, so people will most likely be interested in the masterclass he’ll be doing. 

Hope and Ruin is a hot spot for music students so that's gonna be a great spot to advertise the event. 

Brighton Electric and Small Pound are two rehearsal spaces in Brighton that are very popular with students and local musicians in general.

I'm still waiting for Alex to finish the poster and hopefully this will be done in January. Ready to be printed and posted

We don't have much time between January and the event on February 11th, so I've created a marketing plan for you to follow.

This is important for everyones health and safety. If something goes round I'd have to take responsibility so i'm insuring myself nothing goes wrong.

Personnel 

Me (Kieran Stanley) 

Kamil Bartnik 

Tristan banks

Sound guy

Venue staff

My goal for the lesson is to teach people the basics of double bass drum playing. The lesson focuses on 16th notes and requires the student to play broken groupings of 3 in all 4 variations. So we take 1e+a and take out one note at a time, starting with the 1, so we get ()e+a, then 1()+a, etc.

The exercise forces the student to focus on coordinating one leg at a time because the rudiment played is a single stroke roll (RLRL)

It will also help the student's timing because the student has to tune their brain into missing out notes in the run of 16th notes

This is a simple exercise, but it can be expanded further with more practice and extra challages for example playing the exercise under a half time groove.