Dominique
Tutor profile verified
- Hourly rate €36
- Response Time 24h
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Dominique - Forest Hill - Drum
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- Forest Hill
- at his home
- at your home
- webcam
About the lesson
- Which subject(s) do you teach?
Drumming from A to B. (on complete drum-kit)
My course is not a 'school of style'.
I teach how to use two drumsticks, pedals and the whole of the drum kit.
The style will be determined by my student's affinity for this or that type of music.
I will then teach him in this direction.
I teach and am proficient in any style.
- Tell me about your qualifications.
I have been teaching drums since 1981.
In 1982 I published 2 drum books and a huge rhythm course. I then began to teach drum and it became very busy. 3 years later we had become the biggest private music school in France. We were by that time teaching all instruments. My drum books sold thousands.
- How much do you charge?
£30 per hour in my studio (£25 per hour for children under 16)
If I have to travel £45/hour + travel (call for details)
- Where do you teach?
My studio is located at 1min walk from Forest Hill B/R Station in the artists' muse of Havelock Walk.
I am considering travelling in Kent and Sussex one day a week if I get enough students in an area on the same day. This would permit to cut down the cost of travel. (Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead...)
- When are you available?
Tuesday 9:00-21:00
Thursday 9:00-21:00
Friday 13:00-21:00
Saturday 12:00-17:00
I may cancel due to a gig in which case we usualy replace with another time during the same week.
- Which ages and levels do you teach?
Ages:
From 6 years to... advanced. (My oldest student in Paris was a 68 female... here, a 51 male - who now has his own Rock band!) Most of my students range between 14-35 with several from 6-10 years old.
Levels:
*Beginners to advanced.
- Describe your arrangements for online tutoring.
I don't have any... I guess I should but I have not time to study and develop something like this all by myself.
This said until a simple system that anyone can easily use to record and share swiftly videos of good quality (including a good sound) is created and implemented in every household... I can't see how it can be workable – especially during the 2 or 3 first years. Drumming can be a tough learning experience. This instrument is quite difficult to master. You've got to sweat on it. Your intellect understands but your body seems to want to always do something else.
I believe the presence of a true teacher is crucial.
An experienced teacher reads signs at many levels which tell a lot on how the student is doing. Signs for example that tells him that the student has not eaten enough and so is unable to focus, or that his attention is somewhere else – a family quarrel, the loss of a dear friend, or maybe she has a new boyfriend… This bars the learning process and must be addressed at the beginning of the course or one hour will be wasted.
A few minutes of good communication with understanding or a 'go get a snack and eat quickly I am waiting for you' can make a world of difference.
It is easy to give up a venture such as drumming if there is nobody here to take care.
Plus, this is music and in essence it is communication on an aestheticslevel.
Personal contact is important.
- Do you have a personal message for students?
Do you know the name of the best teacher in the world?
*His name is '8 hours a day'.
And you can look around, go to Berkley, New York, the Royal Academy or LA, you can join Boom-tech or you can come and see me.
Honestly, none of us would if only think of competing with him.
If you really want to play, if you can manage to free enough time and if you practice 8 hours a day, you have it made; you'll become a star!
At the end of the day it is YOU who learn how to express yourself through this medium.
It is not like driving a car. We are speaking ART here.
If one really wants to honestly teach an instrument one can only show you the basic rules and how it works - the 'mechanics' of it. It is more like teaching how to speak. You learn words and ways to put them together so as to make sense - which is to say so as others can understand what you want to say.
But it is YOU who communicate, not your teacher.
And the last thing you want after years of learning is to find yourself stuck into being able to only speak like him!
subjects
- Drum
languages
- English
levels
- All Levels
About Dominique
- What kind of experience do you have?
As a musicians:
10 years ago I formed a covers band and a Jazz band in London.
We have since played more than 1500 gigs throughout 10 countries (We're just back from a week in Ethiopia).
Before coming to the UK I was playing regularly in most of Paris' night clubs, played at the Crazy Horse Saloon for 7 years (I was drummer for two consecutive house-bands there) and with a series of French acts.
Oh and I also established the first World Record of the Longest Drum Solo in 1985. It was in the Guinness Book 1986, but they withdrew it later on because I had not followed the Guinness rules apparently. I had played 24 hours 40mins and took only 10 min rest every 4 hours with no sleep etc. Also it was in the middle of the sea in Brittany on a huge catamaran sponsored by JAZ (the watch company). The Guinness rules are much less stringent (more frequent breaks, you must sleep enough etc.). I can last for ever if I can sleep 4 hours a day and if no rain pours on the kit in the middle of the night... So in fact nobody has ever beaten this record!
As an educator:
I created and managed - 1982-1992 - a school in Paris which grew quite rapidly. By the end of the 80s/ early 90s we were delivering lessons to 650 students weekly with a total of 15 staff members including 7 teachers.
I left because I had no more time to play drums. I came to England for that purpose, and gee have I drummed since!
- Where and with whom did you train?
Kenny Clark (Paris)
Dante Agostini (Paris)
Robert Bordes (Paris)
- Do you belong to any professional organisations?
'Musician Union'
- Tell me about some of your current students.
They are great - the kids and the adults alike. They all work their butts off during the week to make me happy on their next lesson! One of them, David, started Christmas 2006 and summer 2007 formed his own rock band called 'The Voyeurs'. They now play in local pubs and are becoming really good. Watch that space! Most of them have bought their own drum kit. I would like to be able to spend more time with them outside the lessons but I am very busy... They all are friends.
Youssef is I think 16 now. I have stopped teaching him almost 2 years because he was too good and I do not want to affect his own vision of drumming. He does not need a teacher anymore and can work alone to develop his own style - which he is doing. He and his brothers have a very good funk band. His mum and dad have been very supportive since the beginning and a true source of inspiration.
Some of my students have been with me for 4, 5, 6 years. It is great to see them flourishing on their kit… and in life. They have a lot to teach me too!
Rates
packs
- 5h: €180
- 10h: €360
webcam
- €36/h
