That's A Wrap, Folks!

For a multitude of teachers, this school year has come to a close and I can almost hear a resounding sigh of relief!

It sure wasn’t what we expected but as far as I can tell, most of us rose to the occasion and met the challenges with a reasonable amount of effort and creativity. For BTN, it was a massive year to learn, grow and build on new experiences like never before. It was a difficult school year but may I say that I am immensely grateful for difficult times. I find that if handled with the right mindset, they can be stepping stones to exponential growth. With all that said however, I am well aware that via quick comparison, I personally did not even come close to the difficult times others this year have endured and Im sure that many people are very excited to get to the next chapter.

In order to move along to the next chapter, its always nice to close out the previous one with a bang, which is what we’re hear to talk about!

In last months Blog Post, I wrote that I was not going to do any sort of end of year recital due to the difficulty and complexity surrounding meeting in big groups….but then I had an idea. What if we all met in a huge field where we could be together but with a bit of distance.

So last week, on Thursday June 25th, A good chunk of BTN’s students congregated in a field. It was hot and muggy and it was awesome. The plan was for everyone to bring their drum sets from home and set them up in a huge circle on said field and play some music collectively. I’ll be honest I really didn’t give it much more thought than that. Life’s been crazy with a new baby and I lacked in the normal energy I seemed to possess. So with the help of some amazing students, we packed up the studio earlier that day, made a quick Costco run and then we were off. The students and families all arrived an hour or so after us and the fun began!

Everyone made their way to centre field with drum sets i hand and I could the see the excitement on faces as the kids set up their kits. This was huge because it gave me an opportunity to walk around to each kit and inspect them for tuning needs, as well as overall “health” of the kit.

Once the kits were set up, we ran through a series of warm up exercises. There were 20 of us in total that day with a few students sharing kits. We jammed along to ‘Billie Jean’, ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’. Due to having students from various skill levels, I needed to pick songs that I knew everyone could play and get into.

Between every song, We’d chat about the importance’s of listening to one another as well as complimenting the style or genre of music you’re playing along to.

Finally, we ended with a free form solo session where I laid down a basic Samba Ostinato with the feet and the kids each took turns playing 4 bars of solo over top of it. The students had never done anything like that before and so I had to encourage them that creativity comes when we put ourselves out there, experimenting with all sorts potentially “bad” ideas and sounds until fresh ones arise!

A few people had brought drones to the party, so we were sure to capture a group photo in the best way we could!

After all this, the pizza had arrived and we dug in hard! Some parens brought delicious baked goods and everyone sat in the sun and enjoyed their families and friends.

It was a bit of tear down madness when the time came, but I really thought it was important for the students to get a good idea of what it’s like to have to tear down a drum set, bring it to a gig, set it up and then do it all over again…(Most of my teenage years!!) We drummers really have the most work it seems when gigging!

Overall, I’d say the event was a success and I’m inspired and very excited to try a version of it again next year.

I simply cannot thank the parents and students enough for this year. The encouragement and feedback I receive is so appreciated, so respected and so valued.

BTN I will be taking a break from private lessons this summer but keep an eye out for a few fun projects over the next few months. Take care everyone!