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Life’s Little Drumming Lessons is a book being written by George Lawrence. It’s a work in progress - part autobiography, part drum instruction book, part drumming career advice drawn from his fifty years experience as a journeyman professional drummer and teacher.
When I received my first snare drum in the sixth grade I played along to the 45 rpm single record of “Satisfaction” incessantly. I still, to this day, think it is the best rock and roll drum track ever recorded…and it’s nothing but quarter notes on the snare drum and bass drum! Unrelenting, pile driving, perfect timing, tempo like a metronome, simple quarter notes. It’s so simple that you wait in anticipation of a little variation -expecting him to break face. But NO.
I teach at at Memphis Drum Shop and at my home in East Memphis. Lessons cost $30 per half hour, and $60 per hour. Grade school and college students usually take half hour lessons. Pros and working drummers usually take hour lessons. I teach remotely via skype, zoom, face time, etc.
I was 63 and not happy about my life or career. I sat out on my back deck one afternoon to have a long talk with myself about how I wanted to spend the next phase of my life. I needed to re-invent myself again – and it needed to be a major re-invention.
I love hearing drummers’ “origin stories”. We all have one; that story that we tell over and over again about the first time we played a drum, or watched someone else play a drum or a drum set that inspired us and gave us the “drum fever”. This is mine.
Life's Little Drumming Lessons: Some random thoughts that are slowly coagulating into a book I hope to publish one day.
09/1999 - I do a lot of work as a "sub"; a pinch hitter". I and a pool of other drummers that I share gigs with in Nashville have honed certain preparation skills to the point that we can guarantee an artist that we can come in with little or no rehearsal and play the parts right, catch all the cues and make the artist feel at ease. There are two gigs that I am presently preparing for. One is a Tanya Tucker gig that I am subbing for fellow drummer Steve Ebe who also plays with Kim Richie, Webb Wilder and used to play for the Dixie Chicks. The other gig is subbing for Brian Prout, drummer for the country band Diamond Rio, while he is recuperating from scheduled carpal tunnel surgery.
In 2007 my friend Joe Lang suggested putting my little stories that I tell in the shop into writing because he finds them interesting to drummers, so if this bores you it just shows you how easily amused Joe is! My current gig (2007) with Poco is a lot different than the gigs I worked out of L.A. and Nashville in the earlier part of my career. This band is celebrating its 44th anniversary this year (2012) and has seen the glory days and the tuna fish sandwich days; from southwest flights and crowded vans to luxurious tour buses and Mac trucks full of gear. You should read the Wikipedia history on this band, it's quite a family tree. I joined Poco in 2004 as a sub for their original drummer George Grantham who was taken ill. When it became apparent that he would not be able to rejoin the band they offered me the job.
I’m publishing some of the rough drafts of pages from my forthcoming book, “Life’s Little Drumming Lessons”, Chapter: Sticking Theory and the Prime Rudiments.