I had the pleasure of chatting to Liberty De Vitto before his drum clinic and he is one hell of a nice bloke (well he is a drummer).
He has loved his tour of N.Z and deliberately went to the smaller towns so he could see the country. He jokingly said "i guess you are going to post on your web sites how crap a drummer i am", and i assured him i didn't think that would be the case at all.
His clinic at Sammy's Nightclub an old gutted out theatre with a heating prob , was preceded by a young drummer contest. Liberty commented on the level of talent down here (Otago) as being good. The lucky winner a 16 year old? walked away with a
Sabian cymbal set and got to play on stage alongside Liberty for a 10 minute jam. 2nd place and 3rd got a
Mapex snare and the rest a pair of Liberty's signed sticks.
His clinic included his life story which was lighthearted and interesting on concepts to make it as a drummer.
His main points which could be of help to any muso were
1/ be prepared and match fit, never know when that talent scout will spot you and you need to be ready, for anything.
2/ Be dedicated to your instrument, practice, practice, practice
3/ be different, don't be a clone of another muso or your tutor, be yourself depite stealing many ideas from other musos, as one does
4/ Be available, prepared to move to a different town, country i.e the right place at the right time.
Other pointers he put across were, to have fun. When it isn't fun anymore, it's then time to chuck it. Always remember the reason why you started in the first place.
His story was that as a kid he didn't play sport, wore glasses and could never attract girls. He saw the Beatles on T.V and after watching the histeria they caused on T.V and to his sister's friends, he decided that was how he was going to get girls. He maintains the Beatles were a major influence on changing the world's view of music. Everyone was playing fat cat jazz until the British Invasion arrived in U.S.A. in the early 60's. Then the Beatles did it again when the traded their mod image for phsycodelia (Sgt Peppers). Now punk, heavy metal etc, has become just contemporary music.
Mixed with his patter he displayed some of the drumming he does on Billy Joel tunes that he created his drum beats for. Many of these were Grammy Award winners.
A very strong player, he showed how to keep in sync with the songs being played. The drum kit was set side on and the backdrop had a top of kit shot so it was set up well for drummers to see what he was doing.
He is self taught from listening to records and as a result is not a technical drummer. He maintains that never ever got him a gig, but his ability to play the right feel for a song did.
A gig with Billy Joel for 30 years at that.
He asked a drummer from the crowd to get up and play to the start of "Just the way you are", which he did very nicely. This followed by him saying all drummers he asks, get up and play a nice feel along with it, but it actually doesn't have a drum part there. His point was, sometimes less is more, and their is a need to play for the song, or not at times.
He also pointed out where muso's need to understand the story of the song, be emotive where it is called for and be angry when it's called for, etc. Play to suit the song, and to let the song be played so the song's story is told, leave the technical stuff for solo's.
Another concept was try it things out, and never live a life of just wishing that you did.
Sacrifice comes with this and he told of his dedication by declining marriage propoasals, socialising, a career, etc, to become the drummer he is, to live the dream.
The evening was over in a quick hour and a half, it was adequate. IMO people went away with his experienced concepts to ponder over which is great. Some clinics leave you going away amazed at the showmanship and playing techniques, product blurb, etc, and thinking i'll never get to that stage, what am i even doing trying.
Sorry if this garble is putting you to sleep, thought it may interest somebody, i travelled 200 miles to see him and was the best $20.00 i've spent this year.
Linear Mode
