I’ve been playing drums for three years. I started off in the deep end with a rock n’ roll band that I found very difficult to keep up with. But as soon as I started with Mark I found I started to progress at a much quicker pace than if I had just been trying to battle on with tricky grooves etc. on my own.
Now all this time later I find myself still challenged and excited with everything he has to throw at me and it is just as rewarding to accomplish all the stuff we do together.
Mark has always been helpful in every aspect of my drumming life beyond the actual playing part. He doesn’t have a ridged schedule to keep with you as a student. If you want him to spend some time clarifying something he’ll be more than happy to help. I bought an electronic kit recently and we spent half a lesson tinkering with all the settings to get the best results. To date there hasn’t been anything that I’ve put to him that he hasn’t had a mass of information on.
I’ve had many music teachers and I’ve been most impressed with Mark’s approach to passing on his expertise. His easy-goingness tied in with all his vast experience and passion for the instrument is inspiring and makes for a fantastic learning environment.
His set-up in his studio is equipped to do nearly anything. You could bring in a track that your band is doing and record a studio quality drum track with him during a lesson. The two electronic kits are brilliant for a one to one lesson because you can hear everything that going on and its far more comfortable than straining your ears with ear muffs, especially when play along tracks come into the equation.
I usually have a lesson once a week however, I’m in college and have lots of other things going on during the week and Mark is great at catering for changing timetables. I know that he has students once every fortnight because that suits them better and he is more than happy to do it that way.
I would most definitely recommend Mark as a teacher to you if you’re starting off, have been playing for a number of years or if you’re an advanced pupil that wants to get even better.
What more can I say. He’s bloody awesome!
See you Saturday.