Tag: drum

Today, I played drums in the DW Showroom for the first time. I messed around on some conceptual kits that haven't been released yet, and I played classic DW kits that have been around for many years. Afterwards I walked out of the showroom, through the DW factory where those kits were made. I made my way through the offices and quickly snatched a peek into the legendary John Good's office. After that I walked over to the building next door, strolled casually through Drum Channel's headquarters, and walked right into my own office; the office I'll be working and playing drums in for the next three months.

For the next three months I will be the Drum Channel Intern :) I'll be helping them with the website and just hang around and be a part of the Drum Channel team. Don Lombardi (the founder of DW) initiated this months ago after my visit to Drum Channel for the live show, and we've been having meetings almost every week since. The fact that I've never had lessons before but that I've been playing for 9 years, created a super unique opportunity which also gave Don the idea of giving me my own show on DC, where I will be taught by some of the world's best teachers, on camera. So in this way I'll be the analogue for anybody taking the lesson: probably struggling with the stuff you would have struggled with, and asking the questions you would have asked.

Then what I'm almost most stoked about of everything.. is that I will be your "inside man" :) I am in the building that I have wanted to see the inside of since I started playing drums, I am surrounded by drum sets and hardware and gear that I dreamt of since I started playing drums.. And the epic thing is, I know that so many people feel the exact same way. So I'm going to use my iPhone or whatever camera I can get my hands on, and take some footage of what exactly goes on in the Drum Channel building: interviewing Tony Royster Jr and Chad Smith and whoever else I see walking around, catching some drum duets, and filming some of the epic gear lying around :) I want to show you guys the stuff I wish I could see if I wasn't here right now.

Keep an eye on my YouTube channels (my main channel and my 2nd channel), keep an eye on my Facebook page, Drum Channel's YouTube channel, and my Twitter page.. because things are about to get pretty wild :) The next three months is such a new chapter to me and I am STOKED to be able to share it through the lens of a camera for anybody who wants to be a part of it.

Much love!
Cobus

It's called "The Cobus Method" and is ALL about how I play (and how TO play) drums by ear.. 100% by ear, no sheet music, no notations, no intimidating theory :) I taught myself how to play drums and I have always played by ear, this product takes it from the simplest and most basic priniciples up until where I am today. SO friggin stoked about this.. I don't want to give away too much, but we shot SO much material.. We wrote and recorded many very different styles of play-alongs (pop, hard rock, r&b, punk, etc) that you can view and/or listen to as bassdrum only, hands only, drums only, full mix, etc. aswell as using the drumless versions to jam along to yourself. Then we recorded a TON of instructional material and systems to learn existing song easily, learning grooves, fills.. and writing your own drumming parts.

My favorite part of the project, though, was the live band recordings. We (me, a guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist) wrote and recorded 5 brand new (and VERY stylistically different) songs in two days, with the WHOLE process captured on camera.. and finished up with one clean and final take of each song. I don't want to sound like those dudes on infomercials, I'm just so SO stoked about the scope and size of this project. It literally covers every little thing regarding playing drums by ear and THEN some :) If you want to, you can just check out www.cobusmethod.com for more details.

Then, Saturday I had my last drum clinic of this tour.. it was UNREAL. Sold out, FULL house.. with so many passionate dudes and dudettes attending. Got to play some drums, explain some of the shizzle I like using on the kit, and got to meet some incredible people. Goooooood day :)

We'll be hitting Toronto and surrounding areas for some sight-seeing in the coming days.. and then Monday night I am heading back to South Africa. Super sad to leave, though! This was my first tour, my mind is blown, my perspective is 100 times the size it was before I arrived, and it feels like this was the beginning of something much bigger. I am still taking everything in, so much has happened and it's been SO overwhelming, but I am incredibly thankful and very very excited about the road ahead.

This tour has also made me realise how very real the possibility is of meeting the people who made all of this possible in the first place.. YOU guys. Hanging out after clinics is my favorite part of everything :) STOKED for more opportunities like that.

Next blog post will be from back in South Africa! :) I cannot WAIT to speak some Afrikaans.. USA and Canada is friggin NEXT LEVEL, but I miss my home country.

Much love.
and thank you.
~

Sorry if I haven't been as active on the forum as usual, and if I've been a bit slow with replies.. Practicing and getting the last few stuff organised for the DVD has been a full-time job. After the shoot (when I'm busy with post-production) I'll definitely be much more active, especially when I'm searching for excuses to take some breaks between work ;)

As you can see though, it's hard for me to think and speak about anything else besides the DVD, haha, for obvious reasons :) Aaaah I almost forgot to mention.. I was on a game drive yesterday, one of my friends had his 21st birthday party and some friends went to a game farm. CRAAAZY amounts of fun, we got wickedly close to some lions, leopards, even tigers (which aren't usually found in South Africa..) so it was aaaaaawesome. Just thought I'd throw that in there for the people who think we have lions and elephants walking around in our backyards here in SA ;)

Aaaaanyway, back to work for me. At the moment I'm planning exactly what to say and how to approach the lessons on the DVD, if I don’t have a general guideline of what I want to say, It'll be a 2-hour DVD of me speaking about what the first lesson was supposed to be. Seriously. I don’t shut up.

Hope you guys have an awesome week, please hold your thumbs for a cool shoot and that everything goes down smoothly..

Speak soon! BOOYA! :)
LDS,
~ç