Tag: Udrum

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.
~

Been drumming latetly? I have.. ooohhhh yes :) You might see some footage of that in a while, set to a nice white background ;)

I'd also like to update you guys a little to what's been going on behind the scenes. I've started to work with SMG here in South Africa, GREATTTT guys, they'll be helping out with some graphics and design work, aswell as with the distribution of the DVD. Needless to say, this is unbelievably cool; because it means anybody who would like to get the DVD will now have a chance to do so. Because of the way WAY unique nature of this whole story and the way I have managed to stay so independent, and the way YOUR support has played such an ENORMOUS role in me having the opportunities I have today. I'm still the exact same dufuss that dropped the stick in the Awakening video and that smiled cheekily at the camera in Umbrella :) Niklas, the web developer, is a drummer.. that is how we met. Richard Barker in the UK that hosted the first site and still helps me with uploading my videos.. also a drummer. My lawyer (still cant BELIEVE I have a lawyer, haha!).. also a drummer. Jason from SMG.. also a drummer :) So the coolest about anything is that these people are my friends, before ANYTHING else. I love that, this goes so much with the way YOU guys have supported this South African guy for reasons I still cant figure out.. and makes me appreciate it still that much more. The DVD project is still totally independent and nothing has changed. I'm stoked. oooooh I am WAY stoked.

Anyways, on that note.. SMG helped with the new design of the website, which will be launched soon, and Niklas is doing the development thereof. Aaaaaah it looks unbefrigginlievable! *SO* crazy to see my name on something that awesome. Once you see it you will realise what I mean.. it looks CRAZY cool, while still having so much character and being so true to my personality; WAY overwhelming stuff! It has like a ton of new and exciting features, haha WISHHHH I could tell you guys :) One thing I feel I can mention is a new Forum section, very much in the vein of a lot of other drumming websites, where I’ll be suuuuper active; gonna be SO kickass to be able to chat with you guys and get suggestions and get tips from drummers all over the world in one spot.

The new custom kit from UDRUM, the Cobus Potgieter LDS Signature series, is totally done and getting shipped to me within the next few days :) The custom kit from Jobeky (SDG Signature Series) is also totally done and getting shipped to me early next week. I think you can imagine how stoked I am. Seriously, there exists a very real chance that my head might explode. I. can. NOT. WAIT :) going to be soooooooo sick! My full cymbal line from TRX Cymbals arrived a while back, so when the DVD launches I can not friggin waittttt to play on all of this kickass new gear and show you guys every little new thing, haha.. STOKED! On the sideline of all of this; I am also recording a new album for my church band, sooooo much fun. Did the drums for it last week, had an absolute blast. Will hook you guys up with some samples if I got some songs slightly mixed.

Also still editing the White Series through all of this, I always forget how much work it is editing a whole series of drumming videos! :) just a little longer before those launch, tonnnn of work left. Aaaah almost forgot, i'm also on Twitter :) check it out at http://twitter.com/cobuspotgieter and follow me on there if you like; will definitely be posting at least once a day on there.

I think that's it for now.. my head hurts :) The coolest thing is, that at the end of typing all this.. I still can not BELIEVE it's all happening to me.. Unbelievably crazy. I'm SO grateful for the support, for YOU reading this; it's hard not to sound corny.. but if it wasn't for you guys and the unbelievable support then none of this would ever have happened. Thank you.

Keep well you guys, thanks for reading. I'm gonna wolf down a snackwitch and get back to editing, booya! :)

Keep well, Much love.
Laus Deo Semper,
~ç