Possible DiCenso interview on the way...

[Juan Expósito]

I had a one-off lesson with him a few years back....

Could you elaborate about that lesson David ?

[David Francis]

I had a one-off lesson with him a few years back....

Could you elaborate about that lesson David ?

It was a two-hour lesson about 4 or 5 years ago. We started by going down to his basement - a drum room I was VERY envious of! The lesson began with a little chat about music and drummer I was into and what I listened to etc. We moved to pads after that and Dave asked me to demonstrate "the most relaxed singles I could possibly do" to a click. Whilst I was playing he had me change rhythm and sticking a few times to check out the way my hands worked and he then talked me through some of his hand ideas. If you have the MD feet DVD this is basically covered in there - using a 'locked' grip for practice purposes as he noted that my left hand fulcrum wasn't effective past a certain volume/speed threshold. He tried to get me to change my version of Moeller slightly as the way he plays doesn't involve the elbow moving away from the body so much. I still do it my way though (!) We spent about an hour on technique stuff and he has obviously thought about it a lot. We also touched on sound, breathing, relaxation etc throughout this.

Once on the kit, he put on a click and called out a few different styles/time feels for me to demo. He correctly identified my right foot as a being a cause of some groove problems so we moved off the kit and he had me sit in front of a mirror on a stool. He was trying to get me to practise lifting the heel without affecting the upper body and then perform what he calls "single spanks" and "double spanks." There used to be a description of these terms at a website called drummersdominion if you're interested. Following this we got back to the kit and went through some stuff which was part of the draft copy of universal rhythms. He gave me several handouts to take away that were handwritten notation and computer text that are basically an early version of one section of the book. We also worked a little on some samba stuff.

It was a very good lesson overall - I have detailed notes at home but I'm away at the moment so can't access them. Dave was obviously into the spiritual side of things, which I've always been into too so that was cool but I think his real strength in my particular case the coaching side of things - little words or phrases he used to encourage, correct, praise etc during the lesson. If I didn't live the other side of the ocean I would have tried to go back at least once a year to check in!

If you have any specific questions I will have a try at answering but it was only one lesson so I really only scratched the surface! Hope some of this is of interest to someone

[Paul Marangoni]

[Julián Fernández]

Somehow my last post was deleted...

Is he playing Yamaha now?

[Steve Holmes]

When I spoke to Dave he was not currently endorsed by any drum company.

[Juan Expósito]

Thanks Davis for sharing the lesson with us.