Sean Kennedy Interview
Well, another expert, Sean Kennedy, who I contacted toward the earlier stages of this project has just gotten back to me with the answers to all of my interview questions, which he answered via email. He is a professional drummer, who works with students from our school, and he actually just played at Radio City Music in NYC in front of a sold out crowd with and Italian group called Il Vol. The answers he gave me questions will actually really help me to improve my playing and my practicing. He gave me really good advice for now and for the future. Some advice he gave me for practicing now is this:
"The single most important technique is developing a smooth Single Stroke roll. That is… R L R L R L R L…. A smooth and steady Single Stroke roll is of utmost importance. The casual listener should NOT be able to tell if you’re right or left handed. The player should be able to do this stroke all around the drums as slow or as fast as is required by the repertoire."
This advice is definitely something I will put into practice on the drums. His other tip was that only perfect practice makes perfect, bad practice just makes permanent bad playing. I need to make sure to take these tips into consideration. He also gave me another piece of advice for the future which was:
"You need to love it and be obsessed with music and drumming. Liking it isn’t enough to become a success. You need to work at all aspects of drumming and music 24/7, leave your ego at the door, don’t be a jerk and work, work, work and listen."
This will really help me going forward and also inspire me. I love drumming, and really would like to continue playing so all of this really gives me a lot to consider.
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