Merry Christmas It’s December 21st and I don’t have another show until the 27th! Since my last blog it’s been non-stop. A trip to Australia, Solo shows, TV show and a new album. I guess its now time to relax…. with family. The 60s Gold tour finished in Manchester on November 1st and on November 3rd at 10.40pm I was sitting on a plane, in business class on the way to Australia to do our final Rock the Boat of 2016. We arrived in Brisbane at 7am on the 5th. This was the first time we have flown business class to Australia. We normally go economy, but now we have experienced business, I doubt we can go back to cattle class. The acts on this Rock the Boat 6 are Chubby Checker, Gary Puckett, The Fortunes, P J Proby, The Troggs, The Pacemakers, a few Australian bands and us. All the bands arrive in dribs and drabs at the Hilton, Brisbane during the day and after a few hours sleep, some food and a little walk round the shopping centre, it’s suddenly early evening. Next door to the hotel is an Irish pub and it would be rude not to visit. Fair play to the band playing that night. They were not fazed by the fact they had so many 60s acts watching them. They even asked us to get up and jam with them, an offer we turned down due to excess alcohol. I returned to my hotel room around 3am. Now jet lag is an amazing thing, at 6am I was up wide-awake. No way was I getting any more sleep. I ended up getting showered, dressed and going out for a walk round Brisbane. During this walk I bumped into the bassist from The Pacemakers, who was also struggling to sleep. We returned to the hotel around 7.30am, just in time for breakfast. Perfect timing! All the acts then made their way to the Legend of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean. Not the biggest ship in the World, but its home for the net 7 days. It’s Sunday and our show day is Wednesday. We have 2 sea days, 2 island days, then 2 sea days before flying home from Brisbane. The American musicians for Chubby and Gary are not only amazing musicians, but also they are some of the most funny, friendly partygoers you will ever meet. Harry (Chubbys drummer) myself and Fabrizio (Australian drummer) have ended up becoming real good friends and there is footage of all 3 of us messing around on the last night at the Finale. Once we arrived home, its straight back to our solo shows and I also take delivery of my brand new Liberty drums. Liberty drums are 10 years old this year, which is no mean feat in this industry. I spoke to CEO Andrew Street in October at his factory and we chatted for ages. Just before I left for Oz we had another chat by phone and I am proud to announce, I am endorsed by Liberty drums. I have 2 kits; a Searchers kit and studio kit and both with my Istanbul Mehmet cymbals look and sound amazing. In my ‘spare’ time I also helped a couple of other bands with their albums. On one studio session I turned up early and recorded a quick video showing the equipment I use. This can be found here https://youtu.be/NnjIOIICIGM There is also footage of me playing with The Searchers, before my GoPro battery died. And my other band, The Pocket gods have recorded a new album, 100xmas30 That’s right, 100 30 second Christmas songs and we have just found out that for the 2nd time this year, we are again in the Guinness book of records for the most amount of songs on a cd. The album to date seems to be doing ok. The Pocket gods are also the ‘house band’ for NUB TV music show, so most Thursdays when I’m not on Searchers duty, I join Mark and Noel in the house band. The TV show is an hour long and the host Steve Blacknell each week chats to 2 celebrities from the industry and we, the house band, play 1 of their hits as they walk to the couch. We also write a 30 second song about that days show, which we perform at the end. We have just finished filming the Christmas day show, which was a right laugh to film. The guests were Lee e John (Imagination) and Mike Berry. All Searchers shows in December are classed as Christmas shows. We sing loads of Christmas songs at the end of the show and the audience normally wear Christmas jumpers/costumes with lights and glow sticks. These shows are great fun and the view from the drum throne is spectacular most nights. Our last show was on the 18th December at Hull. This was the bands 29th consecutive Christmas show in Hull and tickets for next years 30th anniversary show are already on sale and nearly sold out. Its now time for me to enjoy some family time, I hope you all have a great Christmas and I hope you have an amazing 2017! Take care, keep drumming and see you all next year Scott

Hello.  I feel a bit cheeky calling this part 4 of the series because it is clearly the second half of part 3.  This lesson is an extension of what we looked at last time so if you missed that one, go and check it out.  This time, we are still going to be focused on a three note grouping but instead of snare, bass, bass we flip it for bass, snare, snare.  This is really going to loosen up your left hand for ghost notes.  I have found a lot of students becoming more creative with their grooves after mastering this as it really helps build an independence between the hands.  The steps involved are almost identical to the previous lesson.  Stay focused and have some fun :)

1. This is the basic snare/bass pattern that we are going to work with.  As always, take your time and really try to internalise this pattern until it flows smoothly.
2. In this exercise we are “simply” going to add an 8th note hi-hat pulse over the top.  Please be aware that the phrase now flows in and out of sync with your right hand.  Also, when you loop the bar, you get a double bass drum.  Really focus on keeping this clean and relaxed.
3. Now we just put it into context.  As you go between the simple groove and the pattern, really focus on keeping the hihat as smooth and consistent as you can.
4. I have given you a simple example here of moving the pattern around the kit to give more of a fill feel.  Have some fun and move this around to create your own versions.
5. As in the previous lesson, we now have the same three note grouping as before but we are playing it over a 1/4 note pulse in 3/4 so that it resolves each bar.  As you increase the tempo, try and ensure that the hihat pulse is kept smooth and relaxed.
6. I have chucked this in as a bonus exercise.  We have the two main phrases from lesson 3 and 4 back to back.  If you have worked through the previous exercises, this shouldn't be too tricky but works really well as a warm up as we work on both the left hand and right foot whilst keeping a consistent pulse with the right.

Hopefully this will have been of some use to you.  After talking to a few people, I realise that part 3 was quite tough to master at a higher speed due to the number of bass drums.  Join me in the next lesson where I take a break from the odd groupings and focus a bit more on the core ability to play accurate bass drum patterns.

As I write this, I am sat back stage at the Royal Concert hall, Glasgow. The 60s Gold tour is about to start at 7.30pm and we are not on till 9.35pm! This tour started on 20th September in Reading and has been to Southampton, Cardiff, Gateshead, Plymouth, Bristol, Southend and many more venues. Sadly they all do drift into one after a while. Tomorrow we travel to Inverness to do 2 shows, 5.45pm and 9.45pm! This tour finishes in Manchester on November 1st and then all the acts fly to Australia on November 3rd to play on a cruise ship for a week on a Rock the Boat cruise. This tour has already done 1 Rock the Boat cruise, which left Southampton on September 30th on board The Celebrity cruise ship, Eclipse. It was a 3 day cruise stopping in Bruggs and Cherbourg, before heading back to Southampton. This is the life I lead at the moment! Every day is a different venue and a different part of the UK or the World. On this 60s Gold tour, Nick Woolgar is the main drummer backing the other acts, who are: Wayne Fontana, PJ Proby, Brian Poole, Chip Hawkes, Dave Munden and from the US Gary Puckett. Because of this we are using his Sakae kit with my 16” and 17” traditional crash and 20” ride and his 12” hihats (which I don’t like) The Searchers solo shows resume again on 17th November and I shall be sat behind my own kit (that will be changing, but more on that next time) and my own 14” hihats! With a tour this big, we do have a tour manager and catering. Sadly most of the food on offer is chocolate, crisps and pasties, which does not help my waste line one bit. Sat back stage for so long, you rely heavily on free wifi. I spend a lot of my time watching Netflix, youtube drumming videos and reading books. My current book is Phil Collins autobiography, which I am finding to be a great read. You also grow to hate road closures and motorways! Inbetween the 60s Gold tour, I have also been recording in the studio, playing live and recording a tv show advert with The Pocket Gods. Mark Lee, the lead singer has managed to get his own tv show every Sunday night on Sky, Virgin and Freeview. It starts on November 13th at 10pm. Sadly because of my touring schedule, the first three shows I won't be involved with, but after that, unless my dep is better, I should be on your tv Sunday nights Well, its nearly time for me to get suited and booted and on stage to play the hits. Take care and see you all real soon. Scott

Welcome to part 3 of the series.  In this lesson we are going to look at one way to play a three note grouping.  Not only is this really going to help you strengthen your bass drum speed and independence, but it also sounds cool!  It’s a short but focused lesson that should hopefully prepare you for some of the more intricate patterns to come.

1. This is the basic snare/bass pattern that we are going to work with.  As always, take your time and really try to internalise this pattern until it flows smoothly.
2. In this exercise we are “simply” going to add an 8th note hi-hat pulse over the top.  Please be aware that the phrase now flows in and out of sync with your right hand.  Also, when you loop the bar, it really helps to work on strengthening your left hand for ghost notes.  Once you can comfortably play this try accenting the 1/4 note downbeat.
3. Now we just put it into context.  As you go between the simple groove and the pattern, really focus on keeping the hihat as smooth and consistent as you can.  As in the previous example, once you have the loop down, try to accent the downbeat as you play.
4. So, if you were able to play the previous exercises with the downbeat accent then you should find this a little bit easier.  If, you skipped that step, I recommend, going back and doing that first.  What we have is the same three note grouping as before but we are now playing it over a 1/4 note pulse in 3/4 so that it resolves each bar.  As you increase the tempo, try and ensure that the hihat pulse is kept smooth and relaxed.

Check out the next lesson for an extension in this idea to help progress your snare independence.