The Campus of Performing Arts South Africa (COPA SA) has introduced a new drum programme run by one of South Africa’s top drummers, Barry van Zyl.
It consists of 30, once a week, one hour, part-time courses in Cape Town and will be potentially rolled out to other COPA centres in the future. The course is independent of the COPA system and is open to any interested students.
The lessons are compiled by van Zyl and will complement the existing COPA drumming course, giving students a further dimension to their drumming skills.
Van Zyl has a long career as a session musician both in SA and abroad working for a diverse array of artists such as Johnny Clegg, Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, The Soweto Gospel Choir and Die Antwoord. He’s also contributed to many film scores like Tsotsi, Themba and Zambezia as well as composing the score for recent SA Indie movie Skeem.
The course will be run with groups of drum students in a classroom setting
Course highlights include:
· Powerful methods to approach and develop improvisation
· Looking at the most ‘called-for’ drum styles, grooves that will get you the most work
· Re-enforcing counting methods
· Techniques to improve chart reading
· Rhythm ear-training
· An introduction to the origins of major Worldbeat music styles.
· Working on personalised musical drum parts and then playing along with specially developed tracks.
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