Drummer/Producer Simon Hanson (Death in Vegas, Squeeze) visited Drumtech on the
6th of October 2005 to give a highly entertaining master class. As he entered the
room he cracked a joke (one of many) before warning everyone that it was going to
be very loud!

With this in mind everyone put in there ear plugs and sat back to enjoy his first track of the
night. Although it was loud it was still great, Simon demonstrated an array of “fat” and
meaty” grooves throughout the master class keeping solid, and displaying very tight
timekeeping.

His approach to the class was very different to most other drummers as his “wit” and
general humour kept everyone entertained and interested for the whole two hours he was
on stage. Nowadays Simon is more of a producer than a drummer, he was able to give
advice from both points of view, giving students more than they had bargained for! Other
great advice he gave was that its not about doing ten hours practice in a day, its about doing a little bit everyday, for example spend 10 minutes going through singles doubles and paradiddle’s. He also advised everyone to spend an hour a day thinking of what you want to be e.g. session player, rock star etc and what you’ve got to do to get there.

As Simon carried on he began talking about different tours he’d been on and what its like on the road, telling students that they need a “Toolbox” just as a plumber would and think about what’s needed in the industry today. As drummers, we are our own “toolbox”. These are shown in ideas, chops and grooves that enable us to do the Job. Simon finished off with another track which was used on a Budweiser advert which included a lot of loops, before leaving everyone with jaw ache from all of the laughing at his jokes!