LA session player Walter Garces paid a visit to the school this month. Trained by the
legendary Henry Adler, Walter was once teacher to Drumtech’s very own Erik Stams.
With a rather varied career, Walter has been involved in many recording/live projects
performing with pop acts to rock/metal bands. He is currently working with guitarist
Dann Glenn and legendary fretless bassist Percy Jones on a new musical venture;
the resulting CD will be called "Simple Harmonic Motion.

Walter’s master class differed from the usual in the fact that there was very little playing.
Walter wanted to be more informal and hit issues about Drums, Music and the industry in
general and what better place to do it than Drumtech.

As soon as Walter began, the first thing you notice, is his big personality that comes through
in his playing.Due to this it makes Walter one of the few players to actually be able to talk for
over an hour and not have the audience asleep, he’s so enthusiastic, it really rubs off on you.

Through the course of the masterclass Walter gave a whole wealth of information proving
the years of experience he has. Most session drummers would say never turn down a gig
when starting out, but not Walter! He believes that we should turn down gigs if we are not
getting paid sufficient amount.

Being passionate about this Walter had an interview with “Modern Drummer Magazine”
unprinted, because of it being too “controversial”. Talking more on sessions, Walter revealed
he can make just as much money if not more from teaching! Teaching is another thing you
could see he cared about. He stressed to all students to teach and never hold anything back,
if you have ideas make sure you pass them on and don’t let them die with you.

As you can imagine Walter is a deep guy with a fierce passion for his instrument and music.
He gave a highly entertaining Masterclass and covered so much in just one evening. To
finish off in style he was joined by old pupil and friend, Drumtech’s Erik Stams for a duet. Big
style, big fills, big everything! What can be said other than it was brilliant and proof that
drumming and drummers are a long way from becoming rare!