#82 Gerald Myles-Elite Educator, Drummer & Percussionist for Disney, Cirque & The Army Volunteers
This episode features Gerald Myles. He has had an extensive playing career between playing for bands in the Magic Kingdom at Disney World to playing for the Cirque Du Soleil show, La Nouba, to playing for the ARMY Volunteers band. He now has a full teaching studio with state of the art equipment as well as creative methods of not only teaching, but keeping his studio booked with a waiting list. He still records and plays live, and in this interview, will help you facilitate the same thing with some of his tips and suggestions.
Damon is going on tour with Charlie Hunter to the west coast.....
Then he is speaking at the DIY Musician Conference in Nashville, TN. He wraps up the summer with a show at the Brooklyn Bowl with the Atomic Funk Project.
Marcos is spending a lot of time in the studio with Jeremy Bosch working on his new album with him. Marcos will also be playing with Mitch Frohman on Aug 2 at 125th st and Adam Clayton Powell blvd at 7pm, in front of the State Office Building. Then Sunday Aug 5, Marcos will be playing with the Birdland Latin Jazz Orchestra, led by David DeJesus in NYC at 8pm.
Educational spotlight for this week.....
5 apps to help you teach music to your students and what they offer.
Also mentioned (and used by both Damon and Marcos) is the Harmony Cloud app, developed by Stefon Harris as well as The Clave app, to help you play and phrase "en clave".
For our product reviews this week.....
Check out the cases by Fernando Vargas Beltran as well as his compact congas.
Music News this week......
Tips to the essential parts of your artist "One Sheet". How to get your music to the top of the pile for sync licensing (getting your music in film, commercials and TV). Marcos suggests joining a PRO (performing rights organization). If you are unsure of which PRO is right for you, you can click THIS LINK HERE and they are all explained to you. Here are some tips on how to become a session musician as your full time job. These are the three episodes we offered to help you set up your home studio. Part 1 - Using Loops, Part 2 - What the engineer/studio prefers to receive, Part 3 - What the Percussionist/Drummer should be able to provide. Nashville is a new destination for music scoring for films.
The song leading into the interview with Gerald on drums is called My Computer's Broke.
Damon and Gerald talk about how he started in Norwalk, had a brief stint in Stratford and then returned to Norwalk. In the music program at Norwalk High School, they were under the Tutelage of Jeff Smith (who is now on staff of the University of New Hampshire).
One of the videos they mention with regard to using rudiments around the drumset is "Monkey Business" by Skid Row. A more popular rudiment is the Ratamaque that was made popular by Steve Gadd in the drum fills in the middle of the song "Aja" by Steely Dan. Here's an example of some hybrid rudiments, pop music and choreography. The Vic Firth Marching YouTube page has a lot of the "Learn the Music" clips Gerald refers to with the drumline playing and the notation below so you can follow/play along.
Gerald talks about the Berklee Jazz Festival that Norwalk High participated in and he was fortunate enough to win some awards as well as the Connecticut Music Educators All State Music Festival.
Gerald started his college career at the prestigious Hartt School of Music under the tutelage of Jackie McLean. Shoutout to Jimmy Greene and Kris Allen as well as Eric McPherson. Gerald then transferred to Umass Amherst and studied with Jeff Holmes.
The book Damon brings up by Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez is called Conversations In Clave. The other book mentioned is by Bob Wiener (and Frank Malabe) called Afro-Cuban Rhythms for Drumset.
Shout out to Joel Rosenblatt and his playing on Michel Camilo's "On Fire".
The song in the middle when Marcos arrives is "Hey Good Lookin" by the Damon Grant Project with Gerald on Drums.
Special shoutout to the whole Spremulii family and Norwalk Music Inc.
The music venue in Boston that had live Latin music on Thursday is Wally's Cafe.
Gerald left school for a job at Disney after having played in the All American College Band.
Chris Queenan is a bad ass bass player and all around great guy from Foxboro, MA. Chris and Gerald met at Hartt and then transferred to Umass Amherst together, and then worked at Disney together.
After Disney, Gerald joined the Army Volunteers. You can learn all about what that gig entails by listening to Sargent First Class Glenn Robertson and Sargent First Class Robert Marino.
Gerald got updates from the Musician's Union and saw the audition for the Army Bands. He also mentions the Airmen of Note.
Here are some images as described by Damon of Gerald's studio.......
To set up his studio, Gerald researched a ton. Here are a couple of blogs he's subscribed to (the first one is for all music teachers, the second for drummers. BLOG #1 and BLOG #2. In addition to reading blogs, he also subscribes to YouTube channels. Here are a couple to help you out. CHANNEL #1 and CHANNEL #2. The two books mentioned by Phillip Johnston are: Promoting Your Teaching Studio and The Dynamic Studio.
The cameras Gerald has around his studio are Apeman Cameras. In addition, Gerald also has a three studio lightbox kit for shooting good quality video. Here's one option. He also stepped up his video editing capability from iMovie to Final Cut Pro. Something you may want to think about getting as you upgrade your studio with devices is multiple USB ports or even a USB hub.
The list of things that can be incorporated in lessons and taught to a student to have a complete experience are (but not limited to):
Discovery (discover something), opportunity (how you can use the information), achievement (recognizing small and large victories), community, technique, rhythmic accuracy, hand and limb coordination, styles and genres, solos and audition prep, reading, writing, transcription, quality of sound, dynamics, balance (limbs and between instrumentalists), hookups and check points, interaction, energy, creative practice and improvising, recording audio and video, use of mirrors, review of what you learned, how you can improve, listening and ear training, history and the future.
Here are some heat guns you might consider getting to help set your drum heads or take welts out.
In addition to all the tips mentioned, here's A BOOK that gives you some other easy marketing ideas for your studio. Gerald also throws out the service CRAIGSLIST and THUMBTACK.
The student testimonials can be seen HERE.
Here's the specifics on the AIDA sales funnel and the SQUEEZE PAGE.
You can get your own design and logo printed on pretty much anything HERE.
The google voice number can be set up on your phone for free HERE.
Gerald uses Mapex Drums, Remo Drumheads, Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets and Samson Technologies Audio Equipment.
You can follow Gerald on his Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube pages. For his home recording you can hire him HERE.
The song at the end of the interview is "Blackbird" by the Beatles, arranged by Paul Buono. You can see Gerald perform the part he played below.....
