For a long time now (since 1995 in Lausanne) we have good relations with our Swiss Drummmers friends. Édouard Sommer, from Geneva, is sort of the focal point.
So, it was quite naturally in this city that we projected a working day, after Thusy 2016, Roman Lombriser and myself, at the symposium in Paris. The Conservatoire Populaire kindly received us on Sunday, May 5. Thank you to the three of you, Édouard, Jean-Philippe, Romain, for organizing the meeting and welcoming the day. The visit of the room "instruments" was interesting and enriching for us, the three French drummers. We also had a profitable exchange on how to teach, especially when starting students, which we each practice on our own. The main part, the one that motivated this day, took place sticks in hand, scores on table, with explanations and comments. For our part, we had prepared the documents, extracts from the instrumental workbook, concerning points that we knew were specific : the "coup de charge", the "coulé" and its derivatives, but also the rolling rates with beats per time according to the tempo. This last subject was of great interest to our Swiss friends. Anthony, Damien and I illustrated all this with a few pieces, including Alexandre Raynaud’s Three Rolled Marches, Chirassimont’s Marches, Fantaisie percutante. We were pleased to see that differences in writing were becoming less and less of a problem as the day progressed. All this, of course, ended at the restaurant offered by our friends in Geneva and with the will to continue this principle of meetings, with a "reasonable" periodicity of two years. Rendez-vous is held in the Lyon western area in 2021. Philippe Vignon The impression of the veteran (89 years old) ! |