5/25/2006

DOM BACK IN CHINA... WITH MAPEX!

The best clinician on earth, Dom Famularo was back in CHINA, this time with his new partner  MAPEX Drums. 13 years ago, Dom was the first to introduce drum education to China. Many of his students from that time came to his recent clinics and showed Dom the pictures they took 13 years ago! Dom’s 2006 clinics were filled with many new ideas and more comprehensive educational material that satisfied the needs of all drummers and teachers to be a 21st century drummer.

For the past 30 years, Dom has focused on the drum education. He is extremely humble and jokes that he just organized some noise and was able to make money doing it. We found that Dom is dedicated to looking at different materials, organizing them and, most importantly, transmitting this information in a way that is understandable, entertaining and inspiring to audience members.  Even with the language barrier of people in Asia, Dom is sensitive enough to the audience’s reaction and is able to make sure that they are really “getting it.” He clearly explained every change he’s made for the past few years and why. He gave a detailed explanation of the evolution of the drum set, using exaggerated gestures and vivid body language so that every idea he presented would be deeply impressed into the audience’s minds.

At every clinic, Dom explained why he enjoyed his partnership with K.H.S.,  parent company of Mapex Drums. When the Artist Relations manager approached Dom about working with K.H.S., he asked only one question: What does K.H.S. stand for? He was told that it stands for Kong Hsue Sheh, which translates to Contribution, Learning and Community. Dom’s immediate response was, “I’m in!” Dom believes the culture and philosophy that drives a company is the most important thing and that a company that really focuses on education is what he wants. That is why he was with Sabian, Vic Firth and Remo for such a long time. And now he is very happy to be with MAPEX.

In the clinics, Dom focused on 3 major themes: first, the changes he made over the past 3 years, open hand style and modern grip; second, what he leaned from the great drummers; and third and most importantly, he let everyone know what kind of personality and character a professional teacher should have.

For the past 37 years Dom played cross hand and 3 years ago he decided to play open hand. He thinks that open hand is the 21st century way to play a drum set. Your hands will be liberated and you will be more creative and play more freely. Besides that, the open hand style is much better for a drummer’s career, since you play with a more natural gesture and eliminate the possibility of having backache problems. He encouraged everyone to try practicing open hand style, and to try to discover their potential and undeveloped talents.

A 21st century drummer should use  the modern grip because the traditional grip only develops 4 muscles. Also the traditional grip developed because the snare used to have a strip and was located on the left side of the body at a huge angle. With the snare at this position, you had to use a traditional grip. Now that the snare is in front of a drummer and is placed flat, a modern grip is better. Especially since the modern grip develops 13 of the muscles in your arm instead of just 4.

Dom’s main techniques for playing drums are the Free stroke and Moeller stroke. He explains what the Free stroke is with a very interesting story of him and Joe Morello, and introduces the Moeller stroke with another funny story of him and Jim Chapin. Everyone understands why these two techniques are so important and how to practice them.

During the Q & A section, it hits home what a great drummer, instructor and professional Dom is. He keeps transmitting a clear message: never stop leaning and discovering yourself. Dom shares that he is not tired of doing the same thing, for example he insists on setting up his drums set by himself for every gig and every clinic, from the bass drum hoop to all the cymbals stands. That’s the way he leaned and every time you learn something different. Dom is full of curiosity for everything and you can see it in his eyes. He wears his passion for drumming and education on his face and shares what he learns with everyone. Dom says that art is about expression -- the language he chooses to use is music and the drum set is his voice. That’s how he transmit his message and communicates with others.

Dom’s favorite MAPEX drum set is the Mapex Saturn series, mainly because of the sound of that drum set. He said that to him, MAPEX is a “Mapex Experience”: the combination of maple and walnut is unbelievable, and the thin shells create more vibration. The unique combination of these two wood makes the  MAPEX Saturn sound so outstanding when MAPEX is on stage with other brands in any Drum Festival. The sound inspires his imagination and creates music and fun for alls audience.

If you haven’t participated any Dom’s clinics in the past, don’t worry. Remo, Sabian, Vic Firth and MAPEX will keep supporting Dom as he plants the seeds of drumming around the world. Just keep checking on the company web sites mentioned above. You can check for Dom’s clinic schedule, new practice materials to enhance your drum techniques, and new ideas about how to teach drums.