Guest
Here is the legendary Simon Phillips performing a drum solo during his clinic at Hard Rock Cafe in Warsaw, Poland, on June 11, 2017. “What I want to convey to those who come to my drum clinic is in part information, in part the benefit of my experience, hopefully some funny stories and revealing the human side of the reality of the music business and drums and drumming. I tend to be very open and loose about it. I only have a plan for the beginning and that’s it, just to open the clinic. The rest is all down to the audience. I hand it out to them and the rest of the clinic is basically conducted on the questions that I get. Most audiences are very good. They’re very forthcoming and it’s never a problem. Occasionally, you get the tough one, where they’re not so forthcoming, and then, you have to work really hard. They may also ask a question which, maybe, I feel is not relevant. What I do is I do the politician trick. If you notice, most politicians answer to a totally different question than that asked by a journalist. They weren’t asked that question but they want to be. It’s a good trick I learned by watching all these politicians on TV around the world. There’s a lot of that going on right now so we’re getting a lot of experience at that and a lot of practice. Otherwise, it is most important to make [a drum clinic] a fun event. At the end of the day, it is still a show and entertainment. There’s nothing worse than everybody getting really bored or too technical. I try to keep it very informative, with a lot of technical information, but I still try to make it fun for everybody so they have a good time. When I was very young and I would go to a clinic, I never asked a question. I was too afraid to embarrass myself. I think people think: ‘I hope the question I have isn’t a silly question’. There really aren’t any silly questions because if the clinician is open and aware enough, he’ll make it so that that person isn’t embarrassed. He’ll take something from the question that is positive and useful.“
