Music students take up the beat

TALENTED students at Warrington Collegiate welcomed drum and percussion specialist, Vinnie Pearson into their class in order to experience a taste of African hand drumming culture.
Drum teacher Vinnie, has over thirty years’ experience of the music industry, performing with live bands and on recording sessions both in the UK and USA, led the students in a one hour percussion workshop, focusing on the basic techniques of hand drumming including rhythm patterns and dynamics. The session finished with an exciting and energetic ensemble performance.
The significance of the workshop stems from the students studying Graceland, the chart topping 1986 album by Paul Simon which was strongly influenced by South African musicians.
Vinnie, who has taught drumming at Warrington Collegiate in the past, spoke about his passion for African percussion saying, “My aim is to make drumming accessible to anyone, I run drum circles within the community in an attempt to get more people involved. There is a therapeutic power to hand drumming which makes it a relaxing and enjoyable hobby.”
18 year old Music student Oliver Llewellyn, from Leigh enthused, “I absolutely loved it! I’m not usually one for percussion but after this I am definitely going to try and experiment more. We have an event coming up where we will be able to incorporate the different hand drumming techniques that we learnt in the session.”
Fellow student, 17 year old James Havey, from Orford was equally enthusiastic, saying, “It was a lot of fun, and we learnt new techniques which are going to come in handy for the upcoming event. I usually play the guitar so it was a good opportunity to try out something new and exciting.”
Lecturer in Music at Warrington Collegiate, Austin Fitzsimmons, added, “I think the workshop was a real success, most of the students within the group are rock or metal musicians so it was a good opportunity to expose them to world music and attempt to broaden their horizons.”