And some have said.....
Doc Spoons [now professional,clinician and contributor to Rhythm Magazine] Would like to pass on my thanks to Martin, Noelle & family for all the support I was given in following my dream.....Thanks to your enthusiasm, encouragement and good advice guys (and patience when I had no money!!) I am proud to be able to earn all my money from playing drums. Great site, keep the faith! Drums Always!!!! Rich Spooner (Doc Spoons)
Irving Smart [still with us after many years and extremely dedicated!]
Martin is my fourth drum teacher, the rest were not in the same league. I always look forward to my lesson. Whenever I think of what I have learnt with Martin I always think of the saying "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he will eat forever".
Comment on YouTube: Nice work !!! Stick with Mart he's the bomb!
Craig Palmer [from a wee boy to a impressive teen.... still with us]
Hey Martin its Craig Palmer. Just thought i'd sign your guestbook and i think your web-page is great! Thanks for being a great teacher and thanks to Dan too!
This is a comment about Craig on Video:
Craig, congratulations on a sterling performance! Martin, old son, you continue to show that without question, a good teacher can help young people achieve anything. The sheer quality of young drummers emerging from your school is astounding.
I couldn't help noticing Craig's 'economy of movement' during the track. No arm waving - very relaxed and controlled- is this something you teach/encourage etc? or just Craig's own style?
My continued admiration and best wishes, T.
This really shows what it takes to be a great drummer. I've listened to this song (Give it one) since I was in probably 6th grade and you don't realize how much the drummer does. Now you do.
/former trumpet player
//Sacramento Freelancers alumnus, '82-'84
///RIP MF
BRAVO!
A drummers drummer!
5/5 a pleasure to watch and listen. Cheers Petar
Peter Abbs
Fantastic site! I really enjoyed the write-ups. Its a pleasure to find such genuine enthusiasm for the art of drumming. Well done!
Really decent teacher, nice to see you have a nice set of students who'll follow in your footsteps :D, you remind me of my teacher
Another YouTube comment: hey if this wasn't a video i woulda thought it was a pro playing. Your students are AWESOME! amazing, i dont see many other adults playing this kind of hard music
I see you make your students work it (the young child who plays on the other clip would become a great drummer with a teacher like you).
Stick with Mart he'll get you there. Nice job!
Nick Billington
i like the pictures martin... very sexy geeza in your time
Martin-I got to see an earlier version of your performance on this. [Give it one faster on YouTube] As before, I got to see Maynard 7 times or so in concert-you absolutely NAILED this-terrific job! In fact, I like to show this video to my 12-year-old son so he can get a better idea of how complex good drumming can be.
Dan.c
Many Thanks to Martin and Noelle for employing me this year, the perfect job for me to improve my drumming skills.
A Great website! Peter Dispaine Hey, that's much more like it - excellent site. Oh, yes - nice hair!! Cheers, Pete
Another comment from our YouTube Channel:
I am blown away by this young guy.........an astounding drummer at 14 and he looks like a reserved, humble chap........hats off to Martin his tutor for the guidance, and to Craig for achieving so much so far. Continued success to you both. T.
Wonderful playing. It took me sometime to learn this (Winter Games) on piano back 20 years ago when it came out. I did, and then I never stopped playing it! As a musician for almost 30 years and a composer for half that time, I hear music in a similar way as you. Don't necessarily impress if it takes away from the quality and production of the performance. Well done! From Vancover Composer
silvertone953 Thank you so much for taking the trouble to post these videos, it's great to hear such wonderful playing and equally great to see the superb techniques that go to making your playing sound so fluid and full of subtlety and nuance.
I especially enjoyed the simple RH on HH + SD rim groove... I think you have an incredible talent for playing "enough" to be interesting to anyone listening specifically to the drums, without trampling all over the fact that there's other instruments playing too!