Andrea Ge - My story - Engl

Hello and welcome everybody. My name is Andrea Ge and I'm a drummer from Milan Italy, though I moved to Bologna some twenty years ago. I play drums from a very long time. When I was a kid I discovered I had an aptitude to rhythm and music, so I started with the guitar but I found it very boring. Then I switched to drums, and it was a revelation. Usually when you tell your parents "I wanna be a drummer" you make their hair stand up. Infat my folks took it very badly at the beginnin and they tried to push me in other directions. But I had a one track mind, and over the years I think I made them understand it was serious As I reach my 20s I started to get results and they started to think that maybe this was a real job Or maybe they realized it is only now, but in the end that's okay. These old videos are my earliest appearances in popular TV shows in Italy playing drums with a number of italian pop stars there's plenty more of course. I played my first gig at fourteen, and I remember I have this smiling face all the time and to tell you the truth I didn't know what I was doing up there on the stage At that time my playing was based on pure instinct as a used to listen to music in my headphones and while trying to play and practice on it. However in the early days I had a friend who acted as a sort of drums tutor. He was taking lessons from Italian drum legend Tullio De Piscopo and after a while he took me to the great 'Maestro'. What Tullio gave me through the years, didn't stop at refining my drum technique. He became a cross between a guardian angel and a father figure and he really gave me a lot. No matter what I did, I always heard a little voice inside telling me: "go for it and don't give up because this is your way, your destiny, you will be drummer". To this day I try to pass to others what Tullio teached me and the bottom line is simple: when you feel you have something to say, and you really believe in what you do you must channel all the energy you have and you will succeed. When I was about 14 I wanted to study classical music at the Conservatory the highest qualified music school in Italy. But I soon found out the program didn't include drums - just percussions, with only a small section devoted to drums, plus you have to choose a complimentary instrument to gain admission to the percussions course. Then a teacher at the same conservatory in Milan suggested to go and see Tullio De Piscopo for lessons and so I did it for six years. I feel I'm still a student because drums are an ever-changing universe unto themselves. Today my teacher is Franco Rossi the founder of the Modern Music Academy in Milan. I don't remember all the cities I've played and this really is a shame but since I play an average of 100/130 gigs each year of the total sums up to more than 2,000 gigs, I think. Here in Bologna I run the AMM drums school. My courses are not that different from others as we use internationally recognized my methods. There's an academic course at the end of the year you get the certificates of attendance and then you can get your diploma. The real difference from other drum schools track is I try to consider each student from a subjective personal perspective. Everyone needs his own different thing. Playing drums for some is just a hobby others want to turn professional and there are people just wanna spend a few hours enjoying themselves. So I try to understand and channel all these differences. I teach drums because that's the one thing that I really like to do. I try to communicate what I feel, in addition to the academic stuff. Over the years I played in many different contexts and musical styles My studies and practice have been crucial in developing my taste. As a result I experimented with other styles and had the opportunity to play with different artists from reggae to funk and hip-hop. These days I'm studying Jazz and Latin American Music. Basically I'm a much more versatile drummer that one could think. I have quite an extensive professional discography especially in Rock and Pop but in other genres too. Over the years I have developed a pretty good experience in the studio from program use to drum kit microphone technique. This enables me to provide complete recording sessions with separate audio tracks on my own. I'm the drums educator at F.O.H. in Bologna Italy and I'm also a live session drummer for many different artists and bands. I like to play a little bit of everything from Pop to Rock, Hip-hop and so on. I love to play for guitarists in particular. I had the lucky chance to play with the Italian axe heroes: Maurizio Solieri, Andrea Braido, Ricky Portera and other top names including International as Stef Burns. I also played with bassist Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple fame, Robin McAuley singer of Michael Schenker Group and Survivor and many others. My drums educator and session studio drummer activities are an happy addition. At the end of a gig, between all the musicians on stage the drummer is the happier one. Drums can truly express one hundred per cent your real attitude, you love for life and the desire to spread all your energy around. All this comes back to you through the audience's reaction, their happiness and the smiles you see in their eyes