Sheila E. Masterclass Review 2024: A Drumming and Life Lesson?
Last Updated on: December 4, 2023 by Aishwar Babber | Fact Checked
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OVERALL VERDICT
Dive into the rhythm with Sheila E.'s Masterclass! Renowned percussionist Sheila E. shares her expertise, teaching you drumming techniques, performance dynamics, and the art of creating unforgettable music.
8.5
Out of 10
Pros
Clean, easy-to-use website
video streaming platform, Well shot, professional videos
HUGE names teaching all of the classes
New pricing structure makes it much more affordable
Playing drums is not as easy as it seems. It takes time, effort, and dedication. You need to practice a lot if you want to get good at it.
Sheila E.’s Masterclass has been designed for people who really want to learn how to play the drums well and fast, but don’t have enough time or money to take lessons from a teacher in person.
This masterclass will teach you all the skills that you need to become an amazing drummer without having spent too much of your valuable time or money on lessons with teachers. All the information that she shares during this masterclass is worth every penny!
In this post, I’ll do a complete Sheila E. Masterclass review and tell you if this drumming course is any good.
Bottom Line Upfront:
Drumming is a great way to express oneself and have fun.
Sheila E. has been playing drums for over 30 years, so she knows what it takes to be successful in the music industry. She wants to share her knowledge with you through this masterclass!
This class will teach you how to play drums like an expert from the ground up, starting with your first drum lesson all the way until you’re ready for live performances on stage!
You’ll learn everything from basic techniques such as reading sheet music and holding drumsticks properly, all the way up to advanced skills like mastering double-bass drumming and performing solos. With this course, there’s no limit on how far you can go in becoming a professional drummer!
For Sheila E, drums are like an extension of her body. Not only that, but she also gets this level of togetherness with drums from her father. The massively acclaimed percussionist Pete Escovedo is her father.
Now you know that the genes are strong. Her early childhood involved sitting aside the stage and watching her dad play in local clubs.
Meanwhile, her mother worked late shifts at a local dairy to make ends meet. Sheila was born to rock those drums.
This masterclass will show how she got into jamming those drums at the mere age of only four. Most of the kids just started learning stuff, whereas she tried to play those drums as her father did.
It was only a few years later that she started to fill her father’s shoes and make him proud. She played the drums for great and famous artists like Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye around the time she was 20.
Sheila E had her professional debut with Alphonso Johnson on his album “Yesterday’s Dream” in mid-1976.
In 1977 she became a member of The George Duke Band, and since then she appeared on numerous albums by the Duke.
Her father and Sheila also performed together in the album “Happy Together” somewhere in 1980.
Legendary artist Prince spotted her, and it was in 1984 that they performed together on his album “Purple Rain”.
It was the time when she had already made her mark in the industry and was hosting sold-out concerts all over Europe and the US.
Sheila E obviously has so much experience and knowledge having stayed and working for this long in the industry. In this masterclass, she wants to share this knowledge and expertise with numerous people who want to learn drums.
No matter if you learn drums for your will or to become an accomplished and well-known drummer, Sheila will surely catch your attention, and you will enjoy the course thoroughly the same as I did.
The overview below will be based on how I felt throughout the course, the plus points, and the setbacks.
Although the overview is also mixed with the opinion of others, too, still it is primarily based on what I experienced.
I’ll be explaining the course section with every section depicting a different part of a course.
So without further adieu, I’ll start giving out my opinion.
Find your rhythm
The first part or as we can say, the start of the course is to find your rhythm and determine if you are fit for playing the drums or not, whether you can excel or not.
It also means that you have to determine what kind of genre you want to choose and go for.
Not only drums, if you are new to any musical instrument, going through this art of the masterclass is a great option.
Here Sheila E. will tell you and guide you in picking up a rhythm and following it.
To achieve this goal, the class runs with a rhythm counter atop. This was really useful to me for picking up the rhythm and staying up with it.
In addition to this, some little bubbles always keep popping up on the screen, which has some small instructions.
Sheila also taught me as well as the other students that you can make music out of literally anything.
Anything literally means anything in your house from a bucket to utensils to a table.
Moreover, her workbook has even more ideas to work on. There is nothing in your house that can’t be used as an instrument.
The drum basics
Before joining this course, I thought that to start learning the drums, I would have to buy a drum kit first, just like any other instrument.
However, as Sheila shows, you don’t need a drum kit initially to start learning the drums. Just a simple drumstick at first can make you eligible to start learning drums.
In this video, she explains that using a pillow and a pair of drumsticks is enough for you to start learning.
Sounds weird?Actually no. This will help you to learn how to hold and use the drumsticks properly.
Holding the stick properly, how to handle your wrists, and how much strength to apply with your wrists is all that is included in this trick so that you can carry on with your rhythm.
Apart from this, the video will also tell you the basics related to drumming and the drum kit. Sheila will give you a brief tour of the drum kit, how to make your own drum kit and the best way to prepare or warm up before starting your jam sessions.
Learn a drumbeat
This is where you will actually hit the drums and start jamming.
This may feel a little difficult to you at first view, and however, if you follow Sheila and her advice correctly, this part will also go on seamlessly for you.
I made a huge mistake here by going through the video 3-4 times and not rehearsing the stuff taught.
That was clearly not the way to do the course. My way really made the video literally impossible to learn a word.
The correct way is just to go through what Sheila is teaching and practice it afterward. After all this, you can simply try various other methods to play that beat.
There are some basic things about beats and drums Sheila will talk about in this masterclass. These things include:
The two and four drum beat and how to play it.
Method to play advanced funk beats.
How to play Latin beats such as Samba.
The video closes down with a detailed breakup of the Latin Samba beat.
Her way of teaching, her knowledge, and the content provided in the class are very easy to understand and follow which is the best thing I liked. I previously saw drum tutorials on YouTube, and they were hard to learn or lacked content but not this.
Her way of breaking down beats is something never seen before.
The Crucial Ethics In Drumming For A Band
For any band, drummers are one of the most crucial parts, and they are the ones who catch the attention of a true audiophile concerning the band.
Whether it be Lars Ulrich from Metallica or Rob Gardener for Guns N’ Roses, drummers hold the capacity to drive the whole band. And for a rock band, the drummer is the star of the show.
Hence, if you are going to play as a drummer for any band, you have a special responsibility on your back.
They sometimes have to hold the pace, ride the tempo for the complete performance, or lead the song with their solo section.
With all this responsibility on your shoulders, you cannot afford any mistake or any unethical practice during your performance.
As for me, when I saw all this stuff, I was confused and scared of being this perfect with my performance.
However, as always, Sheila also played a part in helping us out through this problem to ensure our continuous and joyful drum learning experience. Sheila majorly breaks down this responsibility into multiple sections which are given below.
What is timekeeping and how to master it.
How to play different genres.
How to hold and control the tempo for the band.
How to properly handle the bridge between bass and drums.
How to change the speed of your performance without any halt.
How To Grow And Improve Yourself To Be Able To Become a Bandleader?
Being a bandleader is an even bigger responsibility than being the drummer for the band. Being a drummer only means handling yourself and the drums.
However, being the drummer means that you have to handle the entire team.
You have to look at how each and every member of the band is performing, what they are lacking, what needs to be corrected, and such stuff. Being a bandleader is undoubtedly a big responsibility.
However, Sheila will tell you precisely what you can do to become a bandleader, what mindset you should have, and what your goals and ambitions should be. This video is not meant for you if you just want to learn the drums.
I found it irrelevant for someone who just wants to go around and learn how to play the drums.
However, if your dream is to become a bandleader, then surely go for it and watch the video. The video is full of knowledge and experiences.
Some Words For People Like Me
At the end of this masterclass, Sheila will share her experiences and some tips for those who want to be a musician in the future.
From my point of view, this advice is more inclined towards the people who want to become music for professional purposes and not just for a hobby.
The advice is definitely worth it for those types of people who want to grow up as professional musicians.
If you are one of those persons, just head up to this section and watch it thoroughly as it is very helpful.
Moreover, Masterclass has various other masterclasses for other music-related fields such as Film music, Electronic Music, Acoustic training, and much more from the best artists in the world.
If you want to establish yourself as a musician, the masterclass is the way you should embark on.
Handling Solos And Fills
Solos are a thing every drummer feels a bit uncomfortable about.
However, when Sheila is here, there is no such thing as difficulty. She covers all the basics and tips for mastering our solos very easily.
One thing I felt was that she didn’t cover the advanced parts regarding solos.
She just skimmed over the basics and left off. Though the workbook provides a bit more information that’s it.
Regarding the fills, no worries, she will thoroughly explain what to do with those.
She will tell you everything about fills from changing the direction to joining things together and leading the band.
Sheila also explains that sometimes playing only a minimal and simple beat can also have a significant effect.
Conditioning And Training For The Drummers
Undoubtedly the art of drumming is very demanding physically.
Sheila E. covers this aspect in the course, which makes the course even more incredible.
She describes it well in her videos. In one of her videos regarding the warm-up she mentions that as compared to the right arm, the left arm takes a much longer time to warm up.
She also elaborates on the ways she adopts to deal with potential problems that she comes across when putting into use specific exercises.
She digs deeper into the details in the conditioning and training video.
You can also get a glimpse of her pre-show preparations in these videos.
To me, it seemed to be pretty evident that her drumming has played a significant role in her incredibly maintained fitness and health.
Though she is 63 years old (born in 1957) still she manages to play and move with such great energy and vigor as she used to back in the 80s.
How Can You Play The Congas?
Congas are not my thing. They are weird to use and understand.
However, Sheila explained this too, and hence to write the review, I had to watch it.
Once again, Sheila is a great teacher when she explains stuff like this. She made me skim through Congas very easily and happily. The stuff she told me about was:
Conga setup and sound setup
How to position your body while playing congas.
Understanding the cha-cha pattern
How to keep up with time while soloing
The workbook also provides you with some additional tunes and parts to practice.
The workbook also has various rhythms for the conga and various other instruments.
However, this part is only for those who are experienced enough to read music from a piece of paper.
The section is still worthy if you are not able to read music, in any case.
How To Get Around Timbales?
I never thought that I would be playing timbales during my drum training, primarily because it is used in Latin music which just sounds boring to me. I even felt that I should leave this part.
However, I gathered some confidence and watched the video.
Guess what? I was very happy to see the article. It would have been a mistake if I didn’t attend it.
It really opens up to various possibilities.
Sheila shares that she plays those Timbales very often to this day too.
This gives her the freedom to sing and the will to move. Sheila will cover the following stuff on this topic:
Timbales setup
Stick grips experimentation
How to modify or change your sound while playing timbales
Choosing and using the right sticks
Why Do I Recommend The Drumming And Percussion Masterclass By Sheila E?
If you are someone who really wanted to learn how to play a musical instrument, but you found it super tough to learn, then you should be giving it another thought.
The drumming and percussion masterclass by Sheila E will teach you to play in no time. She does not mess up or impede you with too much detail.
She quickly begins by teaching you fundamentals and eases the topic for you, so you are good to go. The incredible part of this is you can get started even if you don’t own even a single drum.
You will also find a few videos that will give you a thorough insight into her career.
I have always been a fan of Sheila E, so it was an immense pleasure to watch more about her music career.
But if you are someone who isn’t particularly a fan of Sheila’s work, then you can always skip these videos.
But you will definitely miss out on a lot of golden pieces of information that will help you a lot in bringing about an improvement in your playing.
Learn To Drum Workbook In PDF Format
Though the workbook is excellent, the only flaw I came across was that it doesn’t follow the structure of the course which can be a bit inconvenient as you can’t quickly find something you learned in the video which you wish to go back on.
I still find it to be an incredible workbook with a plethora of practical and handy information with a lot of extra exercises to do.
For starters, a map of the main world aligns with a track that is for everyone which you can listen to and thus grow your understanding of rhythms in this incredible way.
This way, you can also find tracks that will be pretty useful for the sake of practicing.
FAQs
🤷♂️ What makes this masterclass distinct?
Well, unlike some other music courses, this course isn’t just dependent on the musical instrument. Instead, it is dependent on the completeness of the user as a whole.
🤔 What makes Sheila so trustworthy?
Sheila is so experienced, and at the same time, she is so famous all over the world. She has an excellent reputation in all over the industry for her drumming skills. So who is better than her to help you learn drums.
🙋♀️ What if I do not like the course?
You have the option to get a refund for your course in the case that you do not like the course or you think that it is not worth your money.
Sheila E. Masterclass Testimonials & Students Reviews
If you’re a musician looking to learn how to play the drums from an expert, Sheila E Masterclass is just what you’ve been waiting for.
This class will show you all of the basics and take your drumming skills up to advanced levels in no time! You’ll be playing like a pro before long with this masterclass by one of the most well-known female musicians around.
I hope that you give it a try today so that I can help make your dream come true as well!
Aishwar Babber is a passionate blogger and a digital marketer. He loves to talk and blog about the latest tech and gadgets, which motivates him to run GizmoBase. He is currently practicing his digital marketing, SEO, and SMO expertise as a full-time marketer on various projects. He is an active investor in AffiliateBay. You can find him on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook.
