At the 12th DDF, a two-day drumming seminar will be organized (September 29 and 30), where participants will have enough time to acquire new knowledge and skills with one of the best pedagogues in this field in Serbia and beyond. Miroslav Karlović Karlo, a professor from whom the best drummers in the region acquired their knowledge, will share his skills with drummers who really want to learn from the best. Everyone who attended drumming workshops or Drum Dum Fest concerts fondly remembers Marko Đorđević, Pero Radmilović, Duca Ivanišević, so valuable information will be that these people learned from Professor Karlović at some stage of their training. The organizers of the Drum Dum Fest decided to give him the Lifetime Achievement Award. We talked to him about music and, of course, drums.

DDF: What will the seminar look like? Can we get one short description, so we can save everything else for the seminar itself?

Karlo: I would first tell what I think is important, that is, what sublimates my experience in contact with the instrument, which I hope could help those who listen, to shorten the path to successful control over the instrument, which in my case worked a crooked line, so I straighten that line with them. It won’t be a stereotypical drumming workshop. Each of my addresses will be supported by a practical part. If they don’t get a clear picture at that seminar, what is the essence of the problem in mastering the instrument, I will consider that I have missed the reason for coming (laughter).

 

DDF: What is the greatest attraction of your lecture?

Karlo: Related to the instrument that I teach, to understand how to control that instrument. So, I don’t teach someone music, that’s not in the human domain, I can teach them how to convey what God has given, that is, the understanding of music, how to convey it through the instrument, with as little time spent or wrongly conceived hours spent behind the instrument. So, that is the basis, that is my experience, I have corrected myself during my life and I would like them to avoid that wrong line and that is the goal of my information.

 

DDF: In your opinion, what is the best age for a child to pick up the sticks?

Karlo: Yes, it’s a decade-long question when it comes to my experience and what I’m going to say has nothing to do with the general, it has to do with me. I didn’t manage to reach the consciousness of children under 10 years old, but that may be my personal problem, it’s a different kind of pedagogy, maybe I’m a little “cheeky”.

 

DDF: How did it all start, wasn’t your first instrument a drum?

Karlo: Considering that my father was a cellist of the Belgrade Philharmonic, I first learned to play the piano, but somewhere in the first year of high school, I don’t know how, we formed a band. I played the piano, and the guitar a little amateurishly, but I said that I wanted to play the drums, and I didn’t know anything about that at that moment.

 

DDF: What is your favorite memory from your career?

Karlo: In that part of my music, I had several fields, namely jazz, classical, contemporary classical. We are talking about the time when I graduated from the Music Academy in Graz (Austria) in 1980, then I collaborated with the Belgrade Philharmonic for several years, which was an incredible experience, where it was a serious segment. There was collaboration with big orchestras and “Big Bands” from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Budapest, but each of those collaborations had an impact on my growth.

 

DDF: From your perspective, why is Drum Dum Fest important?

Karlo: Because the awareness of what drums are is not yet in people’s heads, and neither are drummers, that is, musicians – unfortunately, it is strong and clear enough how much that instrument is not what it is thought to be, and how much it is what they do not know. What it is: an instrument that is complex in coordination and very subtle, musical and that is not behind a melodic instrument, provided that the one who plays it is at that level to be able to get it out of it.

For all those who are interested in attending the seminar, it is important to note that the price of the seminar this year is only 2000 dinars, and registration is via e-mail [email protected]. The number of places is limited.