Background
Andries Visser started playing drums at the age of 9. A year later he had his first drum kit and was playing in church as well as various other festivals. With very little knowledge on what to teach, he began teaching drums when he was in high school. His passion for drums took him to Technikon Pretoria after school. He spent a year and a half there studying under top S.A.Drummers Neill Ettridge and Barry van Zyl. Andries then met up with renowned teacher Andre Luke. The year and a half under Andre, Andries mentions that it's where he learned to read properly. Andre also gave him lessons on how to teach. He spent a further two to three years studying by himself with the help of some well known books like Gary Chester's - A New Breed. The same books are still used today by many teachers all over the world.
From the period 1994 to 1998 he played with various club bands as well as session work on approximately 90 albums. Andries joined Khanyisa, an international, multicultural group which took him on tour through 35 states in America over a 3 year period.

He furthered his education by taking lessons from Carl Albrecht in Nashville Tennessee. Carl, a well known percussionist, studio player, songwriter / producer introduced Andries to Chester Thompson, who gave Andries several private lessons as well. Another phenomenal studio drummer with whom he had lessons was Lynn Williams. Andries took advantage of his situation and went to every workshop he possibly could. Guitar, Bass, drums, they all were ways for him to further his education. His playing took him further abroad to places like the UK, the Netherlands, Slovakia, the French islands of Reunion and many other destinations.
When he finally returned to South Africa, he worked with several artists in the Christian industry like Louis Brits and Reana Nel, as well as Arnold de Wet from Blues House. He took any opportunity that came along, playing all styles in various situations. He did studio work, CD launches, recordings and much more.
Andries began teaching a lot more intensively. He worked hard at balancing his playing with teaching. He worked on a course for himself and used it for his 4 full time students in 2003. He then doubled his students for 2004 and re-evaluated the course even further. He has now added on the tasks of writing 13 books over the next few years covering topics like Reading, Drum Solo's, Snare Solo's, Stick Control, Fill Ideas, Odd Time Signatures, Studio Drumming, Jazz Drumming, Independence and a few others. Andries finds that the teaching has helped him be a more consistent player as well as help with relationship building. He bases his teaching around relationship building to ensure that each student gets the full attention they require.

The Groove Regulators
2005 looks very promising at this stage. The student intake will be 18 full time students. The entry level is also a lot higher than 2003 and 2004. Entry requires that you have been playing for at least three to five years. It is not a beginner's course but an advanced course to train professional musicians. Three classes will be run, one in the West Rand and two in Pretoria which he will personally be running. The classes are 2 hours a day, 4 days a week, 4 terms. A total of 400 hours of tuition. 14 Subjects are covered. Some subjects are covered over several weeks while others run the length of the full year. Andries believes that hard work no matter the goal can only lead to success. He has made sure that time stills allows him to be an all round player and not just a teacher. Students who finish the full time course are eligible for a three to six month encore course. Plans for 2006 include an encore course that allows a player to specialize in an area like jazz, fusion etc.

His Setup
Andries has chosen to play on a Pearl Master Custom MMX Emerald Green kit. The kit for him delivers warmth, tone, a good attack level. He feels the maple gives him a lot of clarity, clear notes, clear strokes and good tone. His cymbals which are mainly Zildjian K Dark Custom Series were chosen because of the warmth and darkness of them. Andries feels that they fill the music and do not stand as a separate entity to the drum kit. He uses Pro Orca 5A's Proline which are the best balanced sticks he's played with.

Contact Andries Visser on 0826557355 to find out more about the Groove Regulators.