The Brighton Drum School was established as an industry connected drum school in 2010 by one of the UK's most prominent player-educators, Pat Garvey, to provide access to the very best in 1:1 learning and support for all ages and levels, as well as professional mentoring, coaching, career guidance and support, and consultation services.
15 years on from its inception and with students coming from all over the UK and wider world, The Brighton Drum School has established itself as one of the leading places to study drums in the UK and for anyone to access professional mentoring, coaching, career guidance and support on a 1:1 basis, in-person and online. The Brighton Drum School also can also provide DBS checked and experienced tutors for 1:1 lessons and study in students' own homes and offers graded study in association with Trinity College London and RSL (Rockschool).
The Brighton Drum School is easily accessible locally by bus and it’s a four minute walk from Brighton train station, which services the mainline trains from the surrounding area's across the whole of Southern England, with easy links to & from any UK town and city in the UK. Brighton City, Gatwick and Heathrow airports are all within easy travel distance and all are served by the South Coast mainline for those travelling from further afield. Online lessons use the Zoom platform with a fully mic'd up kit and multi-camera set up and are available to students countywide, nationwide and worldwide.
Pat Garvey has worked internationally as a professional musician for nearly 30 years. As a player, Pat is drummer in Ozric Tentacles and has played with a diverse range of artists over a long career as a professional drummer including The David Cross Band (King Crimson), The Prototypes, prog overlords Lonely Robot, Noel Redding (Jimi Hendrix), JAMES, David Jackson (Van Der Graaf Generator), Tim Booth, Freddie V (Average White Band), Lewis Stephens (Freddie King), and Fischer-Z amongst numerous others.
As an educator, Pat is Head of Drums & Principal Lecturer at BIMM University in the UK and also lectures in popular music history and personal and professional development. He has also held positions as senior lecturer, module leader and Deputy Head of Department and has designed and written college and university courses, modules, assessments, schemes of work, and developed and managed digital learning resources across 19 different curriculum areas. In a freelance capacity he's written over 300 published educational articles, delivered talks, masterclasses, workshop sessions and support to other teachers, heads of departments, course leaders and student support staff at music institutions internationally, and featured on panels as a guest at Royal Northern College of Music, UK Drum Show, ACM, Sabian Education Network, LCMP, LIPA amongst others. He's also worked with organisations like Help Musicians UK, soundLINCS, Arts Council England and Youth Music delivering funded community music projects in a special guest capacity, and working with musicians in injury rehabilitation.
As well as his extensive professional experience, he holds a masters degree in learning and teaching, and PGCert and PTTLS qualifications in learning and teaching. He also a published author and an artist in his own right.
100’s of his students have gone on to work successfully in many different areas of the creative industries worldwide and he has taught, trained, mentored and coached many instrumental teachers and practitioners local to the South of England as well as more widely across the UK and worldwide.
He is proud to have some of his past and current students playing and working with some of the biggest acts in the world including Rag n’ Bone Man, Soul Wax, Central Cee, The Darkness, Billy Ocean/Tricky, Queen & Adam Lambert, Two Door Cinema Club, Leona Lewis, Hotwax, Incognito, The Subways, Lawson, Vader, Charlie XCX, Ines Rae, Decapitated, Nathan Dawe, James Marriot, & Charlie Sloth amongst numerous others.