Meeting and discussion with percussionist, composer and teacher Victor Kraus.

Percussionist, producer, composer and teacher Victor Kraus was born in the 1980s and received a classical musical education. He undertook advanced musical studies at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe (Germany) and the Conservatoire de Musique de Strasbourg (France). Influenced as much by the classical repertoire as by techno and contemporary music, Victor Kraus enjoys blending different aesthetics together, and collaborates with numerous artists. 

We had the opportunity to talk to this great musician about his vision of teaching percussion to young and old alike. 

Can you tell us about your career as a musician and teacher? 

My name is Victor Kraus and I'm a percussionist from a musical family. My parents were pianists, so it was logical that I started playing the piano at an early age. However, at the age of 5, I had an accident with one of the fingers on my right hand. My short career as a pianist came to an abrupt end. My background is a bit special, because I started studying music quite late. I took an arts degree. When I was 19, I took the entrance exams for an art school in Paris, and it was after that that I really decided to go into music. My level was very low, almost amateur. It wasn't until I was 20 that I really decided to study music at university. I began my studies at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. And it wasn't easy to pick up on everything that hadn't been learned for twenty years.

I graduated, and then went to Strasbourg to specialize in chamber music. By this time, I had already created the percussion duo KrausFrinkpercussion duo with German percussionist Martin Frink, who is the percussionist at the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie (Saarland Radio). We've been building up this contemporary percussion duo for 13 years. We played contemporary, electroacoustic and even film music. But I was physically exhausted by the heavy logistics of playing instruments (too much equipment to move around, expensive travel costs), so I stopped and started playing in different groups: Nomad The Groupthe Balkan music group and my jazz trio Dock in Absolute in which I play drums. Since 2009, I've been teaching at the Conservatoire de Musique de Danse et des Arts de la scène et de la parole in Luxembourg City. 

There isn't just one percussion instrument, there are dozens. Is it possible to master several percussion instruments at once? 

In Nomad and Dock In Absolute, I play drums. But technically speaking, I'm not a drummer. 98% of professional drummers play better than me. But before you're a drummer, you're a musician, and in my case, a musician-percussionist; that helps a lot with the drums. Playing in concert all over the world in a jazz style (which is not my original field) is a new experience for me and a great satisfaction. But you can't be the best in the world at every instrument. In general, there's one instrument that you focus on in particular. Some percussionists say "I'm a marimbist", for example, or "I'm a vibraphonist". 

What are the different ways of learning percussion?

It's a question that's been with me for 14 years, since the very beginning of my teaching career... 

Let's take the example of a student, a beginner aged 6 or 8. We're going to teach him to play the snare drum. And if he's already started solfeggio, that means he already knows the notes. We'll put him with two sticks in front of a snare drum that doesn't have much sound. Then, at home, we'll put him on a practice pad with even less sound, and gradually explain to him what a white, a round and a black mean (rhythmics). He will then be asked to reproduce these rhythms on the snare drum. The teacher will tell him to count so as not to get disoriented.  

It's a very classic method that I've also experienced, and it's still very technical.

In fact, the student starts with the basics of rhythm. This means learning to play the round, the half note, the quarter note, the eighth note, making rhythms with them and counting beats. The student will do very simple things to begin with. First of all, it's highly technical, and even if you play a tune alongside it, it's still very bland to the ear, because from the point of view of sound experience, it's all simple strokes. A hit on a drum represents no effort at all at first sight, and doesn't give much satisfaction; nothing to do with another instrument, which even if it sounds "wrong" at first, represents a far more gratifying action.

At first it's not easy, there's a lot of information, you have to listen, place yourself on the music, read, coordinate left and right. So it's complex to play music in parallel right away. But the fundamental point is that in percussion, at the beginning, a fundamental parameter of music is missing: melody and harmony. 

What did you notice during the very first lessons given to beginners? 

I've found with many students that if I play them a rythm from scratch, they'll have a lot of trouble reproducing it, but if I play the same rythm with them on the piano, enveloping it in a melody accompanied by harmony, they'll play it for me straight away, without any problem. Music is made up of melodies, harmonies and rhythms. These are really the first three most important parameters. And if you take away one of these parameters, it becomes complicated. 

To sum up, at the very beginning, it's very important not to isolate rythm. Many teachers practice this pedagogy. But I'm convinced that it's a good idea to start with a melody. Even if the student only plays rythm while I accompany him, or if I ask him to sing a melody with it at home. This is really for the beginning of learning percussion, to learn how to coordinate left and right. We need the help of these two missing parameters at the beginning: melody and harmony.

How do you structure your courses? 

The first half of my lesson is without score, with slightly complex rhythms that we play by ear. Beginners can do this. I then match this rhythm with a melody that I play on the piano, and the student sings it, so that we get an immediate result. The second part of the course is the reading of much simpler rhythms, because here, in contrast to the purely auditory, a difficulty is added, that of the notation which has to be deciphered and then "translated" into sound. Listening, reading and movement are the three phases of my percussion lessons. 

There's no single method for teaching percussion. It simply depends on the student. 

How do beginners get started at rythm ? 

Whatever happens, one of the important pillars of learning percussion is counting. In fact, counting stabilizes rythm, because it's a grid. Not counting is a bit like writing on a blank page without the squares. It's hard to keep your handwriting straight. That's why teachers will always force students to count. But it's hyper-cerebral, because the pupil needs to have a mathematical vision of rhythm to succeed in coordinating and rhythmizing right and left. With children, it's even more important to focus on the "feeling" of the rhythms; each rythm carries its own feeling that needs to be absorbed. In this case, we're working on emotional memory, not cerebral memory.

The cerebral aspect of learning will work better with an adult than with a child. A child doesn't yet have this mathematical notion of things; on the other hand, with regular practice, a child can more easily instinctively absorb the sequence of gestures and their results (the sound). The big difference between adults and children is that with an adult, of course, you can work on music through intellectual understanding. Children don't need to understand everything intellectually. What's important is that they like to come and do things, quite simply, that they're in action. Reflexes need to be established. There are certain reflexes that are extremely difficult to re-establish in adulthood. As with all learning, if you start very early and get the body involved, things run more smoothly later on.

Who are your students, and what courses do they follow?

At the Conservatoire de Luxembourg, we teach different types of courses: beginners, introductory and early music. We also have students preparing to enter university, because in Luxembourg as in Strasbourg, it's possible to combine university courses with a curriculum at the conservatory. So I have three types of audience: the very young, the more advanced and adults who take up music at the age of 40. 

Is it harder for a 40-year-old to discover percussion, or is it just as easy as for a 7-year-old?

It all depends on the objective behind the apprenticeship. If you want to become a professional and you start at 30 or 40, it's pretty complicated. If it's for pleasure, then that's fine. Of course, at any age, you can start an instrument or learn anything. But from a coordination point of view, it will be more difficult. 

As far as understanding is concerned, normally it's easier for an adult, because you have an intellectual advantage over a seven-year-old. It's as simple as that. 

After that, the determining factor at all ages is investment. Investment in time and consistency will make all the difference, whether you're 7 or 40. If you can maintain a certain level of consistency, you're bound to get results.

In fact, I also try to convey to my students that revising music is not work in itself. It's a moment for yourself. The great thing about music is that you're working for yourself. It's a method as old as time itself! Even if there's a dose of constraint linked to determination, you can't force students too much, you have to make them understand that they're learning for their own good. Like I do with my 9-year-old twins who are learning the trumpet. 

Finally, a 40-year-old adult already has the motivation that a child may not yet have? 

That's a very good question. The main problem with the adults I've had in class is the lack of time. They work and have children. Often, it's only after retirement that they have the time. I really have enormous respect for all those who, between the ages of 25 and 60, manage to juggle family life, professional life and working on an instrument. Adults are motivated, yes, but from a technical point of view, they will remain at a leisurely level: they can form a small amateur group, play in a brass band, have fun or play in an amateur adult symphony orchestra, for example. 

It's in the high and very high levels that you'll notice the difference between someone who started music young or at an advanced age. The question is the objective. If adults can't do it, most of the time it's simply because they don't have enough time.

What kind of exercise do you do as part of an initiation? 

First of all, we sing a lot. In fact, the general rule is that if you can sing it, you can play it.

What I try to avoid is starting with an ultra-cerebral, mathematical method, without any real sound accompaniment. What I try to do, first of all, is to get the students to play a lot, without scores. I sing a rythm and the students play it several times. Black, eighth note, sixteenth note, dotted sixteenth note, syncopation or triplet, a few basic rhythms. 

For example, I'll have the student repeat a rhythmic circle in a loop and I'll play it with him. Then, I'll detach myself from the student and play something else, to train him to make two rhythms coexist at the same time, for example. At the same time, we'll work on the score. 

In your opinion, is it possible to learn percussion rhythms correctly without actually reading any sheet music?

Yes, of course. At some point, we started notating the music. Which is great, because someone can play your music if they receive a score far from home. But in other cultures, stories and music are passed on orally and, above all, through a learning process that's very different from our own. These different cultures should be a source of inspiration for enriching the methodology of our music lessons.

What types of instrument do you recommend for adults new to percussion? Are some easier to discover?

I don't think there are really any simpler or more complex instruments for different ages. In fact, you play whatever you feel like playing, although it's true that students always have a preference for certain instruments. There are the keyboard instruments, the xylophone, the marimbaphone and the vibraphone. Some prefer those. Others prefer skin instruments: the snare drum, timpani, tomtom or drums. 

In the beginning, it's a discovery. I have to see who my student is so that I can adapt to him. And I use this to create his initiation. The first few lessons, you're totally free and you have to adapt to the student. And then we start to school the thing, in a methodological way.

But in the end, in a percussion class, you'll play everything. The specialty is really a matter of taste. What you can't avoid is the snare drum. Even if you play the xylophone, you'll still need to master a minimum of snare drumming. It's hard to avoid because you have to develop your wrists, which are much more developed on the snare drum than on the xylophone.

What's so special about playing percussion compared to playing any other instrument? 

Percussionists are the only musicians who have no direct contact with their instrument. For example, a trumpeter produces sound with his lips, i.e. his body. The instrument acts as an amplifier. On top of this, the percussionist has to master very large movements. The distance between two blades on a Marimba is enormous compared with the movement a clarinettist has to make to change from one note to the next. What's more - and this is the crux of the difficulty - he has to look at his instrument, otherwise he'll miss the mark. For this reason, a percussionist will always take much longer to learn the same number of notes than any other instrumentalist.

See your students progress with NewzikEducation ! Your students can record themselves performing an exercise, and add their recordings to the corresponding score in a Project. As a teacher, you then have access to all their videos and can measure their progress.