Simon Philips: Complete is another case of two older videos being merged and resold as a single DVD. Its two individual parts being Simon Philips and Simon Philips Returns.

The thing about this DVD is that it doesn’t really reveal to you what you are getting into when you buy/rent it. Certainly there’s no hint as to the nature of the content in the title of the DVD. So I’m going to tell you what you’re getting into. Mostly you’re getting performance and breakdown of music Simon Phillips wrote, along with a couple of solos and some sections on general drumming topics. Some of the general drumming topics include double bass drumming and double bass tuning, timekeeping, coordination, snare drum tuning, and snare drum playing.

The advice he gives is pretty good in many of the areas he talks about and not so good in some of the others. Usually when the advice isn’t satisfactory it’s because he didn’t go in-depth enough as opposed to the advise just being bad. Also, as with most older DVDs, lots of the ideas and advice he give have been done again but better in newer DVDs. You can tell this stuff was big news back in the old days but today much of it has been improved on. I’m searching and failing to say something else about this DVD which means it’s time for the break down. Read the rest of this entry →