Blog | October, 2011
My Association with Vic Firth and why education remains an important aspect of my professional playing career.
I had the unique opportunity to record a drum set lesson series, featured at Vic Firth.com. This content has opened up a great deal of doors for me as an educator. I have been contacted by drummers from all over the world with questions and comments. I have truly been humbled by the positive response. Many of you have asked how I came to be invited to record a lesson series and how I began my association with Vic. So here it is….as best as I can remember.
I have always had a strong connection to the education world of percussion. Sometimes involved in the day to day life of teaching young percussionist, at other times I have been too busy performing. But I have never lost the desire to share what info and lessons I have learned on to others who are interested. I think this comes from my background and how I came up to become a professional musician. I don't necessarily subscribe to the concept of "those who can, do, and those who can't, teach." If that is the philosophy, what does that say about the world we live in? It doesn't speak very highly of our respect and desire to foster the next generation. Have you heard of the "dying art of brush playing"? If we subscribe to that philosophy, then brush playing will be a lost art. Have you seen Ed Soph play….forget about it…that throws that whole concept out the window. Let's all share what info we have so that the youth coming up will continue the great tradition of drums and drumming. In addition, I was fortunate to study with not only some great musicians but wonderful people. Pat Hanley, Mike Erhard, Dane Williams and Ed Soph at the weekly level and master classes with the greats like Jim Chapin, Dom Famularo, Chuck Silverman and Ignacio Berroa. I just can't take advantage of their gift to me and not feel some responsibility to pass along the valuable info I have accumulated.
Back in the early 2000s when touring with Curtis Salgado began to slow down. I augmented my performance schedule with middle school percussion instruction and private lessons to individuals of all ages. I found it completely rewarding. However, I noticed that I was one of a handful of people who walked the fence of both performing and teaching. Maybe a full-time teaching gig in the public schools didn't leave much time for performing, but either way, I found it interesting that many band directors had very little experience performing outside of the class room or university. Many graduated with a education degree and went right into a full time teaching gig, never once gracing a stage or winning a gig that toured and/or recorded. I felt that this ability to walk the fence in both worlds was a selling point for me. I had joined Vic's education team. The education program is fantastic. They provide a great deal of additional percussion resource and of course reap the rewards of brand loyalty if a student gets his hands on one of the their many posters and hand outs. Then out of the blue Mark Wessels, Vic's director of Web development, began playing percussion on a church gig that I held the drum set chair. We struck up a friendship and began to share ideas for his up coming book A Fresh Approach to Drum Set. I mentioned this belief that I walked a fence between performer and educator and had quite a few students who I could bounce his material off of and had a pretty good idea of what approaches to beginning drum set worked well. Mark ran with the idea beyond his book concept and invited me record a video lesson series.
If you have visited Vic Firth.com you have seen all the fantastic content from the top drummers of our time. Mark wanted to develop a series aimed at the beginning student, and I guess I was a good guinea pig, targeting those who had begun in school band but were new to drum set. This concept was the primary focus behind the lesson series. I have had some people ask if we really needed a lesson on the paradiddle around the drum set. Yes, I don't really use those exercises that much on the kit, but it is a great introduction to patterns, comfort level and orchestration around the kit. Hopefully opening the eyes of some young students to the creative process of developing their own sound. So we went with simple concepts: Fills, Orchestration and a few time keeping patterns that would get the student up and running very quickly. The videos were shot on two different days. Then edited out into a 13 week lesson series. I actually don't recall the exact date of recording or release. I'm thinking the sessions were recorded back in 2004-5. However, the clips are still up in the drum set resource center at Vic and going strong. It's been a honor to be a part of something that has had a global reach and look forward to sharing additional lessons with all of you in the future. I am doing master classes and periodic lessons in the Austin TX area when my touring/recording schedule permits. I have even begun doing lessons via Skype for those interested. Feel free to give me a shout!