Derrick J
Instruments: Drums, Mallet Percussion, Orchestral Percussion
Styles: Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Country, R&B, Gospel, Funk, Hip Hop, Reggae, Latin Jazz, Swing, Bossa Nova, Soul, Marching Band, Avant-garde
Derrick J
Instruments: Drums, Mallet Percussion, Orchestral Percussion
Styles:
Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Country, R&B, Gospel, Funk, Hip Hop, Reggae, Latin Jazz, Swing, Bossa Nova, Soul, Marching Band, Avant-garde
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 10-60
BA, HOWARD UNIVERSITY
1994 HU Louis Armstrong jazz solo award 2012-2017 Jazz master class instructor
I'm an energetic and passionate music lover with a discipline in drums/percussion. I have over 30 years experience with drumming and playing in all sorts of music situations, including jazz groups, orchestra's, marching band/drumline, etc. I currently play a regular Sunday church gig in Houston and can be heard during the week on a regular basis at Perry's Steakhouse in Baybrook Mall and both Eddie V's locations (west and city centre). I've had the opportunity to tour in recent years with the likes of Bobby Lyle (piano) and so many others.
I have a long history of teaching students have the awesome task of teaching drums to quite the talented and those who work hard to achieve a level of musicianship that will compete with the top players. I started as a back up teacher for a colleague of mine in his studio and have been teaching for over 20 yrs in my home studio or the student's home studio. My teaching style is a combination of traditional rudiments, stick and control technique and practical listening and play a long drumming. My students learn the appreciation of all music, in addition to all of the basics and begin to apply them at a performance level for small audiences in a recital setting. I touch all genres of music to develop a well rounded drummer/percussionist. I'm looking to bring up the next generations of jazz, rock, and modern music drummers!
I start my beginning students off with learning to read music notation simply from a rudiment sheet and moving into a cd play a long book with basic drum rhythms and song structure. For intermediate to advance students, I typically start with Stick Control for the snare drummer by George Stone. For basic drum set we start with "The Rhythm Book" covering all drum set styles. If the student is interested in a specific genre and style of playing, we tend to travel down that road of goals they have set for themselves.
It's so amazing to see my students develop an appreciation for music at all levels! I teach by experience and what has been the sensible to me in learning music. I simply get right to the major points that develop the musician in my students all while concentrating on technique which is so important! I always like to be open to what the student's goal is when studying to play the drums because I want to meet their needs. As a gauge to how the student is progressing, I like to incorporate solo pieces that cover all of the rudiments we've worked on and drum set play a long's in several styles of music.
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