Percussion
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"I deal with a lot of nonpercussionists, too—piano players, singers, horn players. I enjoy that almost more than teaching drummers. They don't have any preconceptions. One of the things that I show people who are not drummers is that just because you're playing this pattern on a hand drum, that doesn't mean that you can't apply the phrasing to your guitar comping or whatever. I'm trying to get them to think outside of the box. Many times they get caught up with the idea that it has to be done here, in this context. But that's not necessarily the case."
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David DiCenso, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Percussion Department"As musicians, we need to be great at multitasking. To open up your imagination is a form of multitasking. A drummer who's playing a groove—supporting a band—has to go beyond the strictly technical and physical places to find that great feel. One way is to focus, close our eyes, and imagine something related to what we're playing. That's going to inject feeling into our groove that's a little deeper than what it was a moment ago."
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Joe Galeota, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Percussion Department"I focus on oral tradition, mostly call-and-response type learning. It's a bit like ear training. The majority of my classes are African music. I'll introduce the rhythms or the songs, and they have to learn them by ear. After we do that for a while we work on how it gets translated into Western notation. It's very informal, something like an apprenticeship."
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Steve Wilkes, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Percussion Department"Student demand for technology in percussion is peaking. I teach four different courses that are either directly about technology or peripherally involve it. Students really need to be adept at the technology, so that they can get the jobs that will define the musical landscape in the future. In ten to fifteen years, the landscape of drumming is going to change drastically. Today, when you think of a band you think drum set, guitar, bass, singer. In the future, I think many bands are just as likely to be comprised of electronic drummer, keyboard, guitar, and singer."
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Terri Lyne Carrington, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Percussion Department"I've been performing with great jazz musicians since I was a kid. And I always revered them. It's been great to be part of a line of such amazing players. Teaching allows me to pass it on. Most of the masters of the music are gone now. So it's really important for me to be able to say, 'Dizzy Gillespie taught me this.'"
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Ralph Peterson Jr., Professor
DEPARTMENT : Percussion Department"My teaching style is energetic, intense, and no-nonsense. I try to encourage interaction and to inspire my students to push their own limits. Beyond the obvious areas of technique and reading, one of the most important things I teach is total musicianship. This involves hearing and playing beyond the drum set. Understanding form, melody, harmony, and phrasing all have a profound effect on what a drummer plays."
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Neal Smith, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Percussion Department"I try not to create patterns in my lessons, so that the material seems really fresh, so that it catches students off guard. When you get called for a recording session, a lot of times you basically have one shot at this. You get called based on your reputation, you come in, and a lot of times you get the music at the session. You have to be able to sight read extremely well, you have to be able to interpret music extremely well, and you have to be able to adapt to your environment."
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Skip Hadden, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Percussion Department"I like to be able to see the students from when they enter—like in the audition process—to when they're in the classes, to when they graduate, and then, years later, they'll come back and knock on the door, and I'll see what they're doing or I'll read about them in magazines. Because I've been doing it for so long now, I've seen a couple generations of students go out and do well."
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Larry Finn, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Percussion Department"Being a drummer is like being a professional athlete in that you have to be in shape both physically and mentally. A lot of people, when they see a drummer playing a repetitive groove for three minutes, might not realize how hard that is to do. It's difficult to put the whole package—good technique and a musical approach—together."
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Kenwood Dennard, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Percussion Department"People say it's not what you know, it's who you know. But I say, don't you think it's how they feel when you're around that's most important? It was Charlie Mingus who showed me the importance of influencing the other members of the band. When I played with Mingus, he made me sound better just by being onstage."
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