Hey Dan!

A great story and a great picture! Wow, he was still teaching at 88 years old!

Looking back, I now realized that I've only had two instructors in my life. The first, who I recall only his first name, Bill, had a lot of influence teaching me more than just "rock" beats. Thank you, Bill! I took lessons from Bill at Wallach's Music City in West Covina, Ca. Unfortunately, I never took any pictures.

My second instructor was a great drummer and just a wonderful person...Roy Burns! My pictures of Roy and myself are on my NAS drive and, for some odd reason, I can't seem to access right now. I probably just need to do a reboot. As soon as I figure it out, I'll post the picture.

-Mark

I am forever grateful to a great man, James Dycus. Mr. Dycus was the instrumental music teacher at Thomas A. Edison School in Hammond, Indiana. I lived two blocks from Edison and attended school there from kindergarten through eighth grade. I can never remember not wanting to play "a drum". I banged away on every surface in our house with whatever kitchen utensils I was allowed to use. My favorite toys were always toy drums. At Edison we were able to start in the school band program in fourth grade. Mr. Dycus was keen to know that I would not be happy with anything but percussion. He tried to teach me bass clarinet and C Melody sax from time to time between fourth and eighth grades. But, those efforts failed. I was a drummer through and through in school band and orchestra. I never thought about playing in a rock band until a guy in our high school band invited me in my freshman year to join his rock band. I had to tell him that I had never played or owned a drum set. Well, a year later, I owned a used Gretsch Two-tone Duco set and a couple of cymbals. I played my first gig in 1958. After that, I went on to play professionally while attending college and thereafter. I never had a drum set lesson. I just copied what I thought other drummers were doing. But, Jim Dycus will always remain as my musical inspiration.

leedybdp!

Another wonderful story! Thanks for sharing!

-Mark

Had to reboot my NAS (Network Attached Storage) but all is working now!

Here's a picture of one of my drum lessons with Roy Burns. Both of us look pretty darn cool with our checkbooks in our pockets!

I was attending San Diego State University in the 70's and played in all the bands...Concert, Jazz and Marching. I had heard that Roy would be giving a clinic close by, sponsored by Rogers of course, and I was able to catch his clinic. Never did I think that I'd ever be taking lessons from Roy!

-Mark

Double "D"

....... Hmmmmm,...

I'm late to this, but what a great idea for a thread. (And Mark, that's wild that Roy Burns was your teacher!)

My teacher was Eddie Locke, a fantastic drummer and person who played with a ton of jazz greats starting back in the 50s, I think. Incredibly interesting life, a brilliant storyteller - both on and off the drums. That's him (circled) as a young man in the "A Great Day In Harlem" photo.

He would take me with him on his gigs sometimes, and one of the first he took me to was at the Blue Note, where I'd never been but obviously had heard of. He was making fun of me for being so dumbstruck when we got there (I was barely in high school at the time), and then during one of his solos, he took one of his shoes off and started using that to play with while making goofy faces at me. (And of course, he played better with a shoe than I'll ever play with a stick or brush.)

He always ended every lesson with the same line: "You can have a rhythm without a melody, but you can't have a melody with a rhythm."

Tom Rogiewicz. He had a doctorate in Percussion yet became our small town High School band director. He was the coolest teacher in school and became one of my closest friends later in life until his untimely passing in 2015.

Well, I can see we're off to a great start with this. Thanks to all of you for joining in!