Author & Contributor

DC Contributor
Andy Ziker

Andy Ziker is a teacher and professional drummer in the San Jose, California area. He has authored several instructional books, including Drum Aerobics, Daily Drum Warm-Ups, and Drumset for Preschoolers, and The Jazz Waltz.

www.andyziker.com

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My book Drumset For Preschoolers was designed to be used with drum kits of all types (Including mini, full size, electronic, and the Rock Band video game peripheral), Over time, I discovered another p...
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When buckets (see Bucket Drumming 101 ) are used as drums in classes for young children, it brings up an interesting dilemma: How do you best mute these plastic instruments without adversely affecting...
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Andy Ziker shares his do-it-yourself project to create an alternative to purchasing drums for young children or bucket drums.
Bucket Drumming 101
In this unique educational article by Andy Ziker , Andy explains how he expanded his private teaching studio with an after-school bucket drumming class for young children, pre-school through third gra...
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An Ear Grabber The following two circumstances have brought home the importance of hearing protection, giving me a constant reminder to proceed with caution. — A top student from the past, a 16 year-o...
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Years ago, when I wrote Drumscapes (recently released in an upgraded version called Drumcraft by Cherry Lane/Hal Leonard), I included some general drum-related content. These were responses to questio...
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Beginning students will often show up at their first lesson with incredibly big drumsticks. I often joke with them, “Please donʼt hit me over the head with those things!” These sticks can be as long a...
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Try Publishing recently released my new method book, Drumset for Preschoolers: A Guide for Parents/Teachers of 2-6 Year-Olds designed to provide young children with a fun and valuable drumming experie...
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Drum teachers (and private music teachers in general) commonly run into the following dilemma: they miss lessons due to family vacations, illness, and conflicts with gigs. School districts arrange sub...
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Advancements in technology continue to soar at an exponential rate. When I first wrote the article 20 Aspects to an Ideal Teaching Studio Environment , I knew that some of the content would soon becom...
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Alex walked into the drum studio for his 4th lesson with a feeling of dread. He was learning from his new teacher, but wasn’t feeling comfortable. His mom had picked up on this and was coming in today...
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In bi-annual waves, a handful of my drum students try out for junior high or high school jazz band. They (or their parents) have a look of desperation in their eyes as they inform me, "The audition is...
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A Novel Approach to Teaching and Learning Rhythm In the last article, I talked about Mixtures (combinations of one eighth note and two 16th notes in a beat) and how a mathematical approach to rhythm (...
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A Novel Approach to Teaching and Learning Rhythm In the first two articles, I introduced a unique method for teaching rhythm and described a series of related exercises. In this article, I will demons...
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A Novel Approach to Teaching and Learning Rhythm In the first installment of this series, I told the story of my personal struggle (as a young person) with learning to read and play rhythms. Later, th...
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A Novel Approach to Teaching and Learning Rhythm When I was 13 years old, my drum teacher taught me the rudiments and. more important, how to groove. He had an encouraging way about him, always smilin...
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The following includes excerpts from Andy Ziker’s book Drumscapes: The Essential Guide to Playing Drumset , which is recommended for teachers of beginning to intermediate students. The 3 + 1 Exercise:...
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The following piece is a companion to the article/transcription about the Travis Barker remix of Crank That , which appears in the June 2008 issue of Modern Drummer (the one with Cindy Blackman on the...
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Applying a traditional samba bass drum ostinato and morphing it into something that works in a 12/8 or eighth-note triplet context.
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In this free drum lesson, Andy Ziker shares his own snare drum solo composition, dedicated to his childhood drum instructor, Billy "Stix" Nicks . The composition makes use of 14 standard drum rudiment...
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photo used with permission by Try Publising. Many parents (grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.) refrain from buying mini-drumkits for their youngsters for fear of creating a huge racket in their home. T...
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In the August 2008 edition of Modern Drummer, I told the story one of my teenage drum students, Amanda, who played the video game Rock Band so obsessively that she subsequently improved her single str...
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During a college big band rehearsal, I was baffled by a complex chart. The band director came over to the right side of the drumset (my music stand was on the left, over the hi-hat), and placed his he...