Jazz Drumming 101 with Aaron Tuchardt (USA)

This drumming workshop will cover jazz drum set fundamentals including syncopated hits, setups, Latin grooves, brush technique, sight reading and more. It’s a quick glance at all the skills you need to poses to be a competent jazz drummer.

Bio:

Aaron Tuchardt is a professional musician and educator based out of the Pacific Northwest. After over 10 years of playing, his areas of performance center around drums, percussion, and voice. While his primary performance focus is in the Jazz scene, his classical degree has awarded many opportunities to perform in a diverse selection of genres. Aaron is fortunate enough to have shared the stage with musicians such as Chris Martin (Trumpet), John Clayton (Bass), Diane Shuur (Voice), New York Voices, Esperanza Spalding (Bass), members from Tower of Power, and more. In addition, Aaron has also toured with some of the Pacific Northwest’s premier wind and jazz ensembles. In the coming years Aaron is looking forward to continuing performing and educating around the world.

Aaron also teaches middle school and high school band, and works as a Sound Technician at Central Washington University and is the drummer for the Ellensburg Big Band.

Bring your instrument (preferably horn) and take part as you are guided on improvisation development through melodic variation techniques with jazz education legend Chris Bruya. You may also be an observer if you prefer, but you’ll get more out of it by taking part!

Chris Bruya has been involved in music education since 1983, teaching high school, community college and university, the last 20 years at Central Washington University, retiring in 2021 as Emeritus Professor of Music. While at CWU he pioneered an improvisation sequence, built a small-group program, and the jazz big band was recognized as one of the finest in the country, performing at the Montreux, North Sea and the Next Generation jazz festivals and three JEN conferences. In 2015 the band placed first at the Next Generation Festival, which included a performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival the following September. In 2015 the band was featured on Barney McClure’s CD Show Me!, and earlier on their Seabreeze Records 2008 release In A Mellow Tone. Most recently the jazz band won the undergraduate Asynchronous Recording category of the 2022 Downbeat Magazine Student Awards based upon work completed during Covid protocols, his final year at CWU. There are over 150 live-recorded YouTube videos of the band, recognized worldwide as some of the strongest examples of the big band literature. Bruya has served on WMEA, OMEA and IAJE boards in both Oregon and Washington, has presented at numerous regional conferences, directed honor bands in Tennessee, New York state, Nevada, and Texas, while in retirement remaining in demand as a clinician and adjudicator throughout the Northwest and beyond. In 2016 the Washington Music Educators Association honored him with the Collegiate Educator of the Year award, and in 2022 inducted him into the WMEA Hall of Fame.