Normally I write articles on vintage drums or drum history as I have a love for that stuff. I felt this article would be a great chance to pay tribute to those individuals that have taught drums for many years. The internet has changed so many things from when a lot of us were young and nowadays many people learn things by either taking online lessons or just learning from YouTube videos. I’m not complaining as there is a lot of great information on these videos and there are a lot of things available now that was just not around if you played drums prior to the advent of the internet. This article is meant to pay respect to those people that spent many hours in a practice room teaching students day in and day out for many years young and old. In this particular article I am going to give proper due to my drum teacher Barry Nelson; a lifelong drummer, a teacher for many years and most likely someone that most people have never even heard of outside of the immediate New England area.
In a previous article I wrote called “Everyone Had a First set of Drums, What was Yours?”, I talked about seeing a band with kids older than me play at an old home day when I was 11 years old. Asking the drummer where he learned to play pointed me in the direction of Barry Nelson at French’s Music store in Concord NH. This was in the summer of 1982 and I did not know the first thing about drums other than I knew they had called to me after seeing that old home day concert. My Mom set up the lessons as I remember briefly meeting Barry for the first time when she took me by the store one afternoon. To this day I can vividly remember how he did some simple rudimentary stuff on a practice pad and it was like he was making music with his hands, the sticks and that pad. There are very few drummers I see even today that can just play a snare drum like that and make it sound like music. After meeting Barry, buying a beginner drum book and a pair of sticks, I had pretty much considered myself a drummer even though I had not had one lesson yet and my Mom was more than likely skeptical at how long I would be interested in this. For me, my whole life changed the day I went to that store and met Barry as it kicked off a lifelong obsession with drums and music that still goes strong to this day.
Barry Edwin Nelson was born on Aug 4th 1945 in Waltham Massachusetts however lived most of his life in the Lakes Region area of New Hampshire, graduating from high school in 1964. Barry formed his first band the Ampegs while still in school and played many gigs with them. Barry played in many popular NH area bands over a 50 year span retiring from his last band Annie and the Orphans in September 2010 after 19 years with them. Barry also started private teaching around 1980 teaching in the Concord area as well as a short while in the Laconia area. Barry taught for 31 years before retiring in 2011 at Strings and Things Music in Concord NH. One of the earliest memories I have of Barry is the lingo he used. At 11 years old I had never heard words like “gig” or “hip”. One word he would use regularly was “dig” He would say things like the quarter note gets one beat. Dig? Or when I it was time for me to pay him at the end of the lesson he would ask if I had his bread? Another classmate and friend of mine Brad that took lessons with him recalled that Barry used the word “man” constantly after a sentence. Apparently Brad picked up on it too, which drove his parents nuts! Barry was an excellent reader and played the traditional grip exclusively. As a beginner I wanted to play drums like Alex Van Halen and Stephen Jo Bladd from the J Geils Band so when Barry asked me which way of holding the sticks was more comfortable, I told him matched. Barry also occupied the very small room at the back of the store as it only had room in it for a Remo practice pad set and Barry’s snare drum pad. A poster of Kenny Jones, who was the current drummer from the WHO hung on the wall as well as a rudiment chart. We went through a beginner drum book and then moved on to Stick Control, which I still have. At my young age, I can remember wondering why we would spend a good chunk of the lesson playing single stroke rolls, doubles, paradiddles and triplets, which seemed to be endless. He had old A Zildjian cymbals on the practice pad set that had mutes on them to kill the sound. I can still hear the sound of the jazz ride patter going ding ding da ding endlessly as he taught me the swing beat. As a kid that wanted to be playing along to my favorite music, it was hard for me to understand why we were focusing on this stuff so much. I never complained though and all these years later am so grateful to have had that discipline. It was also a treat for me when a 1984 issue of Modern Drummer yielded a written transcription to Van Halen’s JUMP! in the back of the issue. It was a fun way to work on some reading while sneaking in my Van Halen!
One song that will always put a smile on my face all these years later is the Steely Dan song Hey Nineteen. Any drummer that ever took lessons with Barry will know what I mean as Barry had a little boom box in the room and had all of his drummers play along to that song once they learned how to successfully play drum beats. He liked the song because drummer Rick Marotta laid down a very straight forward drum beat with a great groove to it. It was the perfect song to play along to, learn groove and lock in with tempo as it is rock solid. Often times I will hear that song in a grocery store or some odd place and it puts a smile on my face. Almost all of my favorite drummers played Ludwig and Barry was no exception. He came to my house one day to inspect the Gretsch set I had purchased with my parents in June of 1983 and showed up in his van which had his drums in the back. He let me look in one of the cases and I remember his set was a very nice looking mahogany cortex Ludwig set that he purchased brand new in 1973. At 12 I was hypnotized by those blue/olive badges and that Ludwig block logo. While I later came to love the look of a 60’s Keystone badge and a script logo, I still very much love that 70’s look of the drums Barry had. I remember once when I was 13 my dad had set it up so I could see Barry play a gig at a local B Mae Denny’s restaurant in town. It was a big deal because I got to go down to the bar and watch the band play. Barry’s Ludwig drums sounded and looked amazing under the cheap stage lights and seeing Barry play something other than a practice pad in a stuffy back room was a nice treat. Barry also told my parents that Buddy Rich was coming to town in 1984 and a friend and I managed to go. I am very thankful that I was able to see that show as it too left a lasting impression on me.
I took lessons with Barry for about 6 years or so and stopped as I got involved with some high school sports that took up time after school. I never once put the drums aside though as I was active in my high school jazz band and had a high school band with some friends in my senior year. I kept in touch with Barry over the years as the more I got into bettering my drumming skills, the more I thought about Barry. Occasionally I would stop by the new store where Barry was teaching as the other one had focused solely on selling CD’s and sheet music. This move turned out to be good for Barry as this new store was open later and he could take on more students. This change made his schedule very hectic and the band he played with was also very busy which filled up Barry’s calendar and allowed him to continue to make his sole living from music. I always admired that about Barry as that is almost impossible these days. Just about everyone from NH knows about the Mt Washington boat that cruises Lake Winnipesaukee all through the summer and Barry probably played that boat hundreds of times over the years. One other funny thing about Barry was that he considered his drums as tools that were made to get a job done and serve a purpose. After high school I got heavily involved in collecting vintage drums and learning the history of them. As most of my fellow collectors know, having drums in the complete original unaltered state is what makes a drum the most collectable. While mahogany cortex is not a real sought out Ludwig vintage color, Barry nevertheless recovered his set in a white finish, added beefier hardware as well as modifying the spurs. I say this as Barry could have just as easily done this to a set of extremely rare Oyster Pink Pearl Ludwig’s had he felt a color change was needed. He also used a Rogers canister throne from the 60’s that was once White Marine Pearl. Barry however cut down the throne as it was too tall for his liking and recovered it in solid white to match the recovered Ludwig set. Stuff like that gives collectors like me fits but for Barry, he just wanted comfortable drums that he liked and functioned the way he wanted them to. He used those drums for most of his life and played thousands of gigs with them. He also liked to use a Rogers Powertone as he had a metal one and a wood one. Unfortunately the wood one was once a nice red sparkle that Barry changed to a natural wood finish but once again, this drum was just a tool for Barry to play gigs with.
Sadly on January 13 2012, Barry passed away shortly after retiring from teaching and performing gigs. I knew that he was retiring and was hoping at some point to try and put together some kind of a concert/gig which included many of the drummers he taught over the years. Something similar to a Mr. Hollands Opus as Barry has probably taught hundreds of people to play drums in this area. I think of Barry often when I hear certain songs or am reminded of a certain rudimentary passage. After all the years of playing drums I can honestly say that Barry had some of the best hands I have ever seen in terms of technique. It was always effortless with no tension and he could buzz around any drum set with ease (Barry once told me he took a master class with the great Joe Morello). Barry also loved Bunken 5B sticks and over the years I have come across a few of them. I also managed to get a set of Barry’s Ludwig brushes that he used for many years. I will never play brushes the way he did but I’m honored to have his pair. Many of us took drum lessons at one point in our lives. Was there was a teacher in your life that made you the drummer you are today? I cite a lot of my drum hero’s as major influences as to how I play. There are certainly many great drummers that I have loved that have taught me many things over the years but I have to give special credit to Barry for getting me started and encouraging my lifetime of love for the drums at such a young age. This is really a thank you to all the teachers out there that inspired someone and those that continue to do so.