Colby Beers
About
Teaching since 2003, performing since 1998. Have my BFA and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts with a focus in World Music and North Indian Music respectively. Have performed with a large variety of ensembles including Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps, Concord Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps, RCC Winter Drumline , Black Knights Drum Corps, Mystikal Drum and Bugle Corps, Burat Wangi, Volta Drum & Dance, Eighteen Squared, Carribbean Jazz Odyssey, Atsia Percussion Ensemble, Skywater Kirtan Band, Seabury Gould Kirtan Band, Vernal Haze, Tony Khalife Kirtan Band, Medicine Baul, Samba Da Alegria, Bosphorous, and the Eureka Symphony Orchestra. Also performs Indian Classical music locally.
Teaches a variety of lesson/class subjects such as Indian Vocal Percussion, African Vocal Percussion, North Indian Tabla, Frame Drum, West African Drums (Ghana/Togo/Benin), Indian Rhythm Perspectives for Marching Percussion.
Also offers private lessons for self-guided students.
Teaching Style
Patient, friendly, step-wise pedagogy.
I incorporate mnemonic drum languages in the lesson to assist in the development of focus, consistency, improvisation, and the dissemination of rhythmic ideas. This has been helpful for me to work with students with "learning disabilities" of certain sorts, including dislexia, auditory processing disorder, a.d.d., parkinson's, and perhaps others.
I also occasionally will incorporate motor learning skills such as stepping a rhythm and/or clapping the rhythm while singing.
Curriculum
Most of the music I teach is passed down aurally from teacher to student. There is no better alternative than learning from a teacher. As I teach, I recommend that you transcribe what was taught into a notebook. Your notebook will be the text I recommend to you.
Credentials & Affiliations
University of California, Santa Barbara, College of Creative Studies (2004-2009)
Ali Akbar College of Music (2015-present)
California Institute of the Arts: Bachelor's Degree - World Music
California Institute of the Arts: Master's Degree - North Indian Classical Music