{"id":262,"date":"2022-12-27T11:54:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T19:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seattledrumschool.com\/?p=262"},"modified":"2025-03-15T22:32:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T05:32:19","slug":"if-you-build-it-they-will-drum-steve-smith-and-the-seattle-drum-school-of-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattledrumschool.com\/dev\/if-you-build-it-they-will-drum-steve-smith-and-the-seattle-drum-school-of-music\/","title":{"rendered":"IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL DRUM: Steve Smith on the cover of Earshot Jazz Magazine (July 2022)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

July 2022<\/a>, Profile<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Smith photo by Daniel Sheehan<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY JONATHAN SHIPLEY: https:\/\/www.earshot.org\/project\/2022-07-steve-smith-and-the-seattle-drum-school-of-music\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Leonard Bernstein\u2019s \u201cYoung People\u2019s Concerts\u201d was playing on the TV, and Steve Smith was watching it with his family in the living room of their Richland, Washington home. This was about 60 years ago. Smith was no older than the fingers you can count on one hand. His parents would watch their son swing his arms around, conducting to the music like the famous maestro on the TV was doing. He\u2019d do that and then start tip-tapping his hands on his legs. \u201cMy grandma,\u201d Smith says, \u201cwould see me doing that and ask what I was doing? And I would say, \u2018I\u2019m just a-drummin\u2019 and a-drummin\u2019!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Smith is now 65. He has been doing much more than just a-drummin\u2019 since patting his thighs with his little hands to Leonard Bernstein television programs. Smith owns and teaches, with his wife, Kristy, at the Seattle Drum School of Music<\/a>, with locations in Lake City and Georgetown. Yes, he plays drums and, yes, he teaches drums and, yes, he listens to drummers and, yes, he learns from drummers, too, but Seattle Drum School of Music (SDSM) is more than just drums. Seattle Drum School also teaches guitar, bass, voice, piano, horns, and more. This is to say, SDSM teaches music. This is to say, he finds inspiration in all of it and hopes to impart that onto students. This is to say, something Smith firmly believes: by learning an instrument, you learn much more than the instrument; you learn something about yourself. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing more fulfilling than watching a young student walk in the door feeling shy or reserved, and maybe a little nervous, and seeing them relax and become comfortable with who they are,\u201d he continues, \u201cand confident that they are going to be celebrated for being themselves regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What started in the mid-1980s in an abandoned parking lot attendant\u2019s office next to a Seattle music store has grown and continues to grow. With two locations, Seattle Drum School now has over 40 instructors teaching approximately 550 students. All told, Smith estimates that over 16,000 students have come through their doors. \u201cI like teaching,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause I enjoy helping people have a blast; learning to do something that expresses who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To know Smith better, he admits that one would need to see him play drums. \u201cThere are aspects of who I am that are best expressed through my playing.\u201d He tried his hand at guitar as a kid, but his hands were too small for the instrument.  He got a Lyle hollow body guitar and did his best to play the music of the bands he liked: The Monkees, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, etc. He wasn\u2019t that good. He says, \u201cMy parents were very tolerant and forgiving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he sat behind his brother\u2019s drum kit. It was a 1939 Gretsch drum kit, complete with calf skin heads with alcohol stains and cigarette burns. He was 11 years old, taking to the instrument immediately. The local baton twirling group, the Atomic Twirlers, wanted drummers to accompany them on parades. Smith and his brother got hired. \u201cThe pay wasn\u2019t great, but it involved hanging out with some girls, which I was just starting to take note of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the teen took note of the drums to the point of obsession. Smith joined the band in high school and later studied music at Central Washington University. He soon was touring North America as the drum section leader of The Columbians, a drum and bugle corps based in Pasco. He joined rock bands. He also began cultivating an understanding and appreciation of jazz. Yes, Smith liked the big and famous rock stars: John Bonham, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, and Chicago\u2019s Danny Seraphine but jazz started to expand him. Max Roach blew his mind. Art Blakey, he marveled over. Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, and Ron Haines he counts as favorites. Gary Hobbs, a fellow Central Washington University alumnus, was another. \u201cI listened to him on the Kenton \u201876<\/em> record a hundred times,\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitch Mitchell to Brian Blade, from Peter Erskine to Roy McCurdy, who played for Cannonball Adderley, Smith explored all the ways one could express themselves through drums. This passion ignited in him a desire to share this enthusiasm for the instrument with others. At the age of 14, he began teaching the drums. His first student was a four-year-old neighbor kid down the street. He taught drums to many others through high school and into college. After moving to Seattle in 1983, Smith began giving lessons. Then an opportunity came with the parking lot attendant\u2019s office. \u201cThere was no insulation, no heat, no running water. It was just big enough for a couple drum sets and my vibraphone,\u201d Smith says. \u201cSo, I started building a student base in Seattle.\u201d Seattle Drum School came to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you build it, they will drum. He says, \u201cWhat started with one 144-square foot office grew over the next 20 years to encompass 14,000 square feet of space including two locations, two venues, and three recording studios.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drum, they will. Many who were students at SDSM have gone on to play in venues and concert halls the world over. The stories of the good work being done inside SDSM are endless. \u201cEvery time I see the joy and illumination on a person\u2019s face when they walk out of the lesson becomes a favorite memory,\u201d Smith says, \u201cIt\u2019s all magic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many, the pandemic hit the school hard. Revenues dropped precipitously. Many students decided to wait out the pandemic over trying virtual classes. Physical classes went dark. Ensembles grew silent. Instructors\u2019 lives were further limited with having no gig work to speak of. Smith says, \u201cWhen students and teachers started coming back in person, there was a different kind of joy and appreciation for the personal connection that we have all taken for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, the magic continues. The expressions continue to be built with drumsticks in hand. The joys of self-discovery are happening with every lesson. There\u2019s also, which Smith likes to remind people of, just the sheer joy of music-making. It\u2019s all part of who Steve Smith is: a man excited about the next chapter in his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be actual chapters in his life. With the help of colleague Colin McLaurin, he\u2019s nearly finished a book, taking the reader through the systems he\u2019s developed for understanding rhythm and time as it applies to music and matter. The book is called Keys to the City<\/em>. Kristy, his wife, has an album out soon. He plays drums on it. Entitled Family Album<\/em>, the album was recorded at Shoreline\u2019s famed Robert Lang Studios. Meanwhile, Seattle Drum School is striving for full capacity hosting as many bands, student showcases, art walks, touring artists, and clinicians as they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy personal goal after 51 years of teaching thousands and thousands of private lessons is to teach a little less, and to practice, record, and play a lot more music.\u201d His grandmother would be so pleased with her grandson now, what with all that a-drummin\u2019 he\u2019s done, does, and will continue to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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