On August 12 of this year Sam Ulano will turn ninety-two.

For those who may not know Sam, hes been a fixture on
the New York City drumming scene for more than sixty years, as a performer and teacher. Gretsch was proud to be a
sponsor of an event held this past July 10 at Sam Ash Music on 48th Street in Manhattan, where the NYC drumming
community came together to honor and enjoy the wit and wisdom of this drumming icon. And what did Sam do to
celebrate? What elsehe conducted a drum clinic.
Sam has enjoyed a long and successful career as a performer, including thousands of club dates, shows, and other gigs
in the New York City area. Hes also performed or recorded with diverse artists ranging from Moondog to Johnny
Lydons PiL. Sam has proudly played Gretsch drums since 1947quite possibly making him the oldest and longestrunning Gretsch drummer currently active. And hes still swingin in NYC clubs today.
But its as an educator that Sam has made his mark on the national drum scene. And hes definitely done it his own
waymaking him equally revered and controversial. Besides his private teaching practice, the drum studio he founded
in the 1950s hosted such guest artist/instructors as Art Blakey, Max Roach, and Papa Jo Jones. Sam also had the firstever drum-oriented cable TV program, which ran from 1975 to 1981. And hes released literally dozens of selfproduced books and CDs, along with over 2,500 pamphlets that he calls Foldys.
Sams publications are almost comically lo-fi in production values, but theyre nonetheless high in informational
content. In what is perhaps his most controversial teaching philosophy, Sam denounces rudiments as having nothing to
do with playing a drumset, since drumsets didnt exist when the rudiments were established for marching drummers in
the 1800s. Instead, Sam focuses on reading, timekeeping, and providing the foundation for a band in a musical
situation. Your hands cant see, hear, or think, Sam declared at his clinic. You do that all with your brain. Thats
where you learn to play the drums. And thats the only way youre going to be successful as a player in the music
industry.
Sams philosophy may not be for everyone, but its been enough for some pretty stellar former students including
noted TV drummer Marvin Smitty Smith, New York studio stalwart Allen Schwartzberg, and jazz great Art Taylor.
These drummersand dozens like themhave benefitted from Sams major premise, which is that reading is the
means to success. According to Sam, drummers who can readand who can play in many styles as a resultare more
likely to get work than are drummers with great rudimental technique or blazing speed.
Another controversial recommendation from Sam is regular practicing with metal sticks to improve hand and arm
strength. If metal sticks arent available, short lengths of copper pipe will do, as Sam demonstrated at his clinic. If I
hadnt practiced with metal sticks all these years, he said, theres no way I could still be playing at ninety-two years
old.
Admittedly, Sam has his detractorsor at least those who will debate his opinions. For example, many drummers who
agree that the rudiments were originally created for marching drummers still feel that they offer a starting point for the
development of technique on the drumset. Few, if any, teachers would argue Sams point about the importance of
reading for a drummer with professional aspirations. But many would also stress the value of listening to music in
order to develop an ear for various styles. Some teachers tend to focus on this ear training as the way to develop an
authentic feel within any given style. Ive heard it said more than once that Feel cant come from a book; it cant
come off a chart. Drummers have to bring a great feel TO the written partor make it up themselves.
Sam Ulano might take issue with these pointsbut thats what drumming education is all about: different approaches.
Sams approach is a practical one, based on years of working within the music business and a desire to prepare
drummers for that sort of work. You can agree with his approach, or disagree, or take some of it and leave the rest.
You can combine Sams philosophy with that of other teachersor add in your own. But no matter what you do, you
should absorb Sams fundamental, overriding message: You need to LEARN to play the drums. Drumming may come
naturally to you, but to develop those natural skills you need to pursue an education on the instrument.
Fortunately, as enormous as Sam Ulanos catalog of books, CDs, and videos is, its just the tip of the iceberg. The
amount of educational material available today is staggering. And thats in addition to the thousands of talented and

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dedicated drum teachers out there, ready to guide their students toward their individual goals. I earnestly enjoin you to
seek out one or more of those teachers, and to take advantage of all that available material. No matter what your goals
are as a drummer, youll reach them more easily and more rapidly with the help of a good drumming education.
---------------------------------------------------------------SAMS SYSTEM
be a student
of your instrument
reading is the key
contribution,
not competition
practice every day
Sam Ulano started teaching others to drum almost right from the beginning - even while he was still a teenager. He
opened his first drum studio in the Bronx when he was 17 ( kids coming over to the house to drum were getting to be
too much) and has been teaching and writing about the drums ever since.
I taught what I had learned and then kept learning and kept sharing, Sam says.
Over the course of the 76 years Sams been teaching the drums, he estimates hes taught 10,000 students.
Well-known for his unique system of drum teaching and his progressive approach to writing about the instrument he
loves, Sam has written over 4000 drum instruction books, illustrating and publishing them himself.
His pioneering percussion books, known for generations as "The Source" for drummers who want to become musically
literate,
have been the key to economic survival for many players.
Sam's books are essential for building the skill set needed to be a working drummer. Consistently applied, his system
proves that if you can read music, you can work any gig that comes your way.
Lots of drum instructors insist that students memorize rudiments. I dont think memorizing drum rudiments is the
way to teach modern drummers to drum. I learned rudiments when I studied drums 75 years ago - they didnt work
then for the music I wanted to play and they dont work now for modern drummers.
Rudimental drum strokes were created hundreds of years ago as signals and patterns for large military marching drum
corps, where each musician played one drum with his pair of sticks. As far back as 1911, Edward B. Straight and
Harry A. Bower wrote books suggesting that educators move away from the rudimental strokes because there was
another way to play the drums. They wrote about the need for educational material to help drummers learn to play the
music of that time - jazz, rags and ballroom dance tunes.
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In 1909 Chicago-drummer William F. Ludwig designed the first spring-driven bass drum foot pedal, revolutionizing
the drum set so drummers could use all their limbs to play different percussion instruments faster, more efficiently, and
for longer periods of time. In 1920 Ludwig rearranged the drum set into a kit of drums - his "Jazz-er-up" outfit
consisted of a bass drum, a snare drum, bass drum pedal with cymbal striker, suspended cymbal, and hoop-mounted
wood block.
With the invention of the modern drum kit, overnight the skills required of a modern drummer became much more
complex and varied than the days where rudiments were de rigueur. The fact that a single drummer could play a
multitude of drums, cymbals and sound effects all at once was now light-years beyond that marching drummer with a
single drum around his neck holding his pair of drumsticks.
A lot of people are still putting a few pages of rudimental strokes in the beginning of their books, because its a
traditional way of showing drum education, says Sam. Sometimes, though, tradition can be a dangerous thing. If
its stopping you from accomplishing what you want to do (like swing with a band), youve got to have the guts to
leave it behind - just trust your gut.
I cant stress enough the importance of updating, and making sure what youre learning today is the most current
material. We must get rid of the idea of rudimental strokes. We need to replace the traditional with new rudiments for
current forms of music - like the ride cymbal beat, the shuffle, the two-and-four, etc. the foundational elements for
real-world drumming.
Sams Drum Reader Series books dont have rudimental strokes in them. He taught people how to read music so drum
musicians could communicate with and support the other musicians in a band. Hes eliminated things that dont work.
Youll never see letters under notes in his books. Sam said they dont tell you whats expected of you when you sit
down to play.
You need to know how to keep time, how to play with a band, how to deal with a studio session and other
professional situations that you encounter as a working drummer. My books help you to survive as a professional
musician, using concepts that can teach you to play in any situation.

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