170 – Billy Ward: Creating & Nurturing Your Own Voice, “Practice Playing”, Learning to Judge Yourself Harshly

Billy Ward is a Grammy awarded drummer, music educator, recording engineer and producer. Just a few of the people Billy’s Recorded and/or toured with include B. B. King, Robbie Robertson, Carly Simon, Richard Marx, The Knack, Yoko Ono, Joan Osborne, Ace Frehley, Glen Cambell, Art Garfunkel, David Crosby & Jimmy Webb just to name a few.                                                                                 Billy has recorded on more than 50 sound tracks for feature films including a musician’s favorite – That Thing You Do! , where Billy taught actor Tom Everett Scott to play the drums and was on the set as a consultant.

Two records have been released under Billy’s name. Two Hands Clapping, and The Billy Ward Trio – Out The Door. Billy has been engineering in his private studio, DrumPike, since 1990. Billy has produced numerous drum tracks for famous and not yet famous artists out of DrumPike.

As an educator, his two instructional DVDs, Big Time ( a Modern Drummers Readers Poll Award winner) and Voices In My Head have won raves from critics as well as fellow drummers. Billy occasionally travels anywhere in the world to play but he LOVES the close contact with students when performing Drum Clinics and Master Classes.                                                                                                             His book, “Inside Out – The Mental Aspects of Drumming”, further demonstrates Billy’s ability to clearly explain the difficult challenges that working musicians face. 

In this episode, Billy talks about: 

Money, the arts, and the divide 

The state of the music industry 

His short time and experience in Nashville 

Creating and nurturing your own voice 

Billy’s book: Inside Out

His lesson with Elvin Jones at 17

Being concerned with how you are at your worst 

“Practice Playing”

Giving back to the drumming community 

His DVD’s: Big Time, Voices in My Head & Modern Drummer fest – 2000 & 2008

Learning to judge yourself harshly 

Recording drums for movie sound tracks

Billy endorses: Zildjian Cymbals, DW Drums, ProMark sticks, Gator cases

This episode is sponsored by Session Ace