Jeff Queen has been involved with percussion since the age of 10. At the age of 15, Jeff began his drum corps career with the Canton Bluecoats and continued on to March with the Velvet Knights, Santa Clara Vanguard, Blue Knights and the University of North Texas. Jeff was the Drum Corps International Individual and Ensemble Snare Drum Champion in 1994 and 1995 as well as the Percussive Arts Society Individual Snare Drum Champion in 1994 and 1995. Jeff has taught in the drum corps activity for many years, including being the caption head for the Carolina Crown drum and bugle corps from 2003-2004.
Jeff is an original cast member of the Tony and Emmy award winning Broadway Show "BLAST" where he was a solo performer and battery instructor from 1999 - 2003. Jeff has performed on stages across the country and in Europe, including Broadway and London. In addition Jeff has appeared on numerous Television shows including: The Late Show with David Letterman, The Kennedy Center Honors 2000, NBA All-Star Game 2001, BLAST, and The Making of Blast on PBS DVD and Video.
Queen is the author of “The Next Level: Rudimental Snare Drum Techniques” available through Mark Wessels Publications. More of Jeff’s compositions are available through Drop6 media Inc. and TapSpace Publications. Jeff is a signature artist for Vic Firth Drumsticks and mallets, and a clinician for Pearl Drums, Evans Drumheads and Zildjian cymbals.
Currently, Jeff lives in Indianapolis, Indiana where he is a full time student at Butler University seeking his bachelor’s degree in Music theory and composition. In addition to his studies, Jeff teaches locally with the world champion Avon High School Drum line and travels the country as an active composer, arranger, judge, clinician, and performer.
Jeff is endorsed by Evans Drumheads, Pearl Drums, Heavy Hitter Practice Pads, Zildjian cymbals and Vic Firth sticks and mallets.
If you wanna know the nitty-gritty details and have some time on your hands, here is the LONG version:
I was born, I started to drum, I joined Drum Corps, I aged out, now I’m still drumming. That is about it. Well, I guess if you are reading this you want to know bit more than that, so here goes:
I was born in Fayetteville, NC and lived there for seven years, and then I moved to Monterey, CA for a year. My step-dad was in the Army; that should explain all this moving around business. After California, he got stationed in Hong Kong. We lived there for a little more than two years. This was great because I got to see the Great Wall of China and many other places and landmarks including: Beijing, Canton, The Summer Palace, Whispering Wall, Tin Amin Square to name a few. The only problem was that I was in second and third grade so all of this was about half as interesting to me then as it is now.
After Hong Kong we moved to Alexandria, VA. This is where I started to realize that I wanted to play the drums. My favorite band was / is Journey (I have every album on VYNIL!!! That would be records for you youngsters out there J. Anyway, I used to drum along with Steve Smith with these two old dowel rods that I found lying around the house. I got to be a pretty good air drummer! Seeing this, my parents in their infinite wisdom decided that I should get drum lessons and learn to do what I seemed to love to do already.
In fifth grade it was off to the Mushroom Music for drum lessons with Jim West. I have to thank him for teaching me the right way at the beginning. I wanted to play drum set and he would not let me have anything to do with it until I had mastered all of my rudiments and had done at least three books (Haskel Harr 1 & 2 and Wilcoxin’s “All-American Drummer.”) When I think about how Jim started me off, it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
I did get to play set by the middle of sixth grade and kept up with my lessons until the summer before my freshman year. I stopped playing drum set because we moved into an apartment so I was stuck with just a pad and sticks, and all I wanted to do was drum.
I was talked into joining the marching band at my high school by a friend of mine, which took a lot of convincing because I wanted to play football. I tried out for the snare line and I made it into the Mount Vernon Marching Majors (yippee!). I did not know that I would love it so much.
Off to band camp it was and here is where it all REALLY began. We had a guest instructor for the drum line that summer and his name was Scott Johnson (for those of you that don’t know, he was and still is one of the best snare drummers, and all around nice guy that has ever walked the planet). I saw Scott play a roll, just a 32nd note roll, and thought that it was the coolest thing that I had ever seen. It was decided: I was going to be a snare drummer. I think that seeing Scott play as my first impression was very fortunate, I saw the best and had that as my model for the rest of my career, thanks Scott!
Scott was back for my sophomore year too and that summer I had seen my first Drum Corps show. DCI East in 1988. I was sold. I was going to march Drum Corps. That was all there was to it, and much to my parents’ chagrin, that is what I did.
I tried out for the Bluecoats in 1989. I was 15 years old and just happy to be around drummers. I though that I had a pretty good chance since I was one of the better players from where I was. What a small world I lived in! I was cut down to cymbals by the first camp. I was asked to play rudiments that I never knew (maybe I did but I never practiced them). Inverts? Swiss’s? Huh? Anyway, like I said I just wanted to march. I kept plugging at it in the cymbal line and ended up with an alternate spot. Happy to be there, I kept working on my left and picking up whatever I could. By the first day of tour they had cut one too many snare drummers and needed one more. I talked to Jim Dugan who was the snare tech at a party the night before all-days started and asked him if I could have a shot at the snare line. He said yes. The next day, peeing in my pants, I played a few chunks of the book for him, did a little marching and I was in!!!! There I was at 15 in a top 12 snare line. Thanks for the shot Jim!
What I did not know was that that shot turned into one of the hardest times in my life. I was 15, extremely inexperienced; basically, I was in a bit over my head. I got my butt kicked EVERY SINGLE DAY. I am pretty sure I was “That Guy”. The best thing that I got out of that summer was that I got them muscles to drum. (I was way to young to get much more out of that summer) Luckily we drummed on plastic heads and that gave what I needed to do in the future.
In 1990, I moved to Southern California to live with my
real dad and joined the Velvet Knights. Dave Dillulo was the caption head and he
kind of took me under his wing. Dave showed me many of the things to help me get
to the level of playing I am at now. I also made a good friend in Roger Carter (of
Blue Devil’s fame). We ended up playing in a high school line together for two years
and did some pretty cool stuff for two 17 year olds. This was also the first year
that I took a solo, I placed 24th.
I went back to VK in 1991 as the section leader. Ralph Hardimon wrote the book while
Glen Crosby and Ed Baugurina tech'd the line that summer. I really enjoyed the way
Glen taught. Through Glen, Ed and Ralph I learned much of the “musical” ability
that I still carry with me. I did a solo again and placed 10th. ’91 was a rough
summer so I had decided by about July that I was going to go to Santa Clara the
next year. I talked to Scott Johnson at Finals in ’91 and found out the audition
info.
I moved to San Jose, CA in January of 1992 and marched the summer in the SCV snare line. That was a blast. We had a rough summer so to speak but Scott and Kevin Murray taught me a lot. I placed 8th at solos that year.
In 1993, I decided that I had other interests than what SC had to offer so I went to the Blue Knights with Ralph Hardimon, Glen Crosby, Rick Rodriguez, Ben Maughmer and James Stienke. Here I found home. I liked the people and the organization. I also got the opportunity to go to school at the University of North Texas thanks to Rick.
From 1993-1995 I was the Blue Knights section leader and in 94-95 I was the section leader at UNT. North Texas was great for me because of all the drumming that was going on. UNT was taught by Paul Rennick and in 93 and 94 Tom Float as well. Between Tom and Paul, I was able to harness everything that I learned up to that point and refine it. I also got to take a semester of lessons with Derek Logozzo (a Jim Chapin understudy) and learn a lot about the Moeller Stroke. Attending UNT was probably the best thing that I could have ever done as what I was able to learn, see, and be a part of in not available anywhere else in the country.
In 1994 I decided to write down my solo and the result was 1st place. I also won the PAS solo competition that same year.
In 1995, a good friend of mine came to the Blue Knights, Nick Angelis. I marched with Nick in ’92 (the year he won individuals). Nick brought the Thom Hannum style of drumming to the Blue Knights and we worked together to produce a different style that I have come to use today. This year I was fortunate enough to win a second DCI solo title as well as PAS title.
I aged out of Drum Corps on my birthday in 1995, the end
of seven years of nothing but drumming. I did not know what to do with myself. I
went back to school for business at UNT and hated it. After a while I had to pay
the bills and ended working in retail as a store manager for about 3 years while
holding down as many private students as possible and doing as many camps and high
school drum lines that I could.
One night I came home from work and there was a message on my machine from Thom
Hannum...he told me of an opportunity to play a snare drum for a living asked if
I was interested. Two months later I was on a plane to Indiana and little did I
know at the time, but I was getting ready for the ride of my life.
I toured with BLAST for two years, which took me to many places including London, Switzerland, New York (and too many others to name). I was able to play a snare drum for a living and I haven’t looked back since. I had a great time with the show and was able to see some amazing things and meet a lot of great people. BLAST ended its run on Broadway and I decided to stick around and see what the big city had to offer. I lived in Manhattan for a year and a half after the show closed and have to say that New York IS the best city on earth!
Currently I live in Indianapolis where I am a full time clinician and judge around the country. In addition to traveling and doing clinics, I am the caption head for the Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps, and percussion instructor at Avon High School.
I plan on attending Butler University in the fall of 2004 to begin either my percussion performance degree or composition degree…finally going back to school for something that I love. I am going to be a 31-year-old freshman but very excited about it!
If you are still with me, thanks for checking this out and enjoy the site!
