Andy Ziker

Andy Ziker, is a 33-year drumming veteran, who has devoted his life to performing, teaching, studio work, enticing others to join the ranks, and writing about it. During a trip to New Orleans at 13 years old, Andy was so impressed with the rich musical atmosphere of Bourbon Street and a one-man-band playing a set of junk drums, that he began taking lessons on his first drumset, an old pieced-together Slingerland. He studied with Billy "Stix" Nicks, and at the age of 14 began to play professionally. He enrolled in the music programs at Arizona State University and Mesa Community College and graduated with a degree in music in 1991.

Along the way, Andy began teaching drum lessons at Linton-Milano Music in Mesa, Arizona, and taught there for 25 years. He earned a master’s degree in Elementary Education in 1995 and taught 4th grade for six years and middle school science for one year. He established a Preschool Drumset Program at the Barness East Valley Jewish Community Center in Chandler, Arizona and taught percussion classes to elementary and junior high students at Self Development Charter School in Mesa, Arizona, where he started an electronic drum lab course.

Recently, Andy has contributed articles to Modern Drummer Magazine, Drum! Magazine, Percussive Notes, Drummer Café, and OnlineDrummer. He has published six drum instructional books: Drumscapes, Drumcraft, Drum Aerobics, Daily Drum Warm-Ups, Drumset for Preschoolers, and The Jazz Waltz, and a series of booklets called Funk Up Your Hi-Hat. He also recently released two illustrated children’s book called Devan Plays the Drums andSteve Strums His Six-String (both self published), from a series called Nobody Sounds Like You. Another children's book, People Really Do Trust Ziker, is due out in 2014.

Andy has invented two types of music stands for drummers and percussionists made by the Manhasset Specialty Company: the Drummer Stand 53D and the Drummer Stand for the Hi-Hat 53DH. He currently plays in a rock group based in Santa Cruz, CA called Spun and was the associate editor of Drum! Magazine in San Jose, CA during the first half of 2014. Andy believes that everyone has the potential to be a good drummer, no matter your age or your natural talent. All it takes is a combination of a self-motivated practice routine and the right kind of instruction. If you study with Andy, he will devise a multi-sensory plan, tailor-made for your learning style. In addition to drumset, Andy also teaches bells (glockenspiel), rudimental and orchestral snare drum, and Latin percussion, including congas and bongos. Andy has experience teaching students as young as two and as old as 87. He's also known for his work with the learning challenged.