Carter Beauford
Encyclopedia
Carter Anthony Beauford (born November 2, 1957, in Charlottesville
, Virginia
) is an American drummer
, percussionist, and founding member of Dave Matthews Band
. He is known for his ability to adapt to a variety of genres, and both his ambidextrous and his open hand drumming styles. He plays the drums and sings backing vocals in the band. Beauford was ranked by a Rolling Stone
magazine reader's poll in 2010 as the tenth greatest drummer of all time.
at age three. At the time, his father had bought tickets to a Buddy Rich
concert and could not find someone to watch his son, so he took young Beauford along to the show. Beauford was mesmerized by Buddy Rich on stage. After that show, Beauford's father bought his son a tin drum set with paper heads, since Beauford showed so much interest in learning the instrument. Beauford began performing professionally when he was nine.
Beauford explains his unusual playing style in his instructional video "Under The Table & Drumming", attributing his use of left-hand-lead on a right-handed kit to playing his own kit in front of a mirror as a child in an attempt to emulate his favorite drummers, like Buddy Rich
. He unknowingly set up his drums in reverse of whichever performer and set that he had in mind, in an attempt to make the mirrored image of himself match that of the audience's perspective, as he had seen it on stage and TV. This helped him to become completely ambidextrous at a very early age, albeit by accident.
Beauford earned a degree in music from the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music
, in Winchester, Virginia
.
, a Richmond
-based jazz fusion
band. Other members included saxophonist
LeRoi Moore
, trumpeter John D'earth
, vocalist Dawn Thompson, bassist
Keith Horn, keyboardist
Butch Taylor
, keyboardist
Dane Bryant, saxophonist Eddie Williams and virtuoso guitarist
Tim Reynolds
. Secrets performed throughout Virginia, at places such as The Jewish Mother in Virginia Beach, and at Miller's, the bar in Charlottesville where Dave Matthews
worked as a bartender
. Beauford also played jazz
in Blue Indigo with LeRoi Moore, Sal Soghoian
, and George Melvin. Blue Indigo performed regularly at Tokyo Rose and Miller's, and was featured at the Delaware Water Gap Jazz Festival
. Eventually, Matthews approached both Beauford and Moore regarding some music he had written that he wished to record. Beauford agreed to perform on a demo, which is how he became involved with the group that was to become the Dave Matthews Band.
, Carlos Santana
, Rashawn Ross
, John Popper
(of Blues Traveler
), Tim Reynolds
, Béla Fleck
and Victor Wooten
; both alone and within Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
.
Recording Custom drum kit
, a Ludwig
LB417T Black Beauty Supra-Phonic snare drum, 6.5x14" with a die-cast hoop on the batter side and a triple flanged hoop snare side, Zildjian cymbals, Remo
drumheads, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Yamaha
and Drum Workshop
hardware including a Yamaha
Hex-Rack since the 2008 Summer Tour and various Latin Percussion
cowbells, woodblocks and other assorted percussion equipment. He also uses Footjoy golf gloves rather than traditional drum gloves.
Beauford has used several Jeff Ocheltree, and Ron Dunnett custom metal snares in the past, the most common being a bright purple with gold hardware he used for the better half of the 2000s. Around the 2006/7 tour season, the Dunnetts were replaced by a prototype silver Yamaha metal snare later to be confirmed by BeaufordBuddy.com to be Carter's forthcoming Signature Snare. The Yamaha
Signature "Carter Beauford" Snare Drum is still a prototype, not in production. As of April 2009, photographs of Carter live showed him using a Ludwig Black Beauty in place of the Signature Snare. This has raised questions if the Signature snare has been dropped by Yamaha
.
in their DVD The Gorge, in the "special features" section, when he was a student pilot.
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
) is an American drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
, percussionist, and founding member of Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...
. He is known for his ability to adapt to a variety of genres, and both his ambidextrous and his open hand drumming styles. He plays the drums and sings backing vocals in the band. Beauford was ranked by a Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine reader's poll in 2010 as the tenth greatest drummer of all time.
Background
Beauford was first exposed to the drumsDrum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
at age three. At the time, his father had bought tickets to a Buddy Rich
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...
concert and could not find someone to watch his son, so he took young Beauford along to the show. Beauford was mesmerized by Buddy Rich on stage. After that show, Beauford's father bought his son a tin drum set with paper heads, since Beauford showed so much interest in learning the instrument. Beauford began performing professionally when he was nine.
Beauford explains his unusual playing style in his instructional video "Under The Table & Drumming", attributing his use of left-hand-lead on a right-handed kit to playing his own kit in front of a mirror as a child in an attempt to emulate his favorite drummers, like Buddy Rich
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...
. He unknowingly set up his drums in reverse of whichever performer and set that he had in mind, in an attempt to make the mirrored image of himself match that of the audience's perspective, as he had seen it on stage and TV. This helped him to become completely ambidextrous at a very early age, albeit by accident.
Beauford earned a degree in music from the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music
Shenandoah University
Shenandoah University is a comprehensive private university located in Winchester, Virginia in the United States. It has an enrollment of approximately 3,800 students across more than ninety programs in six schools: College of Arts & Sciences, Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, Shenandoah...
, in Winchester, Virginia
Winchester, Virginia
Winchester is an independent city located in the northwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the USA. The city's population was 26,203 according to the 2010 Census...
.
Secrets, Dave Matthews Band
Eventually, he joined SecretsDave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...
, a Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
-based jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
band. Other members included saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
LeRoi Moore
Leroi Moore
LeRoi Holloway Moore was an American saxophonist best known as a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band. Moore often arranged music for the songs written by frontman Dave Matthews...
, trumpeter John D'earth
John D'earth
John D'earth is an American post bop/hard bop jazz trumpeter born in Holliston, Massachusetts has appeared on recordings by Dave Matthews and Bruce Hornsby as well as recording a number of CDs on his own. D'earth attended Harvard University briefly only to drop out and pursue his musical career....
, vocalist Dawn Thompson, bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
Keith Horn, keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
Butch Taylor
Butch Taylor
Butch Taylor is a composer, writer, keyboardist and long time guest musician with Dave Matthews Band....
, keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
Dane Bryant, saxophonist Eddie Williams and virtuoso guitarist
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
Tim Reynolds
Tim Reynolds
Tim Reynolds is a Grammy nominated multi-instrumentalist known as both a solo artist and as the lead guitarist for Dave Matthews Band...
. Secrets performed throughout Virginia, at places such as The Jewish Mother in Virginia Beach, and at Miller's, the bar in Charlottesville where Dave Matthews
Dave Matthews
David John "Dave" Matthews is a South African–born American musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band...
worked as a bartender
Bartender
A bartender is a person who serves beverages behind a counter in a bar, pub, tavern, or similar establishment. A bartender, in short, "tends the bar". The term barkeeper may carry a connotation of being the bar's owner...
. Beauford also played jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
in Blue Indigo with LeRoi Moore, Sal Soghoian
Sal Soghoian
Sal Soghoian is the AppleScript Product Manager at Apple Inc.. Sal was an advocate for AppleScript years before being employed by Apple. Soghoian's job includes making public appearances to demonstrate Apple technologies, including the 2004 WWDC, when he appeared on stage with Steve Jobs to...
, and George Melvin. Blue Indigo performed regularly at Tokyo Rose and Miller's, and was featured at the Delaware Water Gap Jazz Festival
Celebration of the Arts Festival
The Celebration of the Arts festival, or COTA for short, is an annual event in September located in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. COTA is presented in cooperation with the Borough of Delaware Water Gap, Castle Hill Development, Inc., and the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.-The...
. Eventually, Matthews approached both Beauford and Moore regarding some music he had written that he wished to record. Beauford agreed to perform on a demo, which is how he became involved with the group that was to become the Dave Matthews Band.
Collaboration
Beauford has also worked with other artists on ham projects, including Vertical HorizonVertical Horizon
Vertical Horizon is an American alternative rock band formed at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1991. The band is best known for a string of hits in 1999 and early 2000s, including "You're a God", "Everything You Want", and "Best I Ever Had ". Their most recent album, Burning the...
, Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, Rashawn Ross
Rashawn Ross
Rashawn Ross is an American trumpeter and arranger from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Ross is arguably best known for his contributions in the Dave Matthews Band. After his graduation from the Berklee College of Music , Ross has worked with artists in many different genres of music ranging from...
, John Popper
John Popper
John Popper is an American musician and songwriter.He is most famous for his role as frontman of rock band Blues Traveler performing harmonica, guitar and vocals...
(of Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler is a rock band, formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. The band has been influenced by a variety of genres, including blues-rock, psychedelic rock, folk rock, soul, and Southern rock...
), Tim Reynolds
Tim Reynolds
Tim Reynolds is a Grammy nominated multi-instrumentalist known as both a solo artist and as the lead guitarist for Dave Matthews Band...
, Béla Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
and Victor Wooten
Victor Wooten
Victor Lemonte Wooten is an American bass player, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards....
; both alone and within Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is a primarily instrumental group from the United States, that draws equally on bluegrass, fusion and jazz, sometimes dubbed "blu-bop". The band formed in 1988, initially to perform once on the PBS series Lonesome Pine Specials. The Flecktones have toured extensively...
.
Equipment
Beauford uses a Yamaha DrumsYamaha Drums
Yamaha Drums is a subsidiary of the Yamaha Corporation founded in 1967. The company manufactures acoustic and electronic drum kits as well as percussion instruments, marching band equipment, and drum hardware.-Production:...
Recording Custom drum kit
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, a Ludwig
Ludwig
Ludwig may refer to:* Ludwig , a German name* Ludwig , a German surname* Ludwig , a 1972 film by Luchino Visconti about Ludwig II of Bavaria* Ludwig , a 1977 animated children's series...
LB417T Black Beauty Supra-Phonic snare drum, 6.5x14" with a die-cast hoop on the batter side and a triple flanged hoop snare side, Zildjian cymbals, Remo
Remo
Remo is a male given name of Latin origin - see Romulus and Remus.Remo may also refer to:* Remo, an American drum skin company* Remo , another name for the German wine grape Riesling* Remo language, a Panoan language of Brazil and Peru...
drumheads, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Yamaha
Yamaha
Yamaha may refer to:* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services** Yamaha Motor Company, a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company...
and Drum Workshop
Drum Workshop
Drum Workshop is a drum and hardware manufacturing company based in Oxnard, California. Their slogan is "The Drummer's Choice".-History:...
hardware including a Yamaha
Yamaha
Yamaha may refer to:* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services** Yamaha Motor Company, a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company...
Hex-Rack since the 2008 Summer Tour and various Latin Percussion
Latin Percussion
Latin Percussion, also known as LP, is a brand of percussion instruments, specializing in ethnic instruments engineered and manufactured to withstand the rigors of use in a drum kit, orchestral percussion section, and similar applications...
cowbells, woodblocks and other assorted percussion equipment. He also uses Footjoy golf gloves rather than traditional drum gloves.
Beauford has used several Jeff Ocheltree, and Ron Dunnett custom metal snares in the past, the most common being a bright purple with gold hardware he used for the better half of the 2000s. Around the 2006/7 tour season, the Dunnetts were replaced by a prototype silver Yamaha metal snare later to be confirmed by BeaufordBuddy.com to be Carter's forthcoming Signature Snare. The Yamaha
Yamaha
Yamaha may refer to:* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services** Yamaha Motor Company, a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company...
Signature "Carter Beauford" Snare Drum is still a prototype, not in production. As of April 2009, photographs of Carter live showed him using a Ludwig Black Beauty in place of the Signature Snare. This has raised questions if the Signature snare has been dropped by Yamaha
Yamaha
Yamaha may refer to:* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services** Yamaha Motor Company, a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company...
.
Personal life
Beauford has a grown daughter from his first marriage. Having married a second time, he also now has two young children. Beauford discusses his family briefly while riding with the band in a helicopter over The Gorge AmphitheatreThe Gorge Amphitheatre
The Gorge Amphitheatre is a 20,000+ seat concert venue, located above the Columbia River in George, Washington. It offers lawn-terrace seating and concert-friendly weather....
in their DVD The Gorge, in the "special features" section, when he was a student pilot.
Awards
- Modern DrummerModern DrummerModern Drummer is a monthly publication targeting the interests of on drummers and percussionists. The magazine features interviews, equipment reviews, and columns offering advice on technique, as well as information for the general public...
Readers Poll 2003 - Best Pop Drummer - Modern DrummerModern DrummerModern Drummer is a monthly publication targeting the interests of on drummers and percussionists. The magazine features interviews, equipment reviews, and columns offering advice on technique, as well as information for the general public...
Readers Poll 2003 - Best Recorded Performance: Dave Matthews Band: Live at Folsom Field, Boulder, ColoradoLive at Folsom Field, Boulder, ColoradoLive at Folsom Field, Boulder, Colorado, also known as Live at Folsom Field, is the fourth live album released by the Dave Matthews Band. It was recorded in Boulder, Colorado at Folsom Field, the football stadium of the University of Colorado at Boulder on July 11, 2001. It was released on the RCA...