AB0UT MUSIC - CRAIG WOODSON, PH.D. BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Craig Woodson is a percussionist, educational consultant, instrument maker, Applied Ethnomusicologist, and an active anti-racist. In the 1970s he began a lifelong career as a teaching artist presenting world music and instrument making assemblies and workshops in schools, and performing with major orchestras. During his first 15 years as a professional drum set player (MA on Tony Williams, UCLA, 1973) and hand drummer, he also studied and performed on drums from around the world--especially those from Ghana (photo), Cuba, South India, and the Middle East.
He started Ethnomusic, Inc. in 1976 to produce Ghanaian drums, specifically the Dondo and educational material. With this experience, he was invited to direct a university instrument-making project in Ghana, which he did for three years between 1977-84. During these years he completed his Ph.D. dissertation on the Atumpan, Ghanaian talking drums (UCLA, 1983). He has designed over 100 simple musical instruments for students and educators to make, and holds 9 U.S. patents on African talking drum head designs. In the 1990's Dr. Woodson became a consultant to the Remo drum company, helping to develop the company’s African drums and Sound Shapes; the latter were based on his patents.
Since 1990, he has presented play-along concerts with major orchestras and Kronos Quartet, worked at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, written the Roots of Rhythm (world drumming curriculum), received grants from the Percussion Marketing Council (NAMM Foundation), National Endowment for the Arts, made several videos, and continued to present programs, workshops and courses in schools and colleges.
CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE
- 1952-1963: Drumming, Teaching, Making, Conducting, Africa
- 1964-1977: Author, Funding, Assemblies, Artist, Patents
- 1977-1984: Work in Ghana, West Africa
- 1985-2025: Composites, Concerts, Curriculums, Drum Circles, Therapy
A. 1952-1963: Drumming, Teaching, Making, Conducting, Africa
1. Drumming Begins 1952-
Craig on Drum Set 1960
Having begun to play the snare drum at age 9, Craig studied other percussion instruments in middle school, including the drum set and hand drums. He began doing ‘casual’ gigs in high school and continued for many decades. This work included a variety of bands from rock to jazz, Israeli to Greek, and African to Middle Eastern. In the early 1960s he played in several Hollywood movies, including with drumming with Elvis Presley in Girl Happy, (see Videos). He played with Linda Ronstadt, Scholmo Bahar, David Ackles, and was the drummer for the 1967-68 psychedelic rock band, The United States of America.
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO7NLq6CvwI
The USA band grew out of his work with Joseph Byrd, Dorothy Moskowitz and UCLA’s New Music Workshop in 1966-67. His passion for playing jazz continued, for example, performing with David Crane, Tom Scott and Don Ellis. He completed his masters thesis on Tony Williams (UCLA, 1973, see Author below) using a state-of-the-art transcription devise, the Melograph Model C, to accurately notate Tony’s drum solos recorded in the mid-to-late 1960s (see Photos).
2. Drum Making 1960-
Aluminum and Real Dondo
Taking inspiration from his engineer father and musician mother, Dr. Woodson developed a passion for drum making before he was a teen. After learning how to ‘tuck” a skin snare drumhead from his junior high band director, Larry Bellis, Craig was tasked with fixing the school’s drums; this continued in high school. At UCLA he repaired African drums and made his own Ghanaian hourglass shaped talking drum, the dondo, with two aluminum lamp shades and a plastic Remo drumhead (see photo).
Later inspired by seeing African and Cuban drums made in London, Craig started his own drum making company, Ethnomusic, Inc. in 1974 and received 9 patents on African drum head technology in 1976. After a one-month visit to Kumasi, Ghana in 1977, two years later Craig became the invited Director of the Musical Instrument Technology Workshop at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. Through UCLA, he completed his Ph.D. dissertation (1983) on the drumming and technology of the Ghanaian Atumpan talking drums. Inspired by how children made drums with rubber and a can in Ghana, he designed numerous simple drums using available materials, for example, a dondo with two cans, embroidery hoops, loose PVC and strapping tape (see Photos and #11 below, a half version). Another simple instrument he designed (1983) was the Middle Eastern square, frame drum, adufe, which uses four short boards nailed together--or a picture frame, wrapped with PVC tape, crisscrossed and tightened across the frame.
3. Drum Teaching 1960-
John Fitzgerald 2024
Craig began teaching drums as a young teenager, then continued professionally at 17 in a music store in Pasadena, CA. Beginning in the 1970s, Craig taught private drum lessons out of his home studio has continued to the present. His students include John Beal, Ralph Hererra, John Fitzgerald (photo), Steve Klong, Mark Tusler, Michael Preussner, Rick Drumm and Annette Lipson. He was a Graduate Teaching Assistant under Charles Delancy at UCLA and went on to teach at several universities including Kent State University, Los Angeles State College, Chapman College, and California State Polytechnic.
4. Instrument Making 1961-
Music for Free 1982
From his passion for drum making, Craig began making other simple instruments as a teenager in band camp. A decade later, after seeing homemade instruments made by children around the world and in his ethnomusicological studies, he began to experiment. In the 1970s, he began to present his ideas to young people at the summer programs for Joan Boyett at “Open House at the Hollywood Bowl.” Back from Ghana in 1982, Woodson designed a school presentation program on making simple instruments called “Music for Free” (photo). After his third trip to Ghana (1984), in 1985 this program developed into “A World Orchestra You Can Build,” (see #10) and became popular in the Los Angeles area and elsewhere, first booked by the Los Angeles Music Center on Tour (MCOT) and the Orange County Performing Arts Center. His connection to MCOT continues to the present.
5. Conducting 1961-
With Dallas Symphony 2014
As student conductor and drum major in high school, Craig began his love of conducting with his classmates in band and orchestra performances. He studied conducting at UCLA under Clarence Sawhill and Meli Mehta. This interest continued in his school work during instrument-making workshops where he encouraged students and teachers to try their hand at conducting. His passion developed into leading professional play-along performances, for example, with the Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, and Kronos Quartet. In these concerts, he conducted the audience as they played simple instruments that he designed. Among the several concert pieces written for Craig’s instruments is, “Concerto for Drumpet” by Eric Benjamin. Craig conducted the audience using graphics on stage (photo).
B. 1964-1977: Author, Funding, Assemblies, Artist, Patents
7. African Drumming 1964-
With Kwasi Badu 1974
As a music student at UCLA in 1964, Craig heard that there was an African drumming class in the basement of the music building. Even though he was a professional drummer by this time, it was challenging to play even the simplest parts in the ensemble. Enticed by this drumming challenge and new African culture, he began deeper study first with Robert Ayitee in 1964 and then in 1970 with Kwasi Badu, both from Ghana. Over the next decade, Craig studied Yoruba Dundun drumming with Olatunji Vidal and Francis Awe at UCLA.
It was not possible to buy African drums at that time in the U.S., so in 1966 Craig made his own version. He started with his favorite type, the hourglass Ghanaian talking drum, dondo, using aluminum lamp shades, plastic Remo drumheads and nylon cord (see #2 above). At that time Craig was also studying Cuban drumming with David Garcia and South Indian drumming with Tanjore Ranganathan at UCLA.
Curious to see drums in Africa, he travelled to Morocco in 1970. There he studied the bendir, a frame drum that had historical connections to the origin of Craig’s main instrument, the European snare drum. On the way back through London he saw a Yoruba talking drum, the dundun, made by a Nigerian company. The body looked like wood but it was made of fiberglass. It had a skin drum head and came with its own felt-lined case. This was an extraordinary instrument and so impressive that Craig thought of doing something similar with the Ghanaian dondo.
Back in California, he found a fiberglass expert and built a prototype. This success resulted in 9 patents on the dondo drum and drumhead design. With this start he joined with his teacher, master drummer, Kwasi Badu and began a company called Ethnomusic, Inc. They designed and built the African Percussion Experience, APEX, a set of three dondos and dawuros (bells), a booklet and cassette with transcriptions of Badu playing the dondo. Then they promoted the drum at the NAMM trade show in 1975 and 1976.
With Prof. Nketia 2011
In 1977, his Ghanaian Professor J. H. Nketia at UCLA saw Craig’s work and invited him to see a similar project in Ghana. At the end of that one-month visit, Nketia invited Craig to return and live in Ghana to run that project, the Musical Instrument Technology Workshop (MITW) at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. Craig put his new company on hold and moved to Ghana, living there for over three years between 1979 and 1984. Prof. Nketia also encouraged Craig to complete his Ph.D. on African drumming which he finished in 1983. Craig was Director of MITW and later Acting Head of the University’s Center for Cultural Studies. His primary work was to do research into the construction of Ghanaian instruments primarily for children in local schools. He was also in charge of seeking out African instruments that were at risk of disappearing because of waning public interest. One example of this rescue effort was the seperewa, a Ghanaian harp-lute.
Beginning in the 1960s Craig performed African drumming with other drummers including Juma Santos, Olatunji Vidal, Yaw Tamakloe, James Koetting, and Phil Harland, then after 1990 with Baba David Coleman and Olugbala Manns (see Photos). Beginning in the 1970s Craig and colleagues performed a school program in Los Angeles and Cleveland called Adowa-African Drumming and Dance of Ghana. One important aspect of these performances was showing young people and teachers how to make simple African drums and percussion. These ideas included the dondo, mbira (plucked idiophone), bala (xylophone) and masenko (violin).
8. Author 1968-
Craig began writing exercises for his drum students as a teenager and this has continued throughout his life. His first academic publication began when getting his master’s degree as a graduate student in 1973.
- “The Effect of a Snare on the Tone of a Single-headed Frame Drum: The Moroccan Bendir” (UCLA, 1973)
- Solo Jazz Drumming: The Improvisation Techniques of Tony Williams (MA thesis, UCLA, 1973)
- How to Play the Dondo and Dawuro (Ethnomusic, Inc., 1976)
- “The Musical Instrument Technology Workshop” (unpublished monograph, Kumasi, Ghana, 1977)
- “An Experiment in Field and Laboratory Technique: The Effect of Western Technology on the Construction of the Kohl,” (unpublished monograph, UCLA, 1977)
- Review of Traditional Drumming and Dances of Ghana, by J. Tanson. https://doi.org/10.2307/3335206 (African Arts, 10(2), 86–88,1977)
- Review of The African Roots of Jazz, by F. Kaufman & J. P. Guckin. https://doi.org/10.2307/3335692 (African Arts, 13(3), 9–15, 1980)
- The Atumpan in Asante: A Study of Their Art and Technology (Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA, 1983)
- “Build Your Own World Orchestra,” in Open Ears: Musical Adventures for a New Generation (Elipsis Kids, 1995)
- “K-12 Education at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum,” in Popular Music and Music Education (MENC, 2004)
- Roots of Rhythm –A World Drumming Curriculum, 2 Volumes (Percussion Marketing Council, 2004 and 2009)
- “Drums Connect You to the World – A Student’s Guide to Sound Shapes® and Handle-Leg Connectors®,” (unpublished monograph, Ethnomusic, Inc., 2004)
- “Applied Ethnomusicology: My Lifelong Exploration and Expression as a Dondologist,” in Discourses in African Musicology - J.H. Kwabena Nketia Festschrift (2015)
- Review of Shane Vogel’s, Stolen Time: Black Fad Performances and the Calypso Craze (2018), in African American History, Volume 106, Number 3, Summer 2021
In 2021, Dr. Woodson began working on a high school textbook about the history of African American drumming. He is working in collaboration with Mr. Olubala Manns and 10 other noted African American drummers. This work is a supplement to the high school textbook, Black History 365.
9. Funding 1972-
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2003
Dr. Woodson has received funding from local, national and international sources. These include the NAMM Foundation, Percussion Marketing Council, Remo, Inc., National Endowment for the Arts, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (photo), Los Angeles Music Center, Hollywood Bowl Open House, the Orange County Center for the Performing Arts, Performing Tree, Young Audiences, Greater Columbus Arts Council, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, Dallas Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, University of California at Los Angeles, California State Polytechnic, Los Angeles State College, Chapman College, NAMM’s Museum of Making Music, University of Science and Technology (Ghana) and hundreds of schools across the U.S. He has worked in cooperation with NASA, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Musical Instrument Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Making Music Carlsbad, Norton Simon Museum, and Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. His funding for work in Africa includes from Walt E. Disney (EPCOT), Mick Fleetwood (Visitor album), Center for Cultural Studies, Kumasi, Ghana (MITW Director), and Kaiser Aluminum (drum making tools).
10. School Assemblies 1972-
During a two-year trip back from Ghana, Craig used his international musical skills and simple instrument inventions in 1983 to begin presenting school assemblies and workshops. One of the most successful is “A World Orchestra You Can Build,” (photo) how to make 12 homemade musical instruments from five global cultures. Bookings came from, for example, the Los Angeles Music Center, Young Audiences, Inc., Design for Sharing (UCLA)
and the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Often his assemblies came with his hands-on workshops for students and teachers featuring composite instruments like the “Drumpet,” a combination drum, trumpet, scraper, string sound and flute—all musical families of the orchestra (see School Programs).
10. School Assemblies 1972-
A World Orchestra Assembly 2010
During a two-year trip back from Ghana, Craig used his international musical skills and simple instrument inventions in 1983 to begin presenting school assemblies and workshops. One of the most successful is “A World Orchestra You Can Build,” (photo) how to make 12 homemade musical instruments from five global cultures. Bookings came from, for example, the Los Angeles Music Center, Young Audiences, Inc., Design for Sharing (UCLA) and the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Often his assemblies came with his hands-on workshops for students and teachers featuring composite instruments like the “Drumpet,” a combination drum, trumpet, scraper, string sound and flute—all musical families of the orchestra (see School Programs).
11. Teaching Artist 1972-
Dondo Making Workshop 2012
As a Teaching Artist (a professional artist who is also a skilled educator), Dr. Woodson began presenting assemblies on African drumming in Los Angeles with his teacher, Kwasi Badu, and began instrument making at the Hollywood Bowl Open House, both in the 1970s. Beginning in 1982 Craig presented a school assembly called, “Music for Free,” (see #4 above) using homemade instruments. Soon after, he developed this program to become a very successful assembly called “A World Orchestra You Can Build.” It was booked through the Los Angeles Music Center and Young Audiences, Inc. – it continues to be booked today. He developed other assemblies, for example, ”To Mars with Music,” “Drum Lessons from Around the World,” and “Build Your Own Symphony Orchestra.” Just as popular were his instrument making workshops, for example, a Middle Eastern frame drum, an African pressure drum (half version, photo), and the “Drumpet.” The Drumpet was used in his play-along concerts and it is included in orchestral works for this instrument, for example, “Concerto for Drumpet” by Eric Benjamin. Sometimes instrument-making programs were required in his after-school presentations.
12. Drum Patents 1976-1990
Dondo 1976 (L)
Sound Shapes 1990s (R)
As Craig worked on ideas for his company, Ethnomusic, Inc. in 1975 he invented a drum head system for a child’s dondo, a pressure drum from Ghana. The next year he received 9 U.S. patents on that invention. Years later in the 1990s working at the Remo drum company, that invention became the inspiration for Remo Sound Shapes.
C. 1977-1984: Work in Ghana, West Africa
13. Work in Ghana 1977-1984
MITW in Ghana 1980
In 1977, Craig was invited to West Africa to review a project in Ghana and then return to be Director of the Musical Instrument Technology Workshop (MITW) at the Center for Cultural Studies, University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. His work for three years between 1979 and 1984 was to conduct research and then begin the mass production of traditional Ghanaian instruments for public schools. He also did research there for his Ph.D. dissertation on the Atumpan talking drums (UCLA, 1983).
D. 1985-2025: Composites, Concerts, Curriculums, Drum Circles, Therapy
14. Composite Instruments 1985-
Craig Playing a Drumpet
By 2000 he had devised over a hundred simple instruments for young people to make and play in homes, schools and some for his play-along concerts. Many ideas used the concept of a “composite instrument,” several instrument families in one. A popular example was the “Drumpet,” a combination drum and trumpet that also includes a string sound, shaker and scraper sound. Another was the “Drumbone,” a combination of drum and trombone that included elements of the Drumpet. Part of the idea was to have students walk away with samples of the four main musical instrument families: air, string, drum and idiophone. He has produced several videos on instrument making for the Percussion Marketing Council called “Fun with Drums,” (see Videos, #19, #20, #21), and a program for several agencies, called “A World Orchestra” (see Videos, #12). Craig continued to make instruments for young people, for example, with the “Very Special Arts Festival,” through the Los Angeles Music Center (MCOT). He currently offers parts for sale to help young people and adults make their own instruments (see Program/Parts).
15. Play-Along Concerts 1990-2014
In 1990, he began presenting educational play-along concerts across the U.S. and overseas, for example, at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Los Angeles Music Center, and with the Kronos Quartet at the Royal Festival Hall (London) and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In each of these events, hundreds of young audience members made Dr. Woodson's simple musical instruments and played along with the orchestra (or Quartet) on a piece (e.g. Shake, Rattle and Roll by Steve Smith) composed for his instruments. In 2000, he was featured in the NASA video, Windows on Mars (see Videos, #10), where he designed instruments for an imaginary future trip to the Red Planet. For several years, Dr. Woodson was a Senior Director of Education at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. There he designed student and teacher programs including, “Rock in the Schools.”
15. Play-Along Concerts 1990-2014
With Kronos Quartet
In 1990, he began presenting educational play-along concerts across the U.S. and overseas, for example, at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Los Angeles Music Center, and with the Kronos Quartet at the Royal Festival Hall (London) and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In each of these events, hundreds of young audience members made Dr. Woodson's simple musical instruments and played along with the orchestra (or Quartet) on a piece (e.g. Shake, Rattle and Roll by Steve Smith) composed for his instruments. In 2000, he was featured in the NASA video, Windows on Mars (see Videos, #10), where he designed instruments for an imaginary future trip to the Red Planet. For several years, Dr. Woodson was a Senior Director of Education at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. There he designed student and teacher programs including, “Rock in the Schools.”
16. World Drumming Curriculums 2004-2009
Roots of Rhythm 2009
Beginning in 2004, he began writing Roots of Rhythm, a free, online world drumming curriculum supported by the music industry’s NAMM Foundation for the Percussion Marketing Council (PMC, 2004-2016). Beginning in 2016 he began presenting a new program for PMC called Drum Set in the Classroom. He continued performing world music school programs, concerts, drum circles and instrument-making projects. Dr. Woodson’s work in music therapy includes in the U.S. and travel to Iraq, Indonesia, Mexico, Honduras, and Ecuador.
In 2021, Dr. Woodson was asked to write a supplement to the high school textbook Black History 365. Craig’s book is in process with the help of other prominent drummers including Olugbala Manns, Leon Mobley, Bill Summers and Mike Taylor. Currently, Dr. Woodson continues his work writing and performing, presenting instrument-making and African drumming programs to adults and young people.
17. Drum Circle Facilitator 2009-
Craig in Iraq 2009
Beginning 2009, Craig became a Drum Circle Facilitator, after studying Remo’s Heath Rhythms techniques with Arthur Hull, Christine Stevens and Frank Thompson. He presented drum circles at education, art and therapy conferences, for retirement homes, in schools and colleges, for those with special needs, and at public events. At times, he incorporated his instrument-making activities and used homemade instruments like his cowbell made from an aluminum fire extinguisher cut in half (photo). He has conducted drum circles around the U.S. and overseas, including in Honduras, Ecuador, and Java. His events have taken place at the Musical Instrument Museum in Arizona and at NAMM’s Museum of Making Music in California.
17. Drum Circle Facilitator 2009-
Beginning 2009, Craig became a Drum Circle Facilitator, after studying Remo’s Heath Rhythms techniques with Arthur Hull, Christine Stevens and Frank Thompson. He presented drum circles at education, art and therapy conferences, for retirement homes, in schools and colleges, for those with special needs, and at public events. At times, he incorporated his instrument-making activities and used homemade instruments like his cowbell made from an aluminum fire extinguisher cut in half (photo). He has conducted drum circles around the U.S. and overseas, including in Honduras, Ecuador, and Java. His events have taken place at the Musical Instrument Museum in Arizona and at NAMM’s Museum of Making Music in California.
18. Music Therapy 2009-
Craig in Ecuador 2016
Craig experienced the benefits of psychotherapy beginning in his teenage years, and later applied these experiences as a teacher in his music classes. He presented at American Music Therapy Association conferences and worked with Christine Stevens, Kalani, and Frank Thompson. He became certified in Remo’s Health Rhythms protocol under Stevens and Arthur Hull. He and Christine applied therapy techniques to drum circles in Iraq and with the Lost Boys of Sudan in Arizona. For six years, Craig worked with Homeless Veterans as a part of Parade the Circle, sponsored by the Cleveland Museum of Art. He has worked with victims of violence in Honduras (see Videos, #17) and survivors of earthquakes in Ecuador through UNICEF (see Videos, #’s 14-16) all in partnership with Playing for Change. In 2015 Craig worked with those traumatized by a tsunami in Indonesia through UCLA and Prof. Judy Susilo (see Photos).
18. Music Therapy 2009-
Craig experienced the benefits of psychotherapy beginning in his teenage years, and later applied these experiences as a teacher in his music classes. He presented at American Music Therapy Association conferences and worked with Christine Stevens, Kalani, and Frank Thompson. He became certified in Remo’s Health Rhythms protocol under Stevens and Arthur Hull. He and Christine applied therapy techniques to drum circles in Iraq and with the Lost Boys of Sudan in
Arizona. For six years, Craig worked with Homeless Veterans as a part of Parade the Circle, sponsored by the Cleveland Museum of Art. He has worked with victims of violence in Honduras (see Videos, #17) and survivors of earthquakes in Ecuador through UNICEF (see Videos, #’s 14-16) all in partnership with Playing for Change. In 2015 Craig worked with those traumatized by a tsunami in Indonesia through UCLA and Prof. Judy Susilo (see Photos).