From playing snare drum with the legendary Bayonne Bridgemen to serving as an adjudicator for WGI, Matt Savage has over twenty-five years of playing and teaching experience in the marching percussion field. Matt is currently director of marching percussion at the University of North Carolina.



Matt Savage, graduate of the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York and The University of Southern California, has taught at every level of public education from elementary to the college level. Along with teaching in public education, Matt also has twenty-five years of playing and teaching experience in the marching percussion field. This experience includes playing snare drum with the legendary Bayonne Bridgemen and serving as percussion director and arranger for drum and bugle corps such as the Anaheim Velvet Knights, the Dutchboy of Kitchener, Ontario and the Canton Bluecoats. At the collegiate level, Matt has served as percussion instructor for the USC Trojan Marching Band and is currently director of marching percussion at the University of North Carolina where he has also in the past, served as Assistant Director of University Bands.



He is heavily involved with the indoor percussion activity as an adjudicator for WGI. His most recent publication is "Savage Rudimental Workshop", a state of the art rudiment development book with 2 CD accompaniment published by Warner Bros. Music. Along with being a marching percussion specialist, Matt is a Remo hand drum artist and drum circle facilitator leading drum circles for a variety of both local and national events. Matt is a clinician for the Yamaha Corporation, Pro-Mark Drumsticks, Sabian Cymbals, and Remo Inc.



Matt Savage: 'My style of drumming began with rudimental drumming when I was in elementary school. I loved drumming. I've played the drum set. I went to school for all the percussion instruments and got a degree in music education from the Crane School of Music and a Master's Degree in Percussion from the University of Southern California. There are so many types of percussion instruments to play, I have decided to focus mainly on marching percussion and hand percussion.'



'I decided to write the book because I was handwriting many exercises for my students over and over again and found that the exercises worked very well for them. If a student was having trouble with a slam drag, for instance, we would take ten minutes on my exercises and they would see immediate improvement. After a couple of years of writing all these exercises out, I thought I would compile them in one book so that all drummers could benefit from these exercises. The book is set up so that the beginning student can learn the rudiments in a very easy, concrete process, but also the advanced snare drummer can also refine and develop speed in a relaxed and efficient manner. My favorite rudiment is a sparkling clean roll with nine other snare drummers. I'd even say any rudiment when played clean with other snare drummers.'