As a composer for drumset, my focus has been on blending a naturalistic style of playing into a more structured, composed context. While there have been pieces which treat drumset as a multi-percussion instrument and there are countless scenarios for primarily improvised drumset performances, my goal is to bridge that gap by writing for the drumset in a way that is idiomatic to the performer – familiar and comfortable to those experienced with the instrument and educational/practical for the student.

This session involves a presentation of my compositional process, demonstrative performances of four of my recent compositions (in their entirety or as excerpts) which feature the drum set in both soloist and collaborative roles, and which contain rarely implemented techniques in this context, and a discussion of the value in incorporating these styles and techniques into drumset composition. The compositions performed/excerpted and discussed will include Bootlicker (2026) for percussion trio, Ghost (2025) for solo drumset, Obliterate (2024) for solo drumset with percussion quartet, and Until Flesh is Torn from Bone (2023) for percussion trio.

I will discuss various idiomatic drumset passages and how they fit into a different percussion ensemble context. These four works each include “blast-beats” and the prominent use of double-bass pedal – techniques which are widely used by the large and thriving community of heavy metal drummers but which have rarely ever been utilized in more ‘traditional’ percussion compositions. By adopting this idiomatic language into my compositions, these pieces explore the speed/endurance required, the unpredictable metric modulations, and the relentless pacing found in these ‘pop’ genres. I wish to showcase this often overlooked and dismissed genre of drum set performance and also discuss how by taking these techniques out of their genre context, we can grow our skills as players and increase our compositional vocabulary.