Drumming Into Jazz – Prepare for Jazz Band Audition

Welcome to Drumming into Jazz! 

• Practice Jazz band audition

• 44 downloadable PDF worksheets

• 25 play-along audio tracks

• 54 video lectures/demonstrations

• Music listening assignments for each groove

• Quizzes to help absorb all of the drumming tips and tricks

Instructors Tim Froncek and Kevin DePree will walk you through everything you need to know to audition for Jazz Band on the drum set. Even if you are in Jazz Band already this is a great tool to improve your skills.

Meet your instructors:

Tim Froncek has been rightfully called one of the busiest drummers in West Michigan. Teacher, performer, director, lecturer, and judge are all roles that he plays in the world of jazz. He serves both as drummer and Musical Director for the Truth in Jazz Orchestra.

He has performed with such jazz greats as Woody Herman and The Thundering Herd, Bobby Shew, Bill Watrous, Randy Brecker, Phil Woods, Rufus Reid, Jon Faddis, Hal Galper, Clark Terry, John Patitucci, Bill Mays, John Clayton, Marcus Printup, Terry Gibbs, Wess Warmdaddy Anderson, David Fat Head Newman, Wycliffe Gordon, Brother Jack McDuff, Pearl Bailey, and Joe Williams – just to name a few.

An energetic performer loved by audiences, Tim is well known in the Midwest. But he also tours internationally with the Western Jazz Quartet, performing throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He is the Musical Director for Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra as well as TIJO, both of which are considered to be premier big bands in western Michigan.

As a teacher, Tim directs the jazz program at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. He is a sought after affiliate professor at Grand Valley State University, teaches on the jazz studies faculty at Western Michigan University and is the director of the jazz band at Muskegon Community College.

“I have always been interested in jazz music,” Tim says, “because of the beat, the groove. That’s what drew me to drums.” In comparing the performance of classical music to jazz, he comments that he enjoys the spontaneity of jazz performance. “In jazz,” he says, “you are trying to recreate the written music, but also create something new at the same time.”

Kevin DePree

After graduating in 2007, DePree toured Europe with the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp big band with director David Jenson. From that experience, DePree knew he had to make music part of his life forever. His love of music started with piano lessons when he was 7 years old. After about three years, his attention turned to drums and he got his first drum set when he was 10 years old. “It was a simple set – a $50 kid-sized set my Mom and Dad picked up at a street fair.”

DePree is now working full time as a musician, educator, and music composer.  His educational programs (STEAM skills assemblies & music education workshops) are supported by the State of Michigan through several grant programs including the Michigan Touring Program.