Draft:Roy C. Knapp

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Roy C. Knapp
Born(1891-10-26)October 26, 1891
Waterloo, Iowa
DiedJune 16, 1979(1979-06-16) (aged 87)
Chicago, Illinois
Occupation(s)Musician, music educator
Years active1905-1960
Spouse(s)Betty

Roy Cecil Knapp (October 26, 1891 - June 16, 1979) known as "The Dean of American Drum Teachers" was an American drummer, music educator and sought-after studio musician skilled as a tympanist, percussionist and xylophone soloist. He was a longtime network orchestra member on shows broadcast during radio's golden age in Chicago, Illinois.[1][2][3][4] And he was a founding member of the National Association of Rudimental Drummers (N.A.R.D.).

Knapp studied with his father, theater owner Jerry Knapp, with William Faetkenheuer of the Minneapolis Symphony, and with Casey Kasolowsky of the Duluth Symphony, now the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. He worked as a theater drummer in Waterloo, Iowa, spent a year in New York, and then established himself in 1921 as a drummer, percussionist, and xylophone soloist in many of the large radio orchestras in Chicago. As a member of the staff orchestra at WLS from 1928 to 1960, he could be heard on shows such as the National Barn Dance and the Don McNeil's Breakfast Club. Organizations for whom he played and recorded include the Minneapolis and Duluth Symphonies, WLS (AM), NBC Radio Network, and CBS Radio broadcasting companies, and RCA Records and Wilding Recording Companies.

The Roy C. Knapp School of Percussion[edit]

From 1913 to 1938, Knapp taught percussion in various private studios and began his Chicago career at the old Dixie Music House (est. 1902, later named Frank's Drum Shop). When a fire destroyed the business in 1937, Frank Gault, the owner, moved to another location. In 1938 Knapp opened his own studio in Kimball Hall and, with the help of his wife, Betty, started the first School of Total Percussion in the United States. This School was a private one, specializing in professional performance, but with no accreditation in the educational world.

In 1946, Knapp founded his second School of Percussion, but with the addition of piano, voice, composition, string and wind instruments receiving full accreditation to grant the bachelor’s degree and the performer’s certificate in voice, orchestral instruments and piano, including approval for veterans under the G.I. Bill the same year. He chose John P. Noonan, widely known percussionist, formerly Educational Director of the Ludwig & Ludwig Drum Company, as teacher and Vice President/Associate Director. Within a short time, Knapp had assembled a faculty of top people including twelve artist-percussionists hand-picked for their teaching skills. Over two hundred students of percussion alone enrolled for the intensive study of all phases of percussion during the eight years of the school's existence. It was the first full-time percussion school, the first to require percussion ensemble participation, and the first to emphasize drum set study which at that time was not offered in any music school.

Honors[edit]

Knapp was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1972.[5] On September 1, 1974, many of Knapp's friends, associates and students gathered at the Oakbrook IL Sheraton Hotel to honor him at the Roy C. Knapp Testimonial Day, "...for the full and talented life of Roy Knapp, his patient drawing-out of students' skills and his care to foster art above applause and honest creativity above quick dollars".

Retirement[edit]

Knapp retired from performing in 1960 and closed his school in 1966. From then until his death he taught at Frank’s Drum Shop which was established in 1938 by Frank Gault, brother of George Gault, who was a partner in the original Dixie Music House (Frank’s was subsequently purchased by Maurie Lishon in 1959). The original drum set from Knapp's WLS-Chicago days is on permanent display at the Percussive Arts Society International Headquarters Museum in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Notable students[edit]

Knapp became widely recognized as a teacher, and his roster of former students includes:

Publications[edit]

  • The Fundamentals of Modern Drumming (undated). Stanger, Philip. Collection, Box 6, Folder 11, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago, IL.
  • Fundamental Rudiments of Mallet Technique and Tympani Tuning Excerpt from Lesson Studies (1938) Ludwig & Ludwig (4-page brochure)
  • The Ludwig Drummer (published by Ludwig Drums)
    • "Roy Knapp...The Grandaddy of Percussion with Young Ideas" (1968). Vol. 8, No. 1, p. 18 - 20

References[edit]

  1. ^ Barnhart, Stephen L. (2000-03-30). Percussionists: A Biographical Dictionary. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 208–209. ISBN 978-0-313-29627-7.
  2. ^ "Roy Knapp, 87, dies; was musician, teacher". Chicago Tribune. 1979-06-18. p. 15. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  3. ^ Brennan, Matt (2020-01-10). Kick It: A Social History of the Drum Kit. Oxford University Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-19-068389-4.
  4. ^ Beck, John H. (2013-11-26). Encyclopedia of Percussion. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-74768-0.
  5. ^ Fairchild, Frederick D. "Hall of Fame". Percussive Arts Society.
  6. ^ Goins, Wayne Everett (2014-08-30). Blues All Day Long: The Jimmy Rogers Story. University of Illinois Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-252-09649-5.
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