The beat goes on and on in Buffalo, thanks to professional drummers like Joe Goretti, who has played with the likes of Moby, Ne-Yo, Robyn, AJR, Ingrid Michaelson, Sam Moore (Sam & Dave), and The Temptations. In fact, Goretti was playing drums for Moby (lead image) in Belgrade, Serbia on June 18, 2011 at a concert where Amy Winehouse opened for Moby; It was her last performance before she died.
Joe Goretti is a world class drummer who graduated from Berklee College of Music. Since graduating, he has spent 30 years “covering the stuff that Berklee didn’t cover.” By that, I mean that he has taught at drum camps around the country, offering up all sorts of lessons, insights, career advice, etc., to young people that are looking to break into the industry. He’s managed to do this on the side, when he has not been professional gigging.
After living in NYC for 16 years, Goretti ventured back to Buffalo in 2016, where he continued to teach, produce, drum, and practice magic. Yes, he’s also one of the most accomplished card magicians in the country, if not the world (under the stage name of Joe Maxwell).
Goretti has accompanied various artists on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Today Show, LIVE with Kelly & Michael, VH1 Big Morning Buzz, PBS Front Row Center, MTV Online Awards, Moby Live From Arras, France, The iTunes Festival, and the Moby Destroyed Deluxe (DVD).
Being back in Buffalo has afforded Goretti to do things that he simply could not have done while living in NYC. After his dad passed away, he set up shop in a barn on a property that he inherited, near the football stadium in Orchard Park. That is where has has now established The Beat Barn Drum Academy.
The concept of this new music studio is to offer drummers a number of career courses, lessons, and tips on navigating the modern music industry. It’s like a vocational school for drummers, he told me. It’s where he continues to offer up his “very practical and unique drum course” called The Drumming Career Course®. The curriculum includes identifying the various gigs that are available to drummers, the strategies to get them, as well as the songs that you need to know to even land a gig, among other crucial career coaching advice.
The Beat Barn Drum Academy offers up jam sessions for kids, jazz workshops with the pros, and everything in-between, including:
- One-on-one private drum lessons and career coaching
- Weekly workshops covering specific topics (see calendar below)
- Weekly “Ask me anything” Q&A with Joe Goretti and other industry professionals
- Jam sessions, Contests, and other fun drum related stuff
- Monthly digital Newsletter
- Access to Lesson Library
Upcoming workshops include Drumming Career Workshop, Applying The Rudiments, and The Quantized Drummer
The Beat Barn Drum Academy studio is unique in that it is set up for multiple drummers the ability to play at the same time. This allows for as many as 20 students to participate in a drum clinic, which is a very unique setting for any music studio. The studio is also a place where Goretti can spread his own wings, while sharing his “highest level” accomplishments that he has retained over the course of a 30-year career in the music industry.
To learn more about Goretti, visit www.joegoretti.com, or swing by buffalodrumacademy.com to drum up some life lessons from a musician who has played with the best of them, seen it all along the way, and is happy to share his drumming foundations with others who are willing to listen and learn.