The Teacher

The names that describe him are endless: The Percussion Teacher, The Captioin Head, Percussion Professor, and The Big Man In Percussion.  His name is Eric Willie, and he is in charge of Tennessee Tech's Percussion Studio.  He is the man with a plan, but what was he before he was a teacher.  Eric was just another percussion student who by shear chance, had the opportunity to teach at an early age.  "I started teaching marching band camps during my junior year in high school and I enjoyed seeing what approaches worked and didn't work" says Eric.  He also had a private student whom he taught his senior year.  When his student made the top honor band in the western part of the state, the event gave Eric "hope that I might be able to pursue teaching."  Another, mare close to home influence though was his father.  Eric's father was a rock and roll drummer who was actually the first to introduce percussion into Eric's life.  "He introduced me to Wipeout, Let There Be Drums, and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" Eric recollects.

But even the teacher had to learn from someone.  Eric believes he has been blessed with many good teachers in his life (even though at the time he hated some of them, now he understands what he taught them secretly).  For instance, his high school band director would extend his work day for no extra money every single day and give the students lessons.  This taught Eric that "to be a musician it takes time." Every teacher he had just built a new level of musicality just like a building.  Even now, he knows that the building is still not complete as he said "(guys like) Mark Ford, Christopher Deane, Ed Soph, Ed Smith, and Paul Rennick,  

All of my DMA teachers (have) taught me that I had a lot to learn!"

"Why does he do this though?" is a question that wandered through my mind as I left his

office after my lesson with him. "How can he sit there day after day listening to kids that are

not nearly as talent as he his, and he patiently holds their hand (not literally) and walks them

through the study of music?" Most people would explode and yell something along the lines of

"Why can't you play anything!" and break a drumstick and walk out of the room. Instead, Eric

sits there right beside you on his stool listening intensely for the sound of you drum as you

make music out of thin air. His favorite part about teaching: "I love seeing the students

performance ability improve." He feeds on the students accomplishments because deep down,

he knows none of this could have been possible without his guidance.

What a lot of people don't know about Eric is that he (like many of the faculty here at

Tennessee Tech) is a world class performer. Eric is sponsored by many percussion companies

who want people the know that he uses their products and nothing else. He has many videos

on the internet of him performing a variety of percussion instruments. Eric has an unusual

view of the performance because unlike most people, he likes the preparation of the piece more

than the piece its self. "I really enjoying breaking out the metronome and breaking things down"

Eric commented during one of our afternoon chats.

Overall, I can tell that I have become a better musician in these past 4 weeks and most of it

is thanks to Eric Willie. The Big Man lives on, and will be loved by his students or anyone who

has ever heard him perform.