About Patrick R. F. Blakley

2019 SAMMY Awards Show Red Carpet

      I am a SAMMY award winning percussionist from Syracuse, New York. I’ve worked with numerous field bands, WGI percussion ensembles, WGI winds ensembles, and winterguard programs across the country as well as both DCA and DCI drum corps as a director, caption head, concept designer, composer, drill writer, and sound designer. I am also a member of the Percussive Arts Society, the National Band Association, and have a dual membership with the National Association For Music Education and the New York State School Music Association. I’m currently an endorsed artist/educator with Innovative Percussion and Epiarch Drums. I’ve been a finalist for the SAMMY awards three times and have won once!

    I’m also a 2021 CNY Book Award Finalist and have published two in-depth technical marching instruction books. Quadratics: The Multi-tom Focus is a book specifically for marching tenor drummers, and another more broad ranged book designed to be an instruction manual for marching percussion called The Field Percussion User Manual for a stepped-back look at marching percussion from an instructor’s perspective. I’ve also published a children’s book, with the help from illustrator Emily Hogan, called Drummy Drum Joins Marchy Band. Lastly, my most recent book is a 320-page novel called Drummond: Learning to find himself in the music. This is an expansion of the Drummy Drum story and geared toward a young adult audience for learning about who you are inside, and fitting in. The Drummond novel is a five-star professionally reviewed book and was a 2022 Amazon teen/young-adult fiction music eBook #1 best seller! Drummond was also nominated for over a dozen local and national book awards and became a finalist or winner in several categories. All of my books are designed to pull students into the marching activity, advance their knowledge within the activity, and further their reach as they progress beyond high school. My publications are available here through this site as well as on Amazon, among various other outlets!

       I am an endorsed drumset artist with Epiarch Drums out of Ames, Iowa, and have performed with a variety of local and national acts in various styles including progressive, fusion, alternative, and experimental. I’ve recorded drumset for a full studio concept album with the band Our 11th Hour, released in 2022. The concept album is exactly one hour long and has taken over a decade to carefully write the story, compose, and record! I come from a concert and marching music background, in addition to some scholastic jazz bands. I’ve marched four years of drum and bugle corps with the Syracuse Brigadiers Drum & Bugle Corps and I’m proud to have helped continue their DCA record 46 consecutive show win streak while also winning several percussion caption awards as a member of the tenorline. I also received a bronze medal in the DCA I&E solo event on tenor drums in my final year as a member of a marching ensemble.

      I now consult, compose, and judge for marching percussion and winds. My ensembles have medaled or won titles in several state and national circuits including all of the following: NYSFBC, NYSPC, BOA, US Bands, NESBA, MYCGC, NECGC, DCA, and WGI. In 2019, while I was the Director of Percussion, the SAMMY Awards (The Syracuse Area Music Awards) honored the Cicero-North Syracuse Marching Band and myself with a distinguished Best Artist award after the band performed in the 92nd Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2018! I’ve also worked with several winterguard groups across the country including WGI scholastic world and independent world winterguards as a music editor and sound designer. I’m also a sound designer for dance, figure skating, gymnastics, and artistic swimming as well through my company called CompetitiveMusic.com along with several other minor domains. Bands across the country have used my 272-page percussion technique method and warmup/exercise program from more than 110 schools in 34 states, Canada, Brazil, and the United Kingdom, to universities in Kansas, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Wyoming, as well as drum corps in New York and Pennsylvania! Additionally, some of my exercises are featured on the robust iOS Diddles metronome and practice app. I’m a member of the New York Federation of Contest Judges and I’m also a certified percussion judge through WGI. In North Syracuse, I own a percussion studio called SyracuseDrums.com where I record and teach lessons on almost any percussion instrument!

Amazon Bestseller Young Adult Novel

Custom 7-piece Epiarch “Time Machine”

      I earned my degree in History & International Studies and I’m a member of the List and Index Society as well as two local historical associations where I volunteer as an archivist and writer while working closely with my town’s official historian. I’ve published a 110-page paper about Terre Hill, a little-known area north of Syracuse, NY, near Woodard, NY, the place I currently reside. This research was then cited by Dorothy Heller and printed by Eagle News as a History Mystery! In my spare time, I have curated a large personal collection of antique toasters, and of course, I’m a member of the Toaster Collectors Association. I also own a private gin collection of 117 different brands, from 20 different countries, and offer tastings to learn more about this incredibly unique spirit. I still live near Syracuse, NY, with my wife Lynette and our two kids, Luca and Lena.

         Check out my equipment list, publications, free drumline warmups, percussion articles, or contact me for any other info! Feel free to take a peek at some of my pet research projects like Blakley Road (documenting international roads named with any “Blakley” surname variation), or my research on the Weller family and school house #6 as part of my Terre Hill paper. I’ve also published an essay called Questions I Have For You exploring many religious questions. For anyone interested, here are some articles I published in my college newspaper, Evading the Need to Think Part One, Two, and Three. As well as my published capstone paper in the college’s Historical Review academic journal, pages 13-34. (My research is cited as a source for the related Wikipedia articles, among many others, including translations, and is one of the most predominant sources for this subject matter!) Finally, if you’d like to learn more about my Drummond novel please check the press kit for the most recent and relevant info.