Payne County Line Oklahoma Music News

International beat

By Daniel Lapham

Phoenix Staff Writer

— Click here to see Jeffrey in action

Jeffrey Jones’ path from a childhood dream of playing drums to playing the stages of some of the world’s largest drum festivals is one he hopes will inspire and open doors for other Green Country musicians.
The 28-year-old drummer, instructor, author and clinician said he started playing drums in the fifth grade as an alternative to sports.
“I come from a family of jocks. There are no musicians whatsoever on either side of my family and I can’t play sports,” Jones said.
Jones will leave Wednesday for Frankfort Germany to represent Sonor Drums and Sabian Cymbals at the Frankfort Music Fest on his way to the Adams Drummers Festival in Belgium.
“I’ll be there on the (March) 29th,” he said. “I’ll have a huge booth where I’ll have all of my Sonor and Sabian stuff set up and then I play to get people to come up to the booth. There will be more than a hundred thousand people there. It is huge.”
In addition to Frankfort, Jones said he also will be playing at other clinics in Germany and France on his way to Belgium on April 1.
After picking up the sticks in the fifth grade, Jones said he fully realized his dream in 1994 after I spending a week at a drum camp in Texas and hasn’t looked back.
“I went down there and after taking lessons from some of the huge name instructors that were down there and getting my butt kicked by the other drummers, I was like, ‘I love it. I want to be like these guys, but I want to be better than them,’” Jones said. “So, it was just a mission after then.”
And the mission is still going. Jones teaches 72 students between Drum World in Tulsa, John Michael’s Music in Muskogee and his home studio.
A few years ago when looking for new and better ways to teach his students, Jones stumbled upon the idea for his online publishing company, Zomac Publications. The company is named for his children Zoe and Macy.
“I couldn’t ever find the perfect book, so I started writing down my own drumming exercises,” he said. “Then I thought, ‘I bet other people would like to use these.’ So, I used my college degree in business to publish and distribute my book and it has just grown. We now have four authors from Oklahoma that are published.”
Although his authors and his roots are firmly planted in Oklahoma, the majority of Jones’ book buyers are from around the world. Leading the charge is Germany where he sells thousands of his books that he has translated into German.
“Part of my marketing was to find niche marketing outlets. Part of that was to write a double bass drumming book,” Jones said. “The other part is that I know German. So, I started doing research and found that Germany has the second largest population of drummers in the world next to the United States.”
Using this information, Jones began to contact drum teachers in Germany finding that the biggest issue they face with teaching drums was that most of the drum books were in English. He then translated all of his books in German and the rest is history.
From minoring in music at Northeastern State University to being invited to play at international festivals, Jones said he is still humbled by the whole thing and hopes that others can share in his success. He said one way others can get involved is by joining Drummers for Jesus, which is how he got started. He was invited to Dallas for the conference and from there he was asked to play at the Psalm Drummers Gathering in England. Jones said people can go to www.drummersforjesusok.com for more information.
“I am the only Oklahoma drummer to ever play at Adams Drummers Festival, Drummers for Jesus in Texas and the Psalm Drummers Gathering in England,” Jones said. “I just hope it doesn’t stop here. I don’t feel like other drummers are the competition. I hope they can all make it to this level.
“There is just so much talent in northeastern Oklahoma. I know several amazing musicians that deserve the big opportunity,” Jones said. “I just feel very blessed to get this opportunity, thank God and everyone that has helped me. I think that it is good because it is putting us on that map. I hope I can help open the door for other musicians to succeed on a global scale.”