Whole Music Learning
Committed to making music accessible to people of all ages    
 

    
   

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Mission

My mission is to provide education, access and support to everyone from children to the many adults who have felt excluded, yet want to be a part of the vibrant and wonderful world of music making. Music is hugely important to our children’s development and vital to our physical and mental selves. As a percussionist, I use drums, percussion, singing, improvisation and movement to provide the ideal entry into music. I believe anyone can make music. 

As a professional musician, educator and music facilitator for over 35 years, I offer lessons, classes, ensembles, recreational drum circles, school residencies, in-service presentations, on-line instruction, musical advice and instruments. I have worked with people from infants through age 88 and there are no limits. Music is not a mystery.
Rob Zollman
Click here for Rob's educational writings starting with Wandering Through the Musical Desert

 Rob's biographical
information

Performer
A performer for 40 years, Rob began in the 60's as a rock 'n roll drummer, moving into jazz and blues in the 70's. After attending Berklee College of Music and the Philadelphia Musical Academy, Rob graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion. In 1976 Rob co-founded the Atmos Percussion Quartet, a percussion group performing throughout the Philadelphia region. 

During the 1980’s, after several years of performing as a classical timpanist and percussionist and a decade's involvement in the contemporary music group, Relache, Rob formed and led his own band which performed for over a thousand parties and special events. Rob also created an entertainment agency that managed and promoted his and several other bands. More recently, Rob has played jazz, blues, rock, Brazilian and other ethnic music, including klezmer and Chassidic rock and roll.  

Rob's percussion teachers included Philadelphia Orchestra percussionist Michael Bookspan, jazz vibist Bill Lewis, and Carl Mottola, and he has taken workshops and clinics with numerous nationally known drummers and percussionists.


Educator
As an educator, Rob taught at Philadelphia's Settlement and Jenkintown Music Schools for many years, and became an independent teacher in the early 1980's. He spent 3 summers investigating the Orff and Kodaly concepts of early childhood music education. Following the birth of his first child in 1990, Rob became even more interested in pre-school music education, eventually leaving the entertainment field to fulfill his greater passion for teaching.  Subsequently, he studied at Temple University with noted music learning theorist Dr. Edwin Gordon, and worked in the field of pre-school children’s music as a teacher and program development director of Sally’s Music Circle. During this time Rob co-produced a series of CD consisting of over 120 songs used in the Sally’s Music Circle program. Rob also spent 12 years on the faculty of Bryn Mawr College where he taught pre-school music at the Phebe Anna Thorne School.

Also resulting from his work with Dr. Gordon, Rob began to re-think his his entire approach to teaching percussion, and eventually developed a methodology and set of materials which became his book entitled Whole Music Drumming. 

Over the last ten years, an increasing number of students and teachers have been attracted to Rob's Whole Music Learning approach. This resulted first in the creation of The Percussion School and later Music Learning Centers. In 2003, Rob became involved in the Percussive Arts Society's Education Committee, chairing a sub-committee to develop a nationwide certification program for percussion students. Although PAS shelved the project, Rob plans to launch it independently.

Rob continues to direct the original Music Learning Centers near Philadelphia, though he now makes his home in Vermont. There he continues his private teaching practice, along with a Vermont branch of Sally's Music Circle. Rob teaches general music at several area schools, directs a high school drum line, conducts residencies and facilitates community drum circles.  Rob continues to write books and articles based on his approach.  His next book – tentatively titled The Secrets of Music – addresses the many adults who feel left behind by their experiences in music. Using percussion and voice as the ideal point of entry into music, The Secrets of Music reflects Rob's commitment to making music participation accessible to everyone, regardless of ability.   

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