Rick Beckham is an active rudimental advocate, writer, teacher, and performer. Rick marched snare with the 1980 Garfield Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps, and the 1981 27th Lancers Drum & Bugle Corps. He was also the drum line instructor for the University of Southern Mississippi’s Pride marching drum line for the years 1981 and 1982. He instructed Princeton High Schools drum line in Princeton TX between the years 1993-97, beginning James Christian’s incredible journey towards an unprecedented 7 time National Drum Corps Associates (DCA) Tenor Individual Championship. Additionally, Rick has taught or consulted with various drum corps and marching band drum lines throughout the years, including the Nighthawks junior corps, the Bayou City Blues and Gulf Coast Sound senior corps, all three from Houston, TX, and the Corpsvets senior corps located near Atlanta, Ga. He is a 4-time DCA National Individual Snare Drum Champion for the years 1999-2001 & 2003. Rick has two published books; The Beckham Book is a book of 20 competitive progressive rudimental solos plus 3 challenging duets, and The Rudimental Drummer is an advanced book that explores the usage of rudiments and rudimental hybrids in etude form. Rick has been a member of the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) and the International Association of Rudimental Percussionists (IARP). He became a member of the National Association of Rudimental Drummers (NARD) at the young age of 15, and claims membership to the International Association of Traditional Drummers (IATD), the United States Association of Rudimental Drummers (USARD), and formed the Drummers for Rudimental Mastery (DRUM), an organization dedicated to restoring the importance of rudimental drumming to the consciousness of all percussionists. Rick conceived and created Rudimentaldrumming.com in 1995, a popular website devoted to rudimental drumming that contains historical reference, solos, exercises, audio, and video clips. Rick is currently applying rudimental training techniques to double bass drum set in order to develop 4-limb rudimental coordination, he played drum set with the rock cover band Second Shift in the Dallas area, and is currently playing drum set with a contemporary praise band for the First Christian Church of McKinney, TX. Rick is a member of the Highpointers club, an organization with the stated goal of attempting to reach the summit of as many state highpoints as possible. To date, Rick has acquired the summit of 38 US state highpoints.
Rick received his BS in computer science from the University of Southern Mississippi, and an MS in computer science from the University of Texas at Dallas, and has been employed in the telecommunications industry, working for Nortel and then Ericsson, for the last 23 years.