Marching to the beat of a different drum

He was always interested in music, but in fourth grade, when Joel Bluestone heard his neighbor playing rock drums, he was ensnared by the beat.

“I was taking piano lessons, but those weren’t cool, every kid was taking them,” he said. “I’m glad I took the piano lessons because they taught me a lot, but man, I just wanted to be as cool as that drummer.”

Since 1989, Bluestone has been the percussion coordinator for the Portland State Department of Music and also serves as the assistant chair and graduate coordinator for that department.

Bluestone began playing the snare drum soon after he heard his neighbor, and continued to play in a school band until he graduated from Ballard High School in Fresno, Calif., in 1976. He moved from snare to marimba and eventually began playing a full drum set in rock-and-roll bands during his adolescence.

He graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in musical honors in 1981 and later earned a master’s and doctorate in musical arts from New York City’s Stony Brook University in 1987.

After several years of university-level music education, Bluestone said he realized he wanted to be an educator himself. He now teaches general music education classes each term, including a rock history course during the spring and summer terms, and also offers private percussion lessons to about 10 students per term.

“The private lessons are really the best delivery of musical education, because when a student has that sort of tight proximity with a teacher or a parent or anyone else, they develop a passion for the instrument,” Bluestone said. “Everybody wants to play something at one point or the other, but it’s that passion that keeps them at it and that makes a student become an eventual pro.”

Bluestone also said many of his former students have become educators, particularly Bob Brudvig, who is currently the concert band director at Oregon State University.

Daniel Gascon, a PSU senior studying classical and concert percussion, said Bluestone is both personable and stern with students in a way that inspires them to also become music educators.

“He can be very buddy-buddy with his students and very to the point in the same rehearsal, and you certainly know whether you’ve done good or messed up,” he said. “He’s made me want to also teach music someday.”