Dan Ryder

Dan Ryder began playing the trumpet in the seventh grade in the Penn Hills School District, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pa. He studied with two outstanding trumpet teachers- Matty Shiner of Duquesne University and Frank Ostrowski, of the Pittsburgh Symphony. While in high school he participated in the Pennsylvania All State Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, directed by Karl Kritz. After graduation he attended Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pa and earned a BS in Music Ed. While at Geneva he met and married his lovely wife Karen. They have three sons, Dan, Craig and Tim, with two grandchildren.

After graduation from Geneva College, Mr. Ryder began his teaching career as band director at Shenango High School in New Castle, Pa. He also began graduate work at the Dana School of Music, Youngstown University. He was band director at Shenango for ten years winning many awards with the marching band. In 1976 he decided to make a major career change to become a marching band drill designer and moved to Austin, Texas-a state where bands were known to be outstanding.

The first year of show designing, Mr. Ryder placed a small ad in the Instrumentalist magazine and had twenty-nine customers, one was a band in Monticello, IL which won their class at the Marching Bands of America Contest in Whitewater, WI. He taught for three more years, ending his teaching career as Director of Bands at Leander High School in Leander, TX.

Dan owes a lot to the Texas Bandmasters Association's summer convention. In 1978 he attended the convention and approached Art Jenson of Jenson Publications, inquiring if he had interest in acquiring published marching drills to match their marching music. They were immediately interested; Mr. Ryder began a ten-year career as their drill designer. The first years of his work with Jenson Publications were extremely popular in Texas. That faded quickly because bands at football games and UIL contests were playing the same Jenson music and marching to the same drills.

Mr. Ryder is also grateful to outstanding band directors who gave him a chance to design custom drills for their bands in the early 80s. These directors have produced some of the most successful band programs in the state.

Mr. Ryder has also been able to present many clinics and workshops throughout the country and Japan. His first workshop was presented at TBA in 1980. He presently has workshops each summer at the Southfork Ranch in Dallas. These attract directors and drill designers from throughout the country. Mr. Ryder stays up to date with drill designing trends and has continually developed new concepts of his own.

He has been an active member in TBA, TMEA, and was elected associate member to the American Bandmasters Association in 1999. Mr. Ryder and his wife Karen have been owners of Dan Ryder Field Drills for thirty-one years. Their company has developed many products and books to help directors make their jobs easier and bands better. His text "Techniques of Marching Band Show Designing" is in its 5th edition and is currently being used in college marching band classes throughout the country. Dan continues custom designing about twenty-five shows a season for college and high school bands.