Musicology Studies & Scholarship
Todd is presently a student in the University Studies program at the University of Hartford in Hartford Connecticut. He is pursuing a self designed musicology and humanities degree, focusing on the Arts and Media in Communities and Cultures. He hopes to complete his bachelors degree studies in 2025.
During his time thus far at the University, Todd has been a presidents list scholar, a humanities seminar fellow and scholarship recipient, a colloquium presenter, and and in – class guest lecturer.
Previously, Todd has studied music and fine arts at Gordon College, University of Maine at Augusta, University of Southern Maine, and the Maine College of Art, where he was the first applicant and accepted student to the Bob Crewe Program of Art in Music.
He has studied music privately with Gary Spellissey, Manny Wise, and Steve Grover.
Happy 50th Anniversary, Hip Hop!
Civil Rights Mixtape
Songs at the beginning of the Civil Rights struggle in the United States were mostly messages of hope, faith, and steadfastness to the cause of justice. Many of these songs were motivated by and influenced by songs in the spiritual and gospel traditions. The idea was simple; even then, people knew that the struggle was just beginning and would be long, and even though the civil rights movement was, among other things, an expression of exhaustion by people of color, that they needed to remain active in the cause.
Many of these songs are not only iconic and emblematic of the music of the era from our present today’s view, but they were also popular and often repeated in that day. Many of these titles such as “We Shall Overcome,” “I Shall Be Released,” and “A Change is Gonna Come” were covered by many popular artists of the day.
As the Civil Rights era grows into the hippie movement and the “Summer of Love,” a greater momentum has been built behind these causes, a greater audience paying attention to these musical themes, and a hotter fire propelling the engine. Songs like “Compared to What,” “Stand!” and “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” define a newly-articulated era of Black power and excellence amidst the civil brutality of the late 60s and early 70s.
Jazz, Soul Jazz, R&B, and classic Funk all had a re-convergence and renaissance in the late 80s and early 90s during what is known as the Golden Era of hip-hop. During this time, hip-hop producers, artists, and DJs sought to dig beyond the canon of classic hip-hop samples and breaks that had been established in the decade and a half prior. Thus, they reached deeper into more rare cuts for source material, especially those from influential and forward thinking black artists.
This era is notable and meaningful for me personally, as it was concurrent with my high school and coming of age years. The music of this era, particularly that of Public Enemy, influenced my worldview just as much as any class or book or magazine did.
Songs from this era of hip-hop like “Stop the Violence” and Brothers Gonna Work It Out” are exhortations from the artists to their communities of color to not be incited to violence by the sensationalist and largely – white media, but inspired to action by their conscience and culture.
19A0s &
Gen X:
19A0s and Generation X: What, When, and Where Are/Were We?
A parafictional hypothesis about the struggle of generation X to find their footing in their present time and days.
Download and view PDF.
The Art & Academia of Sampling
These are the breaks: Sampling in the pop era
Pop culture, by design, is built directly from raw materials of the generations and iterations that came before it. Pop music, for its part in and of this, demonstrates this with the use of sampled music and recycled elements, borrowed bits and “breaks” of old records, strange digital instruments, and analog artifacts that are sometimes uniquely, sometimes universally, borrowed, re-contextualized, and made new.
As a career drummer, DJ, and producer growing up during 80s pop, 90s dance hits, and the first generation of Hip-Hop, my work has been tracing the roots and branches of drum breaks; isolated moments in recorded music when drums and accompanying rhythm tracks are laid bare, and thus can be borrowed easily for use and interpretation by other artists. This action of sampling is not just crucial, but essential to the survival of art in general, and specifically for modern art.
From the opening strains of 1980’s “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang, one cannot help but hear the prominently displayed rhythm of the dance-pop hit “Good Times,” the disco anthem by the band Chic. It represents one of many points of intersection in pop culture sampling, which include issues of intellectual property, legality, license, cultural appropriation, and exploitation.
Download a PDF of These are the breaks
Teaching & Artist-in-Residencies
Teaching, Presenting,
& Speaking:
areas of expertise, study, and scholarship
Drums & Percussion
Digital & Analog DJing
Remix & Re-Edit Production
The History of Contemporary Music
The 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop:
Influence, Impact, & Importance
Generation X: When Are We?
Gene Speaks:
Remembering Gene McDaniels
Drum, Percussion,
& Digital Music Education
with Todd the Rocket
For Students of All Ages and Interests Seeking to Learn About Today’s Music
Todd the Rocket teaches in a variety of contemporary music idioms, styles, and modes. He instructs private drum and percussion lessons, instructs classes on music technology, directs musical ensembles, and is a speaker and presenter about modern music history and culture. He has been an artist in residence directing hip-hop programs with low income and at risk youth
Todd strives to utilize all available resources and technology to prepare students of all needs for lives with music, whether as professionals or life-long lovers of musical arts.
About Private Lessons
Hello Students, Parents, and Administrators!
My name is Todd Richard, but many friends and fellow musicians call me Todd the Rocket. I am a career musician, performing and educating in drums, percussion, music technology, and other areas of professional music for over 25 years.
I’ve had the honor of studying music from phenomenal teachers and organizations, as well as learning from thousands of my own performances, offering invaluable on the job experience that can’t be replicated.
If we understand music to be a universal language, then we also understand that it needs to be available to everyone, regardless of their interests and what they decide to do with it. I’ve instructed students ranging in age from 4 to 74, and worked to inspire and educate students looking for a new hobby, looking for a new creative outlet, or wanting to explore a career.
The approach is universally the same. I strive to attach techniques and lessons to practicum, applying new skills to familiar music as quickly as possible. Students can expect to be seated at a drum set the first lesson, and virtually every lesson thereafter. Fundamentals are taught from the perspective of the drum set, unquestionably one of the most essential and exciting elements in modern music.
In addition to instruction and performance, I’ve worked in arts and entertainment management and marketing for over 20 years, and use these skills to mentor students who are seeking to audition for school programs, college admission, and various professional opportunities within arts & entertainment.
For Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters, I will be offering private, group, and family lessons either at my home studio in Glastonbury, or at your residence in the Greater Hartford area.
Giving the gift of music could change the life of a student. If you are considering asking for a drum set as a gift, or considering gifting your aspiring student an instrument, please be in touch! I’ve worked with countless students and parents to price and procure the right instrument for each student.
As technology and popular music have evolved, one thing has stayed the same; music is a vital language to connect the people in our world, and the practice and art of music is as valuable to students as ever.
I’d love to speak with you about bringing your/your student’s drumming to the next level, whether a beginner just getting started, or more seasoned and experienced players.
Teaching Experience
Class & Private Instruction Experience:
Drum Class & Private Music Instructor, Snow Pond Arts Academy 2016-2017
Hip Hop Programs & Private Music Instructor, Maine Academy Of Modern Music 2006-2009
Private Music Instructor, Nantucket Comm. Music Center 1995, Nantucket, MA 2008, 2009
Jazz Ensemble Director, Lexington Christian Academy, Lexington, MA 1999-2000
Workshop & Artist-in-Residence Experience:
Hip Hop Summer Camp – Boys & Girls Club Of Greater Portland, Portland, ME 2008
Hip Hop Intensive Program – Long Creek Youth Development, Casco, ME 2008
Early Elementary Percussion Playshops – Parks & Rec. Dept, Kennebunk, ME 2006 – 2008
Drum & Percussion Artist-In-Residence – Nantucket Public Schools, Nantucket, MA 2003
A Sampling of Recorded Work
featuring Todd the Rocket on
drums, percussion, and/or programming
Drum & Percussion Portfolio
Jonathan Edwards
Don Campbell Band
In fall of 2021, Todd The Rocket returns to the road as a special guest with the Don Campbell Band for a string of dates, including Midwest and New England tour stops.
During his tenure as the full-time drummer for Don Campbell and the Don Campbell Band, Todd The Rocket performed over 10 seasons worth of tour dates, and contributed to three original music recordings, as well as a 2-CD set in tribute to the music of Dan Fogelberg.
Highlights with the Don Campbell Band include: opening for Willie Nelson for a capacity crowd, performing at the 1st Annual Country Music Festival at Gillette Stadium, feature sets at the Nashville Country Music Association Fan Fair, and opening credits that include Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith, Big & Rich, Montgomery Gentry, Gretchen Wilson, Marshall Tucker Band, Three Dog Night, and countless other luminary artists and legendary venues.
Billy Voss
In the summer of 2018, Todd The Rocket reunited with his longtime musical partner Billy Voss, with whom he got his start in professional music on Nantucket Island many years ago. In the early 90s, they were performing on Main Street Nantucket during the summer for spare change. Months later, they would be getting noticed by industry personalities at open mics and stages around Boston. They quickly moved from casual street gigs to clubs, concert venues, and record label showcases. They later worked with Ozone Entertainment, home of Company Flow, Mike Ladd, and other emerging independent hip-hop artists at the time. They toured the East Coast, on their own self-powered tours, as well as opening for Dave Matthews Band, Vertical Horizon, and even jamming with Edwin McCain playing his hits for an unsuspecting street audience.
Billy and Todd were honored to serve as the impromptu backing band for The Voice winner Brynn Cartelli during several of her many trips to her summer home of Nantucket.
Billy and Todd have remained working through quarantine, developing creative and recording projects, and now resuming summertime beachside gigs when the sun is shining. They also collaborate as a DJ and drum duo, playing select private events around the Northeast.
Miss Fairchild
Kate Schrock
& Todd the Rocket
In the late 2000s, Maine-based singer/songwriter Kate Schrock and Todd The Rocket began performing as a duo after meeting at a panel discussion of career defining mistakes in the music business. Their collaboration lasted several seasons, and included live dates with founding saxophonist of Bob Marley’s Wailers, Glen DaCosta, and work with Canadian Punk rock legend Dave Rave, of Teenage Head fame. The duo released a live album, entitled PCMH, and Todd the Rocket also remixed one of Kate Schrock‘s earlier songs, called “Water’s Edge.”
Sumner McKane Group
Andy Happel &
Los Galactacos
Still pinching his teenage self out of disbelief, Todd the Rocket has been honored and thrilled to serve as drummer, percussionist, collaborator with composer/songwriter/multi instrumentalist/producer Andy Happel, of Thanks to Gravity. Growing up on the island of Nantucket, Thanks to Gravity were a regular stop on the island during the mid 90s heyday of College rock. Their success, despite a sound larger than rock radio, was a constant inspiration and source of envy.
Many years later, after meeting in Maine, Happel would ask Todd the Rocket to play all of the hand percussion parts on his debut solo record “Dreaming by the Sea.“ A band was formed around this recording, and live dates were performed for the next several years.
Happel would later form the pan-global string band Los Galactacos, featuring Todd the Rocket on percussion, and Drew Wyman from Thanks to Gravity on bass, with frequent collaborators Pete Witham and Jon Cooper on guitars. Todd the Rocket would also join Thanks to Gravity on stage playing percussion for a live reunion concert, at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Career pinnacle moment.
DJ Mixtapes
Todd the Rocket is an acclaimed performing/producing musician, DJ, remixer, musicologist, student, and educator; a living, breathing celebration of Soul Jazz, Motown, Philly Soul, Disco, Funk, Electro-Boogie, 80s Pop, 90s Party Jams, First Generation Hip Hop, Classic House, and sounds that have traveled the world over. Todd is nothing less than the sum of his inputs, the potent cultural elements of the analog years and the revolutionary conversion to digital.
Todd the Rocket’s hallmarks are a soul-forward focus and a developed sense of playful sophistication, purely borne out of his own influences and record collection.
Recent DJ events and appearances have included the Nantucket After Dark event at the Nantucket Wine Festival, providing music for a public art installation opening for the organ donation nonprofit Donate Life CT, and serving as a guest speaker and presenter on the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop, and use of sampling in pop culture at the University of Hartford.
Known as a driver of arrangements, a supporter of vocalists and melodies, and a library of pan-global sounds and ideas, Todd the Rocket is an in-demand session drummer for a host of musical acts including the latest release by legendary singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards, and providing drums, percussion, and production for a variety of independent music artists around New England.
Todd is intrinsically and inexorably connected to the communities in which he lives and works. His career has brought him from Main Street Nantucket, where he played in the summers for spare change, to Boston clubs, to Manhattan studios, to national showcases, to Nashville, to countless other far-flung destinations.
He is a tireless supporter of the arts and humanities, and has counseled and directed countless brands, organizations, and companies, as well as serving as a trustee on various non-profit boards.
As a musicologist, Todd frequently writes essays about music, art, culture, Generation X, and their intersections. He has served as music education faculty and ensemble director at several nonprofit music schools, as well as an artist in residence and clinician.
Todd is beyond honored to have met and worked with an undeniable music legend (and one of his personal heroes,) Gene McDaniels, enjoying a friendship with Gene in the two years prior to his passing in 2011, and has made it a cornerstone in his career to celebrate Gene’s life and work in music.
When not on stage or in the studio, Todd is completing his long-awaited bachelors degree at University of Hartford, where he has been a colloquium presenter, presidential list honoree, and accepted to the humanities seminar on futurism for the 2023-2024 school year.
Todd the Rocket is the owner/operator/co-founder of the Downbeat Renaissance, a media label/imprint of Milled Pavement Records.
Nantucket | Hartford | New England
Camps, Classes, Music Programs
Todd the Rocket instructs private drum and percussion lessons, instructs classes on music technology, directs musical ensembles, and is a speaker and presenter about modern music history and culture.
Your Event in 2025
Todd the Rocket is presently booking private DJ dance parties, galas, and other events for 2025. Email Todd to inquire about availability for your event.
Drums & Percussion Sessions
Todd the Rocket is available for in-person & remote studio sessions, as well as live dates. He. resides in New England and records in his project studio in Central CT.