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Artist
Carter Beauford
12+ albums
about
Carter Anthony Beauford (born November 2, 1958, in Charlottesville, Virginia) is a drummer, percussionist, and founding member of Dave Matthews Band. He is known for his ability to mix together countless percussion styles, his ambidextrous approach to playing, and is highly-regarded for his open hand drumming style, where his left hand leads on the hi-hat and ride cymbal in a conventional right-handed drumset set-up. He plays the drums and sings backing vocals in the band. Beauford was first exposed to drumming at the age of three. At the time, his father had bought tickets to a Buddy Rich concert and could not find someone to watch his son, so he took young Beauford along to the show. Beauford was mesmerized by Buddy Rich on stage. After that show, Beauford's father bought his son a tin drum set with paper heads, since Beauford showed so much interest in learning the instrument. Beauford began performing professionally when he was nine.[1] Beauford explains his unusual playing style in his instructional video "Under The Table & Drumming", attributing his use of left-hand-lead on a right-handed kit to playing his own kit in front of a mirror as a child in an attempt to emulate his favorite drummers, like Buddy Rich. He unknowingly set up his drums in reverse of whichever performer and set that he had in mind, in an attempt to make the mirrored image of himself match that of the audience's perspective, as he had seen it on stage and TV. This helped him to become completely a