About John Manning
John got a later start to his musical journey, which began at the age of 11 at Lawton Chiles Middle School in Oviedo, Florida. His parents paid for drum lessons then and he went through two teachers before finding one who kept learning music fun and educational. After the beginner years, and discovering his musical passion, John continued progressing through high school making the drumline as a freshman. He was then coached and trained by John Campese; Executive Director of Infinity Percussion and WGI (Winter Guard International) Board of Directors, and Lee Hansen; 1991 DCI (Drum Corps International) World Champion Tenor Drummer, and performances including The Disney Channel, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, ABC Radio and twelve years marching with the Phantom Regiment Organization. John played, participated, and won many oppurtunities and awards including perfomances at Venue 578, UCF, FSU, and the Citrus Bowl before becoming a legal adult. He continued in college at The University of Central Florida making the drumline again as a freshman and playing drumset in a classic rock cover band, playing old hits from Led Zeppelin to Rush.
John has won All County and All State awards every year from the 8th grade to graduation, never failing to receive sight reading awards. He was second chair percussionist with the Tri-State Band (Florida, Georgia, Alabama), toured with Infinity Percussion and competed at WGI Finals in Dayton, Ohio, and performed with Blue Man Group at the age of 19. He has written drumline cadences and fully transcribed and arranged multiple works from The Godfather to Frankestein by Edgar Winter Group. Hagerty High School still uses his original drum cadence to this day. He toured the southeast region on a management deal with a band playing all original music. They had a small radio deal, recorded, mastered, and produced a full album, and performed in the music video for another single on the roof of the Empire Building in downtown Orlando.
After a very unique musical journey, John has settled and mostly holds the passion playing for fun, the same reason he began with music. He has successfully taught beginners and advanced students who have followed similar paths, from the easily distracted and/or shy as John once was to the extremely focused and determined as John became. He combines the most professional techniques with the most unorthodox strategies to create a lesson plan specific to every unique student. Music was not invented, it was discovered, and John seeks to discover the musician within all of us.
