Chad Patrick ’06 puts his patented Drum Wallet to use. Submitted photo
Chad Patrick ’06 was granted a patent in April for The Drum Wallet, a tone control device for snare drums. The device was voted Best Advanced Tool for School at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) 2010 trade show in Nashville, Tenn.
Patrick’s first Drum Wallet product has been independently distributed to 12 countries, and is in the hands of some of the biggest and best players in the world including Omar Hakim (Madonna, Sting), Ray Luzier (Korn) and Brandon Buckley (Shakira).
Patrick played at The Red Carpet and coffee shops in St. Cloud with rock bands while attending St. Cloud State and graduated with a bachelor’s in elementary education and started teaching in Fontana, Calif., in 1997. During college, he also began playing guitar, singing and writing his own music.
“While teaching, I started to realize more and more that my creative daydreamer side was not a curse and in fact it is a blessing,” Patrick said. “I started researching intellectual property rights and inventing in my spare time.”
As a drummer in California, Patrick has had numerous accolades including second place winner in the World’s Fastest Drummer “Fastest Hands” competition at the winter NAMM show in 2005.
Like many drummers, one trick Patrick used while playing was to place his wallet from his back pocket on the snare drum to try to control unwanted over-ring. The Drum Wallet allows users to have the ease and simplicity of using a wallet to control sound with consistency and accuracy.
“The Drum Wallet is the equivalent to the guitarist’s capo,” Patrick said.
