Brenda Myers holds a Music Performance degree from CSU Fresno (1981) and received her music teaching credential from Fresno Pacific University (1987). In May of 2006, she earned her Masters in West African/Caribbean Music and Culture. 

She began her music career freelancing in the local music scene. She spent time playing in a local orchestra, dinner theatre, churches and playing for traveling artists coming through the Fresno area.

Brenda began her teaching career in 1976 with 1 private student. Fortunately for her, that student was naturally gifted in music acumen. He learned quickly everything she could throw at him and made honor band as a 4th grader. From then on her private studio grew rapidly.

From 1983 through the spring of 2001, Brenda was a percussion specialist with Fresno Unified, and Clovis Unified School Districts. During this period, her elementary, intermediate and high school percussion ensembles performed for California state music conventions, festivals, and successfully competed in local, state and national competitions.

In the late 1980’s Brenda saw a flyer about the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) offering once-a-month Sunday afternoon workshops in Southern California. She began offering transportation to her Jr. High and high school students for the one-day field trips. The man responsible for those workshops was Jerry Steinholtz. Jerry took an interest in this lady willing to spend 7 hours on the road for a 2-hour workshop. This also was Brenda’s introduction to Afro-Cuban and Brazilian drumming. For the next 15 years, Jerry mentored, and gave countless hours of his time to Brenda and her students. Helping her incorporate ethnic drumming into her program. Along the way there were many camps and workshops taught by many African, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian artists that Brenda attended. These include, Jazz Camp West (John Santos) CSU Summer Arts (CK Ladzekpo, Michael Spiro, Mark Lamson) Afro-Cuban Dance and Drum camps at Humboldt State (many Cuban artists) CA Brazil Camp (many Brazilian artists). All of these helped to lead Brenda to attain her Masters in West African/Caribbean Music and Culture (2006). Especially Michael Spiro, who mentored and guided her through the Masters process.

By 2000, Brenda had begun to experiment with a totally aural style of teaching she saw demonstrated by the Fabulous Leopards Percussionists in 1999, at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC. The energy, enthusiasm and musicality she experienced that day was unlike anything she had seen or heard before. After convincing their director, Diane Downs to teach a one-week camp to 3rd-6th grade students in Fresno, Brenda saw that same energy, enthusiasm and musicality from local students. She knew this was something she wanted to explore. She began the We Got the Beat (WGTB) Youth Percussion Band in the fall of 2000. 

A year later it was time to say good-by to the school district and she began offering We Got the Beat style music to students in and around the Fresno area. At the same time a local church started offering space to local, private music teachers. This program was called Peoples School of Creative Arts (PSCA). We Got The Beat spent the next 14 years under the PSCA umbrella. In the spring of 2015, PSCA was dissolved. We Got The Beat found a new home, sharing a building with a couple of churches and another local music organization called JazzFresno. JazzFresno was gracious enough to take WGTB under their non-profit umbrella. WGTB continues to enjoy that relationship today.

Throughout their 20 years of existence, We Got the Beat has performed for numerous community events as well as many local schools, Senator Chuck Poochigian, The Caruthers Fair, The Big Fresno Fair, California Music Educators Association (CMEA) Convention, the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show and asked to perform prior to the Evelyn Glennie Concerts with the Fresno Philharmonic. We have performed for many Days of Percussion in Long Beach, San Ramon, Oakland, and Fresno. WGTB has also taken its share of field trips. Most memorable was to play at Humboldt State (a 10-hour bus ride both ways) to play with our friends in the Calypso Band at HSU. In addition to our performance, we got to tour the Marimba One factory. We also had the opportunity to tour the Remo factory along with joining in their Saturday morning drum circle.

Since March 13, 2020, WGTB has been almost exclusively virtual. Our time has been spent learning parts to our songs, recording at home with whatever the students have available and putting them together in Zoom videos. Our Zoom producer is a long-time former student and teaching assistant. She is currently working on a Masters in Jazz Composition at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley CO. Here are some examples of our work: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5qiqy0Gx0QqcDJLbKOSsr7M5qvg_X5Wo

After years of hiring outside artists to come help WGTB, we are currently an all WGTB- based teaching staff, meaning everyone helping out went through the WGTB program. It has been encouraging for the current students to realize their teachers were just like them at their age.