There are 5 member of the Dave Matthews band there is a violinist and sax and horn player a drummer a bass player and a guitarist. the violist Boyd Tinsley grew up in Charlottesville Virginia and stumbled into playing violin when he was around 12 he signed up for a middle school strings class because he wanted to learn how to play guitar he quickly discovered that the strings class was not a guitar class, but decided that he would take up the violin, by the time he entered high school the concert master of the Baltimore symphony orchestra wanted him to move Baltimore because Tinsley was quickly becoming a virtuoso. At this point he decided he was not ready to make that sacrifice and switched from classical playing to jazz and rock, which he played all through college with various musicians. Leroi Moore the horn player also grew up in Charlottesville and was exposed to jazz music at a very young age, his father and friends would play lots of jazz gigs for there church, and also for themselves at home Leroi quickly became intrigued by the music and began to play numerous types of saxophones and horn instruments after a few years of practice Leroi would play with his fathers friends and often times outplayed them. As he got older he played lots of jazz gigs in the Charlottesville area with a variety of different musicians. The drummer Carter Beauford also grew up in Charlottesville and after seeing a jazz concert at age three began to play drums. By age nine he was in the Charlottesville symphony and was considered a child prodigy he went on to play in many symphony's and local jazz gigs before the joining of the DMB. Bassist Stefan Lessard began playing violin and piano when he was very young, in his early teens he took up bass. He played and experiment with many different types of music, and was soon also considered a child prodigy. Lead singer and guitarist Dave Matthews spend most of his childhood growing up in South Africa, but also lived in London and New York.