Drum lessons can be organized in different ways and can serve different goals. At the beginning, my first task is to understand what the student expects. Do they have any idea how lessons work in different places? I explain the difference between more commercial, entertainment-oriented approaches and more traditional educational ones. I do not think one path is automatically good and the other bad, and I do not force either of them on anyone. It is important that teacher and student understand each other. I need to know the student’s goals and preferences, and the student needs to understand how I work.
Some people clearly come because they want an interesting break from work and adult responsibilities. Others say they have already wasted a lot of time and want to approach the instrument more seriously. I will not hide that, from a young age, I personally wanted the second path and followed it. But I try to stay realistic: that path is not the right fit for everyone.
For me, the best approach is a balance between a traditional school-like format and the more relaxed, semi-entertainment format that is common now. The proportion can be different for every student, and it often becomes clear only after the process begins. Sometimes a student initially overestimates or underestimates how seriously they want to study, so the style of work can be adjusted along the way.
I will try to describe my drum lessons as briefly as possible: what happens in them and how the format changes depending on the goal. If we reduce everything to two opposite ideas, drum lessons can be study, or they can be leisure. I will loosely call the first kind “effective” lessons and the second kind “fun” lessons.
Effective drum lessons
Each lesson of this type begins with checking the homework. Then we make corrections and gradually increase the difficulty. For example, the student may have three or four items in their practice assignment. We play the first one. If it is working well, we move further through that block of material. If there are problems, we discuss what is wrong and how to fix it. The ideal middle ground is when there are difficulties, but the overall result is not bad. The student feels progress, but does not get a reason to overestimate themselves. In that case, we can correct the necessary details and add a little new material. Sometimes something has to be left for more work. That is normal. Most things are not supposed to become easy on the first try, first week, or first month.
When I was just starting music, I quickly found myself surrounded by other people who were serious about it. I could immediately see that some of them played better than me, or could do things I could not do at all. That was a strong motivator. I put aside everything superficial and focused on proper practice.
What is proper practice? First, it is independent and regular. At first I could not understand why my first teacher did not want to meet as often as I wanted. Now I understand: he saw that I did not need to be pushed. Also, the material required time to settle. He knew I would work without supervision, so he could let me practice for longer periods between lessons.
What do classic “proper” drum lessons look like?
First, you always have homework. During the lesson we study a piece of material, and after that you have to practice it as well as possible. It probably will not become perfect soon, and that is normal. The assignment is not simply to “play” something once. It is to spend enough time playing it many times. The amount of focused repetition matters. As much of the material as possible has to become automatic. The more automatic it becomes, the less pressure there is on the brain in every moment. That reduces the risk of mistakes. And even when mistakes happen, you can return to the music in a way that nobody notices except you and your teacher.
One common misunderstanding among students is the idea that I just need them to play something well once, and then I will leave them alone. That is not the goal. The goal is to play the material correctly in as high a percentage of attempts as possible. This cannot be achieved in one drum lesson. Serious musicians work on this for years on their own. You will not hear a strong musician say, “That’s it, I have reached the level where I no longer need to practice.” Traditionally, a lesson with a teacher is a checkpoint for feedback, advice, and new ideas.
Some things require long and patient work before they become easy. If a student is not working on them independently, there is little reason to spend every lesson having the same theoretical conversation about them, especially if the person holds sticks for only an hour or ninety minutes a week in my class. These subjects are worth returning to when the student can say, “I practiced what you showed me. Please comment on the result.” It is not enough simply to understand the idea.
I remember my own teachers. They did not want our lessons to become a supervised homework session where I tried to practice in front of them. They were busy enough without that. This format is the most effective for people who want to study drums, not just attend drums.
Fun drum lessons
I should say right away that I do not consider them worse than “effective” lessons. They are simply different. If this approach is exactly what the student is looking for, great: we can work in that direction. Someone may be interested in economics, read a little, watch videos, and still have no plan to become an economist. Maybe they are a doctor. There is nothing wrong with that. Music can be the same. For most people it is a form of leisure, and I have to understand that and know how to work with it. I think it is a mistake when teachers hope to convert every student to their own level of seriousness. If a person has clear expectations, they will look for someone who matches them, and they will find that person. I know how I want to work on myself, and I do work that way. But it is my path, and I do not force it on anyone.
Fun drum lessons are mostly about learning songs. I have a lot of prepared material arranged from simple to more difficult. Of course, in the very first lessons a student still has to understand how the drum set works, learn to produce sound reasonably well, and do several coordination exercises. They also need to count correctly, work with a metronome, and learn basic drum notation. After that, we can start playing along with music.
First we play different rock grooves with practice tracks
The student should develop a feeling for how their drum part fits with the rest of the arrangement. Practice tracks are more forgiving than real songs. You can stop and start again without restarting the whole piece.
After that, we try learning a well-known song. Which song depends on the results from the previous stage. Sometimes we work on a song requested by the student, although often the original part is too difficult at that moment. Then we simplify the drum part. This is normal. I think it is better to play a simplified version of a song than not play it at all. For some students, that experience gives extra motivation to strengthen the basics: technique and coordination. Without noticing it, they may move from the “fun” side toward the “effective” side.
Learning songs does not mean that this kind of drum lesson is easy. Here too, the result does not come immediately.
I would not take the words “fun” and “effective” too literally. They are not opposites that exclude each other. There is no hard border between them. The two approaches constantly overlap and influence each other. Think of them as X and Y axes. Where you are on that graph is up to you.
Group lessons
Because I work alone and my student flow is not huge, building and maintaining groups is difficult. If one student drops out, misses lessons, or stops studying, it becomes a problem for the whole group. This format is more common in schools with a larger number of students, or in institutions like music colleges, where students are ready to catch up on missed material and value their place in the group. In private teaching, group lessons are less common and harder to keep stable.
Still, I clearly see their advantages. The main one is the chance to see other people’s progress and mistakes. This can strongly support motivation for independent practice. For some personality types, group lessons may even be more suitable. The structure is similar to individual lessons: students, one by one, show what they have done with their homework, and then the teacher explains new material.
Group lessons require more time, because the teacher has to work with each student.
Video-call lessons
The technical side is described in a separate article.
As for lesson content, not everyone can use an electronic kit or acoustic drums during online lessons. Sometimes a student is limited to practice pads. That is not bad for technique. If the student also has foot pads, coordination can be practiced too. This format works well for students who already play and want my comments and recommendations. It is also a good option for people who live far away and cannot easily travel to lessons.
In any case, if there is interest, a good online lesson setup is absolutely possible. A higher-quality setup will not always be primitive, but it is worth figuring out once.
I will end with what I think is an important thought.
Whatever format your drum lessons take, the main thing is to enjoy the process. If possible, I recommend trying different formats and comparing them from your own experience. That will help you decide what balance of approaches feels most comfortable and interesting for you.