IN-STUDIO ONE-ON-ONE LESSONS:
Lessons are held at the Ventura Drums studio (Nearest crossroads Cole & Overland). Lessons at the student’s home are not available. Virtual lessons are available as necessary.
RATES:
$35/half or $60/full hour private lesson.
Lesson fees are due at the first lesson of the month and/or within the first week of the month. An administrative late fee of $15 may be issued if payment is not received by the 15th of the calendar month. Rate does not include occasional cost of materials such as books and sticks.
policies:
SCHEDULE: Students needing schedule flexibility, such as every other week, must have a morning or mid-day time slot. After-school time slots (3pm and later) are only available as weekly time slots. The time slot you select for your lesson is yours and will not be moved unless at your request.
RESCHEDULING: Due to student volume, rescheduling after-school time slots is generally not possible, however I do accommodate students whenever possible. Morning and mid-day lessons are more flexible and generally able to be rescheduled.
LESSON CANCELLATION POLICY: Lesson payments are non-refundable. After-school time slot cancellations are never credited. Morning and mid-day lesson slots can be credited if cancelled prior to 24 hours before the lesson time. This policy is subject to change if repeated cancellations occur.
Cancellations initiated by me will be credited.
PAYMENT METHODS: I accept cash, check, CashApp, Venmo and most other pay apps. I do not accept credit/debit cards or PayPal.
teaching philosophy:
My life as a drummer began at thirteen, with private lessons. My parents weren't even sure if they would buy me a kit until I'd proven my interest (after about two months of taking lessons), so my initial lessons I took home and practiced on phone books. Then after about eight years of playing, I myself became a teacher and have been doing it ever since, alongside the roles of being a studio and touring drummer.
There are perhaps as many different teachers out there as there are styles of playing, and every teacher has something unique to offer their students. What I have always aimed to accomplish with my students is to inspire them to find their own voice as a musician, and to help them generate the self-discipline and motivation to make themselves better drummers. My role as a teacher certainly is to teach and reinforce the fundamentals of technique, develop sight-reading, and the facility to play various styles and grooves. But rote knowledge of the instrument is hollow without the passion and feeling that drives the art of a great performance.
So, while as a teacher I push my students to have these skills, I view my main job as helping each individual student dig down into themselves and find what inspires them most, and keep them on a path that never loses sight of it. I work hard to help my students forge a style for themselves that is centered around the music they love, not what I think they should play. But I also encourage musical diversity, the learning of music and cultural history and constantly expose my students to new music I genuinely think they will love, or at the very least help them understand the roots of other music they love.
What I teach:
As a drummer, I have studied, performed and taught all major Western styles on the kit. Most of my professional playing has fallen inside the realm of rock and R&B music, but my experience and ability extends into jazz, country, latin, Afro and hip-hop. I form the basis of my lessons around the individual student's needs and interests, but I teach with a stylistically open method that encourages the exploration of all genres of music from the root to the branches. I transcribe songs the student wishes to play as they develop, but also provide transcriptions of songs that will help them explore the kit and various styles.
My students can expect to learn to develop the fundamentals of sticking technique, time keeping and sight-reading through studies on practice pad and kit. I have developed a method to expand the student's facility on the drum kit through a combination of beat exercises, classic and contemporary songs of various genres that explore practical techniques and approaches, and also by choosing songs the student is interested in learning, which I transcribe for them or provide from available resources. As the student becomes more advanced we work through various kit styles and advanced techniques (ie. Moeller stroke fills, beat displacement, linear playing, etc). As an additional emphasis we study elements such as playing with 'feel', intuiting melodic progression and song structure, and developing the facility for quickly recovering from playing errors without losing time or tempo. These are less talked about practical features of a good player that are important for real life scenarios players regularly encounter. A student under my tutelage will not just learn how to play drums, but will learn the necessary skills to become a professional musician in the broadest sense. Whether or not drums become the life path they take is irrelevant. The skills of a professional are life skills that can be applied to all instruments and most aspects of life, not just the stage or studio.
I also teach marching snare and concert percussion for students in school band. My reading exercises and transcriptions adhere to PAS standards.
Note for prospective students:
For myself, both as a student and teacher, the tradition of music has continuously been transmitted through private one-on-one instruction from mentor to disciple. Though some people may look for college degrees or certificates to qualify a teacher's experience, music is a realm in which experience is paramount. Few of the professionals I studied under had any of college experience, yet they were immensely successful professional musicians. It does not invalidate the quality of degrees or certificates and the experiences encountered to acquire them, but simply means that there are many highly qualified music instructors and performers who have learned the craft without any formal education. I say this to address students/parents who look for these types of credentials. To be sure, I am not a casually trained musician that teaches short-cut or technically deficient methods. Over the years I have trained with superb and rigorous instructors whose abilities are the best in their class and still work to sharpen my skills as both a player and a teacher. I constantly work myself through new teaching materials and compose my own exercises for students. I encourage prospective students to ask any questions they have about my lessons or method, or simply sit down with me for a trial lesson. My experience as a player and teacher has brought me incredible success, and I am confident that my students will in turn become great drummers under my instruction if they apply themselves!
