COVID-19
Quick note about COVID... In addition to sanitizing common surfaces, I wear a mask during every lesson and require my students (and parents who stay during lessons) to wear a mask too. The drum room is approximately 13'x 35', so not a small space as drum rooms go. During warmups and pad-work we sit about 4' from each other facing a mirror, but on the drum sets, we're 6' apart.
Drum Lessons in Phoenix
(I'm not actually this cool, just a lucky photo by bassist and wonderful human, Troy Dixon!)
Whether you've been drumming for awhile or just getting started...
...the fastest way to improve is to study one-on-one with an experienced drummer who can help you set practical goals and work with you to reach them.
Goals you say? That sounds boring...like homework.
Sure there's work to do, but it's DRUMMING work, and what's more fun than that? Besides, without goals and a plan for achieving them, you'll end up practicing the same things over and over. You might even get bored, frustrated and give up. That would be sad, because drums are fun, and drummers are fun, and the world needs more of both!
17 reviews7d ago
Eric is great! My 13 year old son is a total beginner, and Eric had him launched in drumming very quickly! It's clear that Eric has loads of experience as a musician and a teacher, and his enthusiasm is contagious. Highly recommend!
A little secret
It's worth sharing that when I started playing drums at age 10, I was probably THE worst drummer to ever pick up sticks. I mean, I stunk big time! I had absolutely no natural ability. I couldn’t even clap to the beat of songs on the radio. I’m not kidding!
So no matter what your current ability is, I guarantee you I was worse! I got MUCH better though, and I can help you get better too!
A Bit About Me
I played drums and percussion throughout mid school and high school in the form of competitive marching band, concert band, symphonic band, and jazz band. I was an all-state percussionist, too.
Unfortunately, we couldn't afford regular drum lessons, so I studied and listened and worked a lot on my own. Without weekly drum lessons though, I learned everything slowly, and the hard way! It's not the best approach. Sure, you can set goals and figure things out on your own, but a qualified teacher will get you there faster and with a much stronger foundation.
After high school I headed to California for Musicians Institute. I'd known about "M.I." for years, mostly through Modern Drummer magazine. It was basically drummer Mecca for me and I was hell-bent on going. As I was grinding away at my stupid day job to earn cash for tuition (and hopefully enough savings so I could focus on school and practice) another musician told me about a place called The Grove School of Music. When I looked into their curriculum and who was teaching their drum program I opted for Grove, and absolutely loved it.
I was fortunate to study with David Garibaldi, Luis Conte, Peter Donald, Dan Greco, Chuck Silverman, and many other amazing and inspiring teachers, plus master classes with Jeff Porcaro, Alex Acuna, Ed Thigpen, Emil Richards and others.
Another great thing about Grove was that drummers were expected to learn music theory and harmony, and to compose music with melodies, chord progressions and structure. I’m definitely a better musician for it. I still practice and use lots of what I learned at Grove. I’d like to pass some of that on to you.
Grove School of Music, 1988.
Life's good, no?
Nothin' flashy, just playing appropriately for the song.
Play-alongs
Here's a video of me drumming to a great play-along track from Jim Riley's book "Survival Guide for the Modern Drummer." This is the type of work my students do here as well! Not only does it help identify areas that need work, it's really fun!
Drum Covers
Learning a song note-for-note is a great way to hone your reading skills, listening skills, build on your vocabulary of grooves and fills, and of course practice your sense of timing and dynamics. "Figure it Out" by Royal Blood, is a song that a few of my students were working on, so I "figured" I'd better learn it too! Tip of the hat to Royal Blood's drummer, Ben Thatcher!
Loops
Repetition is an important part of practice. Playing something well once, doesn't mean you own it. To that end, I like creating musical loops to play with. You can build loops in Logic, GarageBand or any other DAW. I can show you how. This loop is only 60 seconds (for Insta), but I played this 40+ times before I was relatively satisfied.
I’ve been lucky to play in a variety of bands over the years, covering a range of musical styles: blues, jazz, funk, rock, pop and country. I’ve played for crowds of 20 people to 20,000 people.
These days I play drums with a diversely talented array of Arizona musicians whom I consider my extended family.
I'm always interested in other projects too: Drop me a line.
Drum Lessons, What You'll Learn
Oh...there's so much to learn! And the more you learn the more fun it gets. I've been drumming for 40 years and I'm still a student of the art. The learning never ends. That's one of the great things about art of any type. Embrace it.
It's impossible to write everything drum lessons include; this page would be endless (and who'd wanna read that anyway), but the following is a glimpse of what we'll work on together.
Hand Technique
How we hold the sticks and the way we use our wrists and fingers affects the sounds we get from the drums, the speed and accuracy with which we can play, and our endurance.
If you have a death-grip on your sticks while flying around the drums at 900 miles per hour, you won't be able to play very long before your hands cramp up and turn to bricks. So, proper technique really helps.
Rudiments
Get to know and love your snare drum rudiments! The idea of rudiments may sound boring to some drummers, but actually they're useful, fun, and instrumental in gaining stick control.
We'll focus mainly on the rudiments that you can apply to the drum set, but if you're in school band (marching band, symphonic band, etc.) we can have all kinds of fun with snare drum rudiments.
Time & Groove
It's important to play "in time," which means not speeding up (rushing) and not slowing down (dragging) during a song. Drummers are expected to keep a steady beat, and that beat needs to groove, which simply means it should feel good to other musicians and people listening.
Groove can be elusive. It's possible for two drummers to play the exact same beat, but one drummer will get people's feet tapping and heads bobbin', while the other drummer is just sorta, meh.
We'll work on developing solid time by using a metronome during practice, and we'll work on the musical aspects that help make this stuff groove and sound cool!
Recording
Recording is fun and challenging, and a fantastic tool to hear how you're progressing.
My setup allows for recording up to 16 tracks of live audio. You'll drum along to prerecorded audio tracks, then we'll listen to your performances and talk about what's going well and what needs work. No need to stress. You'll get used to hearing your mistakes and learning from them, which is the whole point.
If you're a beginner, we won't get into recording until you're able to play a steady beat, but that'll happen much faster than you think, so don't worry!
Reading Music
Can you be a great drummer without reading music? Absolutely. One of the greatest drummers of all time, Buddy Rich, didn't read music. But I'm no Buddy Rich, and neither are you. 🙂 We're mere mortals, so let's take advantage of everything we can to make us better musicians.
We'll work on reading music, because it's how we communicate ideas on this great instrument.
What else?
Above all else, drumming is supposed to be fun! That's why I fell in love with drums as a kid. That's probably why you're into it too.
As I mentioned, I've been drumming for a loooooooong time. I still love it! I really want to be a part of your journey learning to play this crazy, wonderful, dynamic instrument we call drums. Let's go!
Get Rolling!
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