Drum Lessons in Boerum Hill, NY

Instruments: Drums

I tailor each lesson to the student’s needs and desires. I encourage all of them to develop reading, listening, coordination, and concentrating skills. I help each student to have the ability to play many different music styles and improvise in those styles. We work with developing the ear in order to play along with recorded music and teach them how to transcribe the songs so that they can document it for future use. Read More

Instruments: Piano Drums Latin Percussion

One thing I strongly encourage is the student to go at his/her pace. There is no judgement on the capability of learning an instrument and because of that I completely understand how long (or how short) a student can learn the drums/piano etc. I try to make every student feel accomplished in a session especially when the material being taught is new and intimidating. But regardless, there will always be a sense of accomplishment because as long as the student feels as if they accomplished something(small or large) I will make it my duty to make sure they know it. Read More

Instruments: Drums Orchestral Percussion Latin Percussion

There's nothing worse than buying a drum set to start learning to play, only to have your teacher tell you, "You won't be ready for that for a year."  I like to get eveyone playing something fun and interesting as soon as possible.  Some examples of books I like to use with beginning students are the "Breeze Easy Drum Method," "Alfred's Drum Method," and Ted Reed's "Syncopation."  Songs we may often start lessons with would be "We Will Rock You" by Queen, "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin, "Back in Black" by AC/DC, etc. Read More

Instruments: Drums Bass Guitar

For beginning students I begin by talking to them about music and what songs they like. We start clapping along and picking out what the drums are doing and eventually begin playing along. A wonderfully laid out book for beginners that are interested in pop music is "The Funky Primer." I also like to teach the reading of rhythms out of a book by Ted Reed called "Syncopation for the Modern Drummer." This is a great book that you can work out of for many many years to come. Read More

Instruments: Piano Drums Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion

I like to take a holistic approach in teaching beginners by incorporating Technique, Ear Training, Music Theory, and Improvisation right from the start. This allows the student to quickly be able to learn songs by ear and write their own music. For more advanced and older students, I prefer to see where they are in their first lesson and hear what their goals are. Some people do not care if they can read music or not and that is totally cool! Read More

Instruments: Piano Drums Orchestral Percussion Conga Music Djembe

In 1979, I traveled to New York City, intending merely to spend the summer before finishing my last year at the University of Wisconsin. After a few short weeks of being there, though, I was getting so much work as a musician that I decided to stay. I've worked and toured with some of the great legends of jazz music such as Abbey Lincoln, Jackie McLean, Stanley Turrentine, and Freddie Hubbard. Read More

Instruments: Drums

My method of teaching for beginning students is I try to feel what are the aspirations and goals of the student and try to fit a method that he/she will develop his musical skills and at the same time have fun doing it. I have various book methods I can choose from to apply. For adults, I find out what are the aspirations and what the student is looking for to gain in his lessons. Read More