Austin F  
Instruments: Drums, Mallet Percussion, Orchestral Percussion, Conga, Latin Percussion, Djembe
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, R&B, Gospel, Opera, Latin, Funk, Hip Hop, Latin Jazz, Swing, Samba, Bossa Nova, Marching Band, Punk

I have been teaching for about 6 years and my students cover a wide range of ages and backgrounds. Everyone comes in with their own goals and I try as best I can to tailor our lesson experience around that. Percussion/Drumming is a unique instrument or set of instruments that lends itself to so many different genres and musical spheres, which makes the trajectory of our specific lessons unique. Almost every student will learn the basics of rudimental drumming and learning basic notation but what keeps students engaged and wanting to practice is playing something that they enjoy and want to play. At the end of the day, if the student isn't having fun in their lessons, then I'm not doing my job!

For very beginning and young students we will usually begin with just a book or two. We will work on the basics of how to drum (holding sticks, striking the drum, etc) as well as learning basic notation. Very early on I like to show everyone how to play something as simple as a rock groove, that is much easier than it sounds. Drumming is something that can sometimes be very hard to work at but it is always nice for a student to see that it is possible and with just that much work they have already achieved that! As students become more familiar around the drums we will diverge into different books and methods depending on their goals as drummers.