Drum lessons
| Drumming in all styles | Acoustic or electric kits | Structured or casual learning |
Wanting to learn how to play drums? At MMM, we have a range of experienced drum tutors with a breath of knowledge to empart!
We are aware that each student learns differently to the next and has different goals in learning an instrument, which is why our lessons
are tailored to each individual and what they want to accomplish. Below, you'll find a rough guide as to what our drum lessons will cover.
This is by no means everything, so please feel free to get in head over to our Get in touch page and send us a message if you have questions.
Here are some of the typical things you will learn on your journey to become a drummer.
Beginner drum lessons
- The drum kit; its parts and their function
- An introduction to rhythm and how it works
- Coordination exercises
- Basic technique; how to hold the sticks correctly, etc
- Basic rudiments and why we learn them; applications on the drum kit
- Basic drum beats and their contexts
- Playing songs
- An introduction to music theory and how it applies to drums (eg Time Signatures)
- How the drums function in a band setting
- Basic song structure; how the drums fit in
- Drum tuning and basic maintenance
- Understanding song structure
- Tuning and basic drum maintenance
- (Optional) notation basics; and introduction to music notation and drum charts
Those are just some of the things that you will learn. Remember these lessons are for you and are based around what your goals are.
Intermediate drum lessons
As you progress in your learning, or if you join us further along in your musical journey, here are some of the more intermediate things
that may be included
in your lessons. Of course, as you specialise more (eg in styles or musical genres) the lessons will be modified to achieve
your goals.
- Rhythmic concetpts continued; a deeper look into rhythms
- Coordination exercises continued; increased difficutly on hand-foot coordination
- Intermediate techniques; rebound strokes, 'push-pull', etc.
- Intermediate rudiments; a continuation on rudiments with trickier drum-set applications
- Drum beats/grooves continued; 'turning up the heat' on some of the basic grooves
- Playing along with music; being able to learn songs by ear, based on the knowledge we already have
- (Optional) intermediate note reading; a continuation on the basics of notes, their values, and drum charts
- A deeper look at time signatures
- (Optional) intermediate note reading; a continuation on the basics of notes, their values, and drum charts
At the point you've reached an advanced level playing there will be very specific subjects that you want to work on (eg improvisation, stylistic
analysis, complext time signatures. It's likely by this point you'll be bringing subjects and areas to work on to the lessons or your teacher
may discuss advanced topics and how they well advance your playing.
Grades and strutured learning for drum
For students who are motivated by a more structured, grade-oriented learning experience, we can offer Rockschool. Some students
like to use the Rockschool pieces in their playing whereas others go on to take the full grade exam. We've had huge
success in putting students through Rockschool grades. We are, in fact, a Rockschool exam centre, and our tutor, Mark, is one
of the three NZ Rockschool examiners so we have an inside-track on getting the best results for our students. Rockschool is a British
grading system supported by The Australian Music Examining Board in this part of the world.
You can find out more about Rockschool by heading over to the Rockschool New Zealand web page.
NCEA Music - Drums as main instrument
We offer support to students who are taking NCEA music and using drums as their main instrument. We can help with selection and learning of
of performance pieces, as well as supporting understanding of class room topics. We have good relationships with the school music departments, and
many of our tutors are, or have been, Itinerant tutors in schools so we have a good understanding of the requirements for NCEA music.
