We'll begin our lesson with some small talk. I'll ask how the week is going, if anything exciting has happened and how practicing went. I might tell a joke or say something funny as I have quite the sense of humor. I try to make our lessons fun and that means some laughing.

I like to divide our lessons into two parts. First we'll sit around a snare drum and begin with warm-ups for our hands. We'll work on hand technique, posture, breathing and I'll give pointers and make corrections so we are constantly creating good habits. Next we'll open up our lesson book and work on reading music. We may read some sticking patterns, practice the snare drum rudiments and work on snare drum etudes (that's fancy for technique exercises). If we are studying snare drum only we will work on all of these exercises during each lesson. If we are also working on drum set then we will address some during each lesson. Even if we are studying snare drum only I like to put my students behind the drum set at least for a few minutes each lesson.

Onto the drum set. We can work on a variety of rhythms and styles but as a beginner we will start with basic rock beats. At first we'll play the beats from our lesson book and eventually we’ll make some up. We'll learn to play drum fills incorporating our learned snare drum techniques and also by improvising. Bring in some of your favorite music and we'll learn those beats. Towards the end of the lesson I may sit my second drum set and we can play together, trading ideas of our beats and fills.

Listening to music is so important when learning music. And like learning an instrument there is a way to learn to listen. We'll spend time listen to music you love as well as music I love, learning to hear what the drums are doing and how they are interacting with the other instruments.

At the end of the lesson you will feel like you've made progress on the drums and you will feel challenged by the new material. All this learning and it's fun too. I hardly can believe it myself.

Thanks...Mark