Drumeo

My new friend Jared Falk runs a great drum lesson website called Drumeo, which has won Drum! Magazine’s award for “best educational website” two years in a row.

Jared lives in Vancouver, BC… and I happen to be in Canada right now… and the artist I’m with will be performing a couple gigs in Vancouver this weekend… and Jared invited me to do a live webcast lesson with him!

It’ll be this Monday morning, and it’s free if you sign up as a guest. DO IT NOW OK THANKS BYE.

Drum Lessons On The Road

HEY BLOG READERSSSS!!!!! That was written in all caps for extra emphasis.

The situation is this: I’m heading out for a North American tour over September and the first part of October. I will be in a bunch of cities across the great nation of the USA, and I will have some free time each day. I often use my free time on the road to read books and ride my skateboard, but I think this Fall I’m going to try some travelling drum lessons, so to speak.

If you want to get in on it, here’s what to do…

1. Click the link above and check out the tour for your city.

2. If we’re coming to your city, check the date and see if it’s such that you could free up a 30-min or 60-min time slot in the morning or early afternoon.

3. If the first two steps find you still wanting to get in on a drum lesson, then message me at gooldsteve@gmail.com and we can set it up.

The lessons will be whatever we want them to be. Q&A, rudiment stuff, listening/analysis stuff, conceptual stuff, jazz, rock, pop… whatever. We probably won’t be able to sit at an actual kit, but we can use a practice pad or a snare or both. That said, we will hang at the venues and we can definitely use the kit I’m touring with if the situation allows for noise on the stage at the time.

The rates won’t be steep… I’m not doing it for the money. I’m not teaching at all right now and I kinda miss it. Plus, I’m loving the opportunity that the road gives me to meet new people and build new relationships.

So hit me up if you want to make it happen! BOOSH.

A Good Teacher

I was basically self-taught for my first 8 years of playing drums.  I learned everything about the drumset through trial and error on my own (aside from a few months of initial lessons on how to play basic grooves and fills).  I think that period of exploration/discovery was an important link in the chain for me in my development as a musician, but ultimately I didn’t make any real progress on my instrument until I found a teacher to guide me in some serious STUDY of the drumset.

Yesterday, when I was considering what makes a “good” teacher, I came up with this idea:  The most important job of a teacher is to show the student what “good” is.  Therefore, a good teacher will spend the majority of the time articulating what the bull’s eye is, not just giving the student tips on how to hit the target.  This is true in my experiences as a student, especially when I think about the teachers that really impacted me.  The best lessons I’ve ever had are the ones where I realize that the target I’ve been aiming for is perhaps not the best target.  As the teacher helps me bring the real bull’s eye into focus, I am then able to make slight adjustments in my efforts, and I immediately see more progress as a result of a more accurate aim.

Just something to consider I guess… that a good teacher should not just show you how to get good, but also what the true definition of “good” really is.