Introduction
Over the past couple of months apart of my instrumental tuition course I have been teaching a student how to play the drums. I will begin by talking about my lessons plans and my teaching philosophy. I believe that 1-1 music lessons should be a comfortable environment centred around trust and emotional safety where the students are encourage to experiment and show self expression. The first couple of lessons I think need to show creativity and technique led as I think they should have a basic understanding of drums before the lessons start’s to be student led.
1st lesson
In my first lesson with Cordelia I wanted to get her playing, learning a new instrument is suppose to be fun and exciting, that’s why my first lesson is mostly all about playing. The first activity of showing her all the different parts to the drum kit and the fulcrum in my opinion is crucial.
The fulcrum is on the point of the stick where your thumb and index finger hold the stick allowing rebounds and pivot points. I should of stated to her that the fulcrum is very important as she seemed to not fully understand but the fulcrum does help when you start expanding your knowledge of drums and become more of a frequent player as it helps with better technique. “Fulcrum of the grip, and the stick pivots from here. The stick cradles between the middle and ring finger, these fingers control the latter movement of the stick.”(Strong, 2020, p. 35)
I thought the teaching of the each parts of the drum kit went well and she started to get an understanding of the kit, by showing her what was at the bottom on the snare just to let her see what actually makes the noise of the snare and making sure she knew what the pedals where for. I later explain the best ways to open and close the high-hats and how to get a good amount of power in the pedal connected to the kick drum. As for teaching her about the fulcrum it might of been to soon to talk about it as I could tell she wasn’t fully grasping the idea and why it was useful and how this could apply to her playing, maybe teaching her how to simply grip the sticks in the right way would of been more useful then throwing her confusing words for her to pick up on.
MAIN LESSON
As the first lesson I wanted our main task to be fun and actually playing the drum kit so that’s why I taught her how to play a normal 4/4 beat, we first started by counting to 4 out loud, then playing the hi hat on all 4 beats slowly working our way up to the beat I than asked her to play the kick drum on beats 1 and 3 just on its own slowly warming up to the beat and again asked her to play the snare on beat 2 and 4. I then said to slowly combine them with still counting out loud to get the sense of the rhythm and feel of the beat after she was comfortable with that I demonstrated how the beat would sound and then added a very simple fill at the end. Looking back on this I could tell that she understood the beat a lot easier after I had played it, maybe at the start before teaching her what to do I should of shown her how the beat is supposed to be played. After her being able to hear what its supposed to sound like it might of been easier for her to know what to do. I also made it clear that this beat was in crochets/quarter notes and told her that next lesson we would be expanding the beat and turning into eighths notes.
END OF LESSON
This was the sheet music of the beat that she was playing, I was showing her this just so she could see what she was playing looked like on sheet music and having some visuals. I did this to not try and throw her into the deep end with drum sheet music just so she could have a little understanding of it, and after I showed it to her we went through it and i explained that the “x” is the hi-hat, the lower crochet was the kick drum and the higher crochet was the snare and she seemed to be really intrigued by it which encouraged me to bring more sheet music in for our next lesson on what she was playing.
STRUCTURE
I wanted to make sure i kept the structure strict to the time table with the main part of the lesson being highlighted on, as the start of the lesson even though its very important learning each parts of the drum kit I didn’t want to spend any longer than 5 minuets going through it as I can easily be testing her throughout the lesson asking her to name each part of the drum kit. The main lesson I wanted to spend as much time on her learning the beat as possible to get her comfortable with it and as she got onto it quite quickly that’s why I decided to add the fill in as I thought she was ready and I wanted her to be leaving the lesson excited that she could now play something on the drums. The end task of the lesson wasn’t a task as much but I think it was a good idea to give her visuals on the beat and teach her a little bit about drum sheet music.
EVALUATION
I think the only negative I take away from the first lesson is at the very start talking about the fulcrum as it may of confused her by using technical terms and potentially was not received well ,I think the main part of the lesson went really well her being able to play it comfortable enough for me to expand on it and teach her the fill, and the end task of the lesson was fun as I got to see her intrigued about the drum sheet music. This first lesson went very well and had me at the spot I was wanting to be before her second lesson which ties directly into it.
2ND LESSON
I wanted this lesson to show the important part of drumming in which we play in quarter notes and in 8th notes even though it was the same beat it feels very different in the rhythm side. After teaching her the beat in 8th notes we then played a metronome and played the two beats and fills that she learnt together on the same metronome to show her the clear difference in the feel of the beat and the different technique she was going to have to use to achieve this.
This is the start of the lesson and it went really well, she able to play perfectly what we went through the week before also doing it slightly faster than last week this was a great start to the lesson that had us on course for this lesson. I then first show her the next beat we will be learning. As last week I didn’t demonstrate until later in the lesson which I should of done at the very start to show her how it was played so I’m glad I didn’t make the same mistake again. I made it clear that we where now going to be counting differently to how we where last week instead of just 1,2,3,4 its now 1 a,2 a,3 a,4 a. This was very crucial to the lesson. I explained to her that the kick and the snare was on the exact same beat and now all she needs to do is add extra hi-hats between. The reason I decided to teach 8th notes in my second lesson was to enhance her already solid foundation of the quarter note beat. “Once you’ve internalized the quarter-note rock beat, it’s time to elevate your rhythmic proficiency by introducing eighth notes on the hi-hat. This adds intricacy and dynamism to the rhythm, enhancing its groove and feel.”(Montañez, 2024) This quote emphasises what I mean, teaching her this gives her more of a range than just learning different beats in normal quarter notes, and I also wanted the lesson to be more advancing on the same beat rather learning a completely different beat to confuse the student.
MAIN LESSON
For the main part of the lesson we did the same as last week slowly build up to the beat, first counting out loud getting use to this new way of counting and adding the hi-hats then the kick drum and finally the snare which took less time as last week as she’s already familiar with this. After her being able to play the beat comfortably for a couple of bars I then taught her the fill to go along with the beat. After her being able to play all of this together I could tell that she was understanding why this was so different to the previous beat we where learning, that’s when I decided to add the metronome so she can feel the difference in the beat, as I wanted her to learn the beat slowly to eventually being able to play it at 100bpm in 8th notes. I first get the student to play the first beat that we learned then switch to the 8th note beat for her to understand the difference and feel of them both. The negative I take from this is when we played the metronome it was quite hard to hear whilst playing and made it more confusing for the student, next time I will bring a speaker and play it out to there for us both to hear comfortably so the student doesn’t keep rushing or slipping out of time, as this made the student feel she wasn’t grasping it. I then explained that playing to a metronome is hard for a beginner student and that she would gradually get better at when she becomes more comfortable with the drum kit.
END OF LESSON
At the end of the lesson i explained to her that that the following lesson will be on rudiments. This is one of the most important parts of drumming this will help with technique, control and fluidity. I explained to her that rudiments are a fundamental and a core part of learning the drums, as these are sticking patterns to help grow speed, control and technique and will over all severely help your learning and understanding of the drum kit. This is supported by Prashanth Rajasekharan when explaining how rudiments improve your playing. “Rudiments are the alphabet of drumming. Just as every word in the English language is built from 26 letters arranged in different combinations, virtually every rhythmic pattern, fill, and groove on the drum kit is built from a relatively small set of fundamental stroke patterns. Learn the patterns, internalise them, and your hands gain the fluency to express rhythmic ideas without technical hesitation getting in the way.”(Prashanth Rajasekharan, 2026)
EVALUATION
Evaluating this lesson I think the start of the lesson went well having the student play what we had previously learnt and it showed she had a good understanding and had been doing some sort of practice, I then continued by showing her what we would be doing in the lesson by expanding on the beat was, a negative I took from the first lesson by not showing her originally what I wanted her to be able to achieve at the end of the lesson I corrected in the second which made it more clear what I was wanting from the student. Learning the new groove went well but when it come to playing the metronome having not an appropriate setup which made this task very unachievable, so I needed to be more prepared and bring a speaker to enhance the sound of the metronome so it is able to play along to comfortably. The end of the lesson also went well me telling the student the importance of rudiments and that next lessons main goal was for her to be able play two rudiments comfortably leading with her left and right hand at a steady 100bpm.
3RD LESSON
I wanted this lesson to be an introduction of rudiments for the student, and for her to be be able to play single stroke rolls and double stroke rolls which are the 2 easiest rudiments to play but also the most important, as these are fundamental in improving as a drummer, at first I showed her the sheet music which explained the changing of hand from right to left and the difference in quarter notes eighth notes and 16th notes just so she can visualise the difference, and as in previous lesson she seemed in intrigued by sheet music that’s why I brough it again.
MAIN LESSON
We first begin by showing her my practice pad and placing it on the snare, and I explain that practice pads are very useful tools for drummers as they help you practice your rudiments on and are very portable for times when you cant practice on a drum kit you can practice on your pad. I then showed her how the single stroke roll works playing to 70bpm going R L R L in quarter notes I then proceed to do 8th notes which is my goal for her able to play I then proceed to do 16th notes, the student then is able to preform single stroke roll in quarter notes and at 70bpm quite easily. So I adjusted the bpm to something what might be a challenge at first, looking back on the videos I can clearly see that her arm movements aren’t as fluid as I would like, I should of told the student to relax and let the wrists do the motion not her entire arm. I then make her lead with her left and starting on the less dominant hand is a great way of improving your left hand as a lot of drummers weak hand can really let down their playing but if we start leading with the left early enough hopefully this will give us a good foundation be fluent with both right and left. “Drummers often have a stronger side and a weaker side. It can take a lifetime to develop both sides at an equal level.”(Phillips, 2022) Simon Phillips also gave examples of what it can improve what helps my point that developing that left hand is crucial to becoming a more fluent and better drummer, You’ll build control and confidence – so even if you’re leading with your stronger hand, your weaker hand will sound more consistent with rolls, fills, and ghost notes You’ll have many more options for orchestrations (as in, the sounds and patterns you can create). You’ll have more options for where you can position different pieces of your drum kit. If you keep the groove on the hi-hats with your left hand, for example, your right hand will be free to move around the toms.” (Phillips, 2022)
We then moved on to double stroke rolls after, I then showed the student how to play them in quarter notes and 8th notes to the same bpm leading with both right and left hand, this was all just to make sure she had a basic understanding of the rudiments, as I made it clear to her that leading with her left hand is always going to be difficult at the start but making sure she keeps on practicing it will eventually improve. The student was able to play the double stroke roll in 8th notes at 100bpm.
END OF LESSON
At the end of lesson when I was satisfied with the way she was able to play the rudiments leading with both hands and in 8th notes at 100bpm. I then briefly spoke about how next lesson we will be going through the next rudiments which would be a paradiddle which is the combination of single strokes and double strokes using this lesson as a building block to achieve the paradiddle, I did show her an example of a paradiddle. This was a huge positive for the lesson, because if the student was not able to complete this lessons task we would not be able to continue into learning the paradiddle
EVALUATION
In my opinion I think this lesson was one of the most important ones and went very well as she was able to achieve the goals that I had set for her, the negative I take from this lesson is after rewatching the lesson I noted that her hand positioning needed work as she was relying more on her entire arm than just wrist, if I would of spotted this in the lesson I could of corrected it there and then.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion I think my lesson planning and the structure of my lessons where shown to have worked very well and keeping it to a tight schedule worked in my favour as we where able to learn a lot more of different type’s of foundation of the drum kit for example the quarter note beat and fill, the 8th note beat and fill then finally the beginner rudiments, with also having little introductions at the start an end of every lessons. The mistakes I made in my lessons where minor but things I need to improve on for example the fulcrum (not wanting to confuse the student in our first lesson), playing what we are learning in the lesson to show her what she’s trying to achieve and finally having right equipment to be able to play the metronome loud enough for the student to be able to comfortably play along to.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Reference list
Montañez, J. (2024) Drumming 101: From Quarter Notes to Eighth Notes – Jorge ‘Gio’ Montañez Giodrummer.com. Available online: https://www.giodrummer.com/2024/03/27/drumming-101-from-quarter-notes-to-eighth-notes/.
Phillips, S. (2022) Why Drummers Should Lead With Their Weaker Hand – Drumeo Beat Free Online Drum Magazine | the Drumeo Beat. Available online: https://www.drumeo.com/beat/ambidextrous-drummers-lead-with-weaker-hand-simon-phillips/?srsltid=AfmBOoqN6FbBpmojS8faMRm0GWotnB-ODcHevU5dB_B5Z8s0Pbwlfr77 [Accessed 4/May/2026].
Prashanth Rajasekharan (2026) Drum Rudiments Explained: What They Are and Why Every Drummer Needs Them BMusician. Available online: https://bmusician.com/blog/drum-rudiments-explained/.
Strong, J. (2020) Drums For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, 35.
