Where do you start when teaching children and teenager?

I want to start teaching a few kids in my church how to play drums. How should I get them started?

Should I start them on rudiments and go from there or should I take a more musical approach by teaching them a simple groove and get them to play it with music?
Or something else perhaps...?

Thanks in advance!

Way back when I took drum lessons (1972 - 1977), my teachers started me off on Haskell Harr's Drum Method book 1 and 2. You can still get these 2 books on Amazon.com. This covers not only basic rudiments, but also incorporates them into songs to play on the snare. And covers flams, paradiddles, dynamics, how to hold the sticks, etc. I was pretty much grounded in the basics first and they made sure I got those basics learned and out of the way before I began taking drum set lessons. The sticks I used for those early days on snare were Regal Tip
2B's...freakin' tree limbs but they were easy to hold and get proper technique down for my 11 and 12 year old hands.

One of the drum set books was "The Drummer's Cookbook" - basic and intermediate jazz grooves I still use to this day when laying down simple but effective jazz grooves. This book also is available on Amazon.com.

Basically I started with the Haskell Harr books, 2B sized-sticks, a practice pad, and a metronome. I believe my once-a-week, 1/2 hour lessons cost $16.00 per rmonth from the principal percussionist of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. No idea how much to charge now....

Years ago in my late teens I was often asked to "give my boy some drum lessons" by an eager parent. I was then asked how much I charge. Being a teenager and not really sure of my teaching ability, I would give them for free, just duplicating the ways I had been taught by my two very fine teachers. I started them off on the practice pad and a metronome and the Haskell Harr books. After a few lessons, most realized playing single and double rolls, and trying the paradiddles and other rudaments took too much work, they changed their minds and no longer wanted to drum. Not a lot of expense for their parents: a practice pad, 1 pair of sticks, some books, and maybe a metronome.

You have a very noble pursuit! Good luck!

i wouldnt teach rudiments right away, i think its more important to have feel first. on the other hand, i wish i started learning rudiments earlier, but still i think a kid would have more interest in learning rudiments if they could already play decently, instead of getting frustrated learning parradiddles and give up.

Well, when I took my first drum lesson, when I was about 10, my teacher introduced me to the names and sounds of all the drums and cymbals, which was a great way to start. Then he taught the basic rock beat. And then I used Carmine Appice's Realistic Rock book to learn some pretty basic rock beats, and the rest is history. Only later on did I start learning rudiments.

Yeah that's another way. I was 11 years old and in beginning band in junior high. The beginning band had several snares, a bass drum, cymbals, and that's about it. The drummers were judged on who could do the best roll, keep a solid beat, etc. Most of the songs were easy, introductory songs to get us used to playing with other musicians.

Intermediate band added tympani, more difficult drum parts, etc. Tryouts for this band - for drummers - included several rudaments, drum parts to several songs, etc.

Jazz band - the most advanced band besides the symphonic band, included the drum set, but it wasn't until everyone graduated from intermediate band to the jazz band that the set was used. And we had to provide our own sets...the school didn't have a drum set.

I suppose it all depends on your environment and if you are in school bands.

High school marching band and drum corps incorporated many rudaments - paradiddles - etc. So by that time you had to know them and play them well if you didn't already.

yeah luckily we had a great band program at my school. i never drummed in school though, only guitar, knowledge which i would be nowhere without. i wish i played a bit of drums in some combos, but being in 9 combos in my last year of high school, i think i had enough of a work pile. i could imagine drumming through school would do wonders.

First of all, we go through the components of the kit, their names and the sounds you can get out of them. Once that's done, I'll walk them through proper posture, grip and stroke; then the 8th note rock beat, counting, right hand transitions around the kit, opening and closing the hi-hat, bass drum variations and basic fills; basic sticking exercises; 6/8 grooves and fills; 16th note grooves with a) an 8th note ostinato b) a 16th note ostinato with one hand and c) a 16th note ostinato played hand to hand; shuffle grooves and half-time shuffles. We always use a lot of reading material.

After dealing with a lot of three-way coordination material and fundamental pop/rock styles, we'll start going through them again, but this time I'll have my students pedal quarter notes (or dotted quarters in 6/8) throughout the grooves and fills. Later on I'll have them play the same grooves and fills with an 8th note upbeat ostinato on the hi-hat pedal. Then we'll start working on adding open hi-hat sounds into various grooves, going systematically through all placement possibilities. Once the student has acquired some skill and knowledge through the more common playing styles, we can go into more "exotic" styles, such as jazz, salsa, samba, Oakland funk etc...

I don't like to incorporate rudiments and technical exercises in my teaching. In my opinion, there are a lot of more important things to learn before starting to fine tune one's technique. Of course, I'm constantly pointing out technical issues and giving practical advice on how to achieve certain things with greater ease and relaxation, but I don't enforce a strict practice regime unless the student explicitly wants to improve his technique. Music should always come first.

well my drum teacher 2 years ago started me with just a drum pad to get rythem, tempo, and timing(i had a teacher a year before who taught me grip but i new how to play some how before a teacher), then he gave me a book with beats and iv just gone from there

Just to emphasize a certain point... all of the responses are good in thier own merit. But, I tend to want a student to focus on reading music well, especially when at a young age. Yes, you want them to have fun and play and not have drumming to seem to be a chore and have thier spark of love for drums choked out, but drumming is serious when one wants to progress into a musician.

Finding a way of getting each individual student to enjoy and look forward to learning how to read music really gets to the heart of what teaching is about in my opinion. It can be quite a challenge and help one to develop instructional skills as well. It can also aid the student into learning how to teach others further down the road.

That is so true, what you said: "It can also aid the student into learning how to teach others further down the road."

Granted, not every drummer goes thru a public school music program in junior high or high school. But the ones who do, it seemed to me years ago when I was in the programs, the older students sort of taught the younger ones as well and were kind of mentors to them. Very encouraging and supportive.

What was odd, in my humble opinion, were my peers - other kids my age and in the same school class - who were sooooo freakin' competative! These people - my age - were so competitive it boardered on bullying and was for intents and purposes - rudeness. But other drummers just a year or two older than I were very mentoring and willing to share their ideas, techniques, etc. The ones my exact age were not; were often rude, obnoxious, bullying, unkind, and so competetive they refused to share information or techniques on ANYTHING!

And my 16-year old nephew is witnessing this now in another school district. He had another drummer so rude and competitive he purposely broke my nephew's favorite drum sticks so my nephew wouldn't be able to play as well (or so he thought). My sister-in-law asked me pointedly if this type of BS happends often. I could just relate to the large egos in drumming I encountered when I was that age.

Has this type of crap happened to anyone else in a junior high or high school music program? Being competitive is one thing, but to bully and distroy another's equipment is damn petty and criminal.

Well, how about if one of your students has absolutely NO RYTHM and NO SENSE OF BEAT?

How do you break that to the parents that their child is unteachable?<------------This is a sarcastic statement. seems that some poeple didn't get that...

Drummertist said:

Well, how about if one of your students has absolutely NO RYTHM and NO SENSE OF BEAT?

How do you break that to the parents that their child is unteachable?

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Excuse me?
That is the most horrible thing that I have ever heard.
"Unteachable"??
You should not be a teacher with that attitude.
Some have more natural talent than others, but no student is "unteachable".
Grow up. I hope that is a joke. If not, you are a horrible teacher and should quit.
I feel sorry for any student of yours that has to put up with that attitude.

Every student can learn. Every student can become a great drummer. Every student has some sense of rhythm.

i started out just playing a basic rock beat and building upon that, adding offbeat bass then snare and hi hat.
i also did work from the grade books.
i have had quite a few lessons solely based on rudiments and they didn't put me off at all.

Just teach them a simple rhythm and let them experiment. That's how I started out and I'm 15 now and on to playing very difficult stuff like Meshuggah and Lamb of God. I've never gotten any lessons.

I disagree, however I will retract some of my statement. Let me explain.

I can teach a student how to read music. How to bang a drum "one, two, three, four" but if you don't have a natural sense of rhythym (i.e. can't even clap to a song on the radio) THAT is something that I would not be able to teach.

I really don't like reading music. I've always listened by ear and I play every exact part to the T because I know most of the sounds. However, I do know how to read music, but I don't really get the feeling that you do when you just groove on drums and not have to look at anything. Just show them some basics and if they really want to play like I did, they will pick up fast.

That sounds better.
YOU can't teach it. That doesn't mean that they are unteachable. That just means that YOU are unable to do it. No student is "unteachable".

I don't think I would know where to start teaching that. I had a student that had no sense of rhythm like I was talking about before. There are some people who can't understand music to that level. I have seen a lack of feel in very few individuals, but there are some.

How would you teach someone to "feel" the music and have a good sense of rhythm, blade123?

It also depends on the student. You can be a great teacher, show them all the things that can make them great and show them all the things that are fun and interesting, but if they don't put forth the effort, they won't move forward at all. In other words, it's a 50-50 partnership. You teach, they practice and learn. If you teach and they don't practice and learn, forget it. You can stand on your head and play paradiddles all day long, and it won't make any difference. And then they or their parents - or whoever pays for it - bitch and moan that their kid ain't getting any better..... Sad, but it's reality.

rogue_drummer said:

And my 16-year old nephew is witnessing this now in another school district. He had another drummer so rude and competitive he purposely broke my nephew's favorite drum sticks so my nephew wouldn't be able to play as well (or so he thought). My sister-in-law asked me pointedly if this type of BS happends often. I could just relate to the large egos in drumming I encountered when I was that age.

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haha what school district was that in? irving or dallas or something?