Attitudes concerning teaching

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
I was asked by a close friend of mine to teach his 9 YO son to play drums. I love this kid. I gave them a drumset a few years ago, but lately, the 9 YO is going out in the barn every day on his own and playing drums. So his Dad wants me to teach him.

I was wondering if all the great teachers out there would offer up some helpful words so I do right by this kid.

I would think each kid...you have to approach uniquely. But what do I know? So I was hoping you guys could share a little insight on the initial evaluation process, and anything else really.

Thanks a lot.
 
since you don't have much (or any) experience teaching, i might try getting a beginner drumset book and taking him through that. obviously paying attention to the kid's attention span and what he likes working on.
i would start by showing him a basic beat and how it applies to a song. i remember doing that before i even had lessons and i was hooked on drums after that. im not sure how advanced the kid is so you'll just have to gauge where to start in the book. i would also introduce him to some of the basic rudiments. single and double stroke rolls and such... but that's just me.
 
Larry, I used to have family and friends ask me to "teach" them to play the drums. At some point, I started to politely decline these offers. I'd still show them some things on drums and answer questions, but I felt funny about treating them as formal lessons. And I certainly wouldn't accept money to do it anymore.

I see how serious music education is and I just don't feel qualified to do it. This is a career for people who have the training to do it and have a gift for it.

Not to tell you what you should do, by any means. But to let you know that I was confronted with the same thing, did it for a while, but ultimately decided I didn't want to pass myself off as something I'm not.
 
Larry,

Opinions on this can be far and wide depending on people's experiences and approaches for this age. Some of it depends on child's temperament and willingness to practice. For example, how long can he focus? What are his other interests that could detract from available practice time?

Finding a balance between keeping it fun while keeping the learning experience moving forward is the trick.

He's probably too young to realize why spending a great deal of time with Stick Control is critical, yet doing the first few pages of the book are both possible and beneficial for a 9 year old as much as they are to a 19 year old.

Speaking for myself, working with that age, I used a combination of resources. A beginner snare drum book such as the Alfred's Drum Method, Book 1 (but there are others) along with the first page of Stick Control. This provides a fundamental concept of reading, intro to rudiments and applied both of these books to the drum set. The old stand-by - Syncopation - can also be introduced by creatively using and adapting the first section of the book to the drum set as well.

Collectively these open the mind for creativity and independence which he can't grasp yet but you are laying the groundwork for longer term... By having such open ended material, it can be adapted to fit his interest and mindset but using these put you in the position of how to apply these to the set. It's not written for you but that's where the creativity and interesting things come about.

Since these are just the "academic" side of things, playing this stuff along to existing tracks make them applicable to music, which in all likelihood is what he may be interested in doing most.

This opens the door to discuss/teach 4 & 8 bar phrasing. Again, he may not be interested in it on those terms, but approaching it to him as play this pattern for 7 measures then play this pattern from your snare book as the fill for 1 measure (and all the combinations that come with this), get's him on the track of phrasing.

It's all in approach and making it not seem so academic but more interesting and exploratory.

Not sure if this is the sort of opinions you are seeking but I can gladly expand on any of it if you want.

Good luck! Starting your teaching with a 9 year old is trial by fire but is certainly possible. Very different than working with adult students (which is all I do these days).
 
I think about the lessons I took whenever someone asks me to teach them or their kid. I don't think people realize how many years I studied for. they think you just show them a few things and they become a drummer.
 
@ Larry...I hear you. I'm not there yet. I do love sharing knowledge. I'm not being compensated, at least I wasn't going to charge anything. I realize I can only take this kid so far, however I am confident I can grow his love for drumming and instill a good work ethic and the basic skills. I do want to do it, I always liked teaching people stuff. I can show him good technique, basic reading, get him started on metronome work, give him basic coordination exercises and show him some basic beats from different styles of music to give him a larger overview, while exposing him to exactly what is required from a drummer. This is my pre-conception, this could all change after I see where his head is at.

@David...Your words are very helpful. More what I am looking for as far as advice goes. I just want to give the kid a good foundation in the basics, that's all I'm really good for. The basics permeate everything and I know I can help him out there. Advanced stuff, if he makes it that far, I will leave to a real teacher. I'm pretty sure I can grow the love for drumming in this kid, since he is already doing it on his own.
 
I'm pretty sure I can grow the love for drumming in this kid, since he is already doing it on his own.
& that's what I believe you should concentrate on Larry. Sure, feed in some good starting technique stuff, but keep the emphasis on fun.

I would never even dream of giving anyone "lessons" (for reasons that become immediately apparent when you hear my playing), but there's nothing wrong with helping out on stimulation . I even refused to give my son lessons. That said, you have a lot to offer Larry.
 
Thanks Andy. There are things that aren't in any books that I can instill in him, that's going to be a big part of my approach. Attitude goes a long way. If he has a positive drumming role model in his life... well that's what I want to be for him. His Dad plays the bass so that will be in his future too, jamming with Pop. First things first though.
 
keep it simple;1172155 I would never even dream of giving anyone "lessons" (for reasons that become immediately apparent when you hear my playing) said:
Oh man I could only imagine. Most teacher would say "for the first lesson, bring sticks and this book title". Andy would say " Bring a yellow temple block number seven, wind chimes, preferably from a garden, and a pint of Newcastle"!!!!
 
Last edited:
Larry,

Opinions on this can be far and wide depending on people's experiences and approaches for this age. Some of it depends on child's temperament and willingness to practice. For example, how long can he focus? What are his other interests that could detract from available practice time?

Finding a balance between keeping it fun while keeping the learning experience moving forward is the trick.

He's probably too young to realize why spending a great deal of time with Stick Control is critical, yet doing the first few pages of the book are both possible and beneficial for a 9 year old as much as they are to a 19 year old.

Speaking for myself, working with that age, I used a combination of resources. A beginner snare drum book such as the Alfred's Drum Method, Book 1 (but there are others) along with the first page of Stick Control. This provides a fundamental concept of reading, intro to rudiments and applied both of these books to the drum set. The old stand-by - Syncopation - can also be introduced by creatively using and adapting the first section of the book to the drum set as well.

Collectively these open the mind for creativity and independence which he can't grasp yet but you are laying the groundwork for longer term... By having such open ended material, it can be adapted to fit his interest and mindset but using these put you in the position of how to apply these to the set. It's not written for you but that's where the creativity and interesting things come about.

Since these are just the "academic" side of things, playing this stuff along to existing tracks make them applicable to music, which in all likelihood is what he may be interested in doing most.

This opens the door to discuss/teach 4 & 8 bar phrasing. Again, he may not be interested in it on those terms, but approaching it to him as play this pattern for 7 measures then play this pattern from your snare book as the fill for 1 measure (and all the combinations that come with this), get's him on the track of phrasing.

It's all in approach and making it not seem so academic but more interesting and exploratory.

Not sure if this is the sort of opinions you are seeking but I can gladly expand on any of it if you want.

Good luck! Starting your teaching with a 9 year old is trial by fire but is certainly possible. Very different than working with adult students (which is all I do these days).

Good, time-tested ideas here, but this approach probably would work better with a slightly older student. In terms of maturity, even a year is a very long time.

Larry, your goal should be to make, and keep, the instrument fun for him. Stick Control can wait. He needs a BUDDY that also helps him learn. Meet him at his interests, which is probably based around the music and/or bands and drummers he likes. His inspiration probably comes from YouTube, so it might be good to bring a laptop to the lesson, so you can check out videos. Teach simple beats and patterns that go along with songs he likes. If he "doesn't like any songs", then explain that he should find some. Even at 9, you can enforce the idea that he participate in his own education (and his parents will love you forever for that!).

Due to his age, he might not yet have the physical coordination that's required of full-on beats and fills, in which case you should simplify. For example, a kick, snare, and hi-hat groove becomes just a kick and snare groove.

You can play musical games, too. Simon Says is a good one. Another is to get out a piece of paper and draw little pictures of bass drums, snare drums, and cymbals in the order of a beat. Point to each picture as he plays to help him learn more complicated combinations.

At 9, he's also old enough to read quarter, 8ths, and 16ths and use a metronome. Get a beginner snare book and go through some pages (I like Vic Firth's Snare Method 1). Don't call it "reading"; call it "timing practice" (because drummers need to practice good timing).
 
I simply can not teach my son. He takes any correction as a personal assult on him. Like just telling him to adjust his grip. He takes lessons from someone else. I also tried showing one of his little drummer buddys some stuff. Some people are players and not teachers. I am a player. God bless all of you drum instructors out there. That is a different skill in its self.
 
Some believe in making it fun. the more fun it is made to be while learning, the chances are higher of the kid sticking with it. Who really wants to just bang on just the snare drum for a year. get him started on learning parts of a song and work that. My instructor seems really fond of Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean"
 
One useful tool I find with beginners of all ages but especially children is imitation. Children are great at it.

Rather than give detailed instructions on how to hold the stick, simply ask him to copy your grip and movements. This bypasses the conscious, rational mind and gets right to the motor skill.

Some of us might remember the old (read:eek:ld white people) way in which dancing was taught: "put your left foot here, turn your hips to the right slightly, raise your right foot, put it down there". They even had little pictures of feet painted on the floor. Anyone who learned that way was still having trouble with even a basic dance after a month's worth of lessons.

Compare that to the kid who watches his friends dancing, imitates their movements, and within minutes is doing a fairly passable approximation of the dance.

My daughter loves to "Copy Daddy".
 
Thanks everyone. Actually, my bad, he's 8. A little shy and soft spoken. A nice kid. I just had my first get together with him. Basically I said, just play like you normally would, whatever that is. I just wanted to observe him. He naturally wants to play open handed, matched. He is right handed. So I didn't discourage it. I did show him crossed, just so he knew about it. He was hitting the drum at a wacky angle because he really didn't know how to hold and move the sticks, so I showed him a better way to move the stick. I lowered the throne and snare to him, adjusted the hi hat and tried to encourage him to have his sticks more in line with his forearm, instead of on a right angle, like he was doing it.

So to test where he was coordination wise, after I adjusted the kit to him, I explained the kick, hi hat and snare pattern of the money beat. He couldn't do that, so we downshifted to just the kick and hi hat. Adding the snare caused him to play triplets on the hi hat instead of straight 8ths lol. So we worked on that a bit. I was encouraging no snare, but since I showed him, he kept trying to do the snare on 2 and 4 and kept messing up. He tried to do it for like 5 minutes straight and was having trouble the whole time. But it's cool. I let him have trouble with it without correcting anything. He'll get it on his own I think.

I mainly encouraged 3 things, his stroke angle, count out loud, and try and practice the money beat. His dad had a drum loop going all the while, and I was counting out loud for him, so he starts to hear what steady time sounds like, and hears where the 1 is, right from jump street. By the end of it, he never counted out loud, and didn't do much about his stick angle, but he was trying to get the basic coordination for the money beat down.

At the end, just for fun, I had him try a 2/4 beat too. He couldn't do that either.

So it's real relaxed, I'm just going to take it slow. He was excited to have me and his Dad go out to the barn with him. The money beat will keep him busy for a while. He had pretty good attention span. He stayed with the loop sometimes, and drifted other times. He listened well enough, but just couldn't do much of it yet. He's only 8. Plenty of time.
 
How about just letting him play on the kick and snare only? When he's smooth on that then only add in the high hats?
 
Larry, how about having two kits set up or playing hand percussion? Everyone loves a jam and it opens things up for imitation, as Jeff said. You could play the hat line on bongos while the boy slogs out his 2 and 4 over the top, something he may not escape for the next 80 years ...

My 1c on this topic
 
Yea, there's no 2nd set there, or anything else right now. I'm just going gently with him in the beginning. I'm doing this free, just to get my own feet wet, and help him little Tommy along. He needs to learn basic separation first. He can barely do 2 things at once. Forget 3. But he seems determined. When he is ready to imitate, then I may bring in a kick snare and hat.
 
I'm pretty sure I can grow the love for drumming in this kid, since he is already doing it on his own.

I'm pretty sure you can Larry, and it's one thing you can be very proud of achieving, I did some teaching for beginners a very long time ago, and I've seen some of my "students" years after I "taught" them, by then they had other "proper" teachers during these years, but they told me that I gave them the love and passion for drumming... if I didn't make them becoming great drummers, at least I gave them the recipe to get hooked on drumming, the fact they became very serious and develop a love relationship with the instrument is very good, you feel you've achieved something relevant in their drumming journey.

Larry, how about having two kits set up

Absolutely, back in the days, I had two kits at the rehearsal place and we would go through the exercises together and we had little jams too, but they still played much more than I did during the session.
 
Hi!
Did you happen to start teaching your friends child yet?
In my experience as a teacher, 9 is a great age for a kid to start taking at least a half hour lesson once a week. I find that even the difference in attention from the age of 8-9 can be drastically different (student by student observation of course).

If you started already how is it going?

Jason:)
 
Back
Top