Sometimes the most talented drummers can be the worse teachers ever

Regarding really good players, I've seen a number of almost hilarious "instructional" videos on YouTube, where the expert demonstrates the technique at impossibly high speeds or levels and my eyes just glaze over. One like this came up recently in a discussion on doubles. "You can do doubles around the kit... or on the cymbals... or between bass and toms ..." etc. With each demo ridiculously out of the league of anyone looking for instruction.

Like this video, where the instructor says, "Now, let me slow that down for you" and then actually plays *faster* ::facepalm::
 
Teaching is absolutely a skill in and of itself. As an example, my son is starting on drums and is not directly motivated by the desire to be great at drums. He does awesome at school because there is periodic tests and grading, and he needs something like that for drums. At the moment he only has the motivation of staying 1st chair in band, and that happens to be a really low bar at the moment. A good teacher would have specific goal and wickets to get through to motivate his personality. His current teacher lets him run the show and imposes no discipline, so I feel like I'm wasting a bit of time and money.

Is your son not working on drum grading exams? My boy (14) is learning from the Trinity College drum kit syllabus through his school. And the structure has worked out really well for him. He started playing in September 2015 and passed his grade 6 with distinction in December. (And that’s a two-and-a-bit year period in which he’s which he’s taken time out for a fractured pinky, a broken wrist and appendicitis.) His teacher wants to book him for grade 7 in April.
My boy is competitive, goal-oriented and the impending exams are what keep him focused enough to spend half an hour or more a day practicing. No way that he would have made that kind of progress with his personality and less structured teaching. It’s hard to believe that any teaching is a waste of money, but you should talk to your son’s teacher about grading exams.
 
Like this video, where the instructor says, "Now, let me slow that down for you" and then actually plays *faster* ::facepalm::

But that is a joke he is making (may be not so noticeable, because he doesn´t smile enough?), right after that he NOT ONLY plays it much slower, the transcription is there at the screen as he plays, have you seen the whole VIDEO?
 
But that is a joke he is making (may be not so noticeable, because he doesn´t smile enough?), right after that he NOT ONLY plays it much slower, the transcription is there at the screen as he plays, have you seen the whole VIDEO?

Yes, I have seen the whole video. If that's a joke, then it's a pretty lousy one ::rolls eyes::
 
Is your son not working on drum grading exams? My boy (14) is learning from the Trinity College drum kit syllabus through his school. And the structure has worked out really well for him. He started playing in September 2015 and passed his grade 6 with distinction in December. (And that’s a two-and-a-bit year period in which he’s which he’s taken time out for a fractured pinky, a broken wrist and appendicitis.) His teacher wants to book him for grade 7 in April.
My boy is competitive, goal-oriented and the impending exams are what keep him focused enough to spend half an hour or more a day practicing. No way that he would have made that kind of progress with his personality and less structured teaching. It’s hard to believe that any teaching is a waste of money, but you should talk to your son’s teacher about grading exams.

Sounds like you are in a great program. My son is 13 and there is one band teacher for 50 kids or whatever it is. It's kind of like pre-marching band, so no real emphasis on kit. I don't get the sense that he gets any real lessons in class, or very little. Thus he can be first chair just because he takes lessons at all. I'm not too worried about it though. Drums are my thing and I encouraged him to pick percussion (especially since I wished I started earlier and got my fundamentals down at the beginning), but it may not be his thing. I will look into structured programs though, maybe suggest something to his teacher.
 
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