Drum Lessons in North Hills, NY

Instruments: Drums Music

I have always taught in one form or another over the past 56 years, but spent the last 15 years honing my teaching skills and working with as many students at every level to ensure that what and how I teach is easily translated into plain language for the students. I've played drums and percussion in bands across many genres including Jazz, Rock, Soul, R & B, and Country. But I love to teach, which I do privately out of my home studio in Northern Westchester County, NY, as well as one-on-one lessons in your home. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Drums Music Electric Guitar Acoustic Guitar

I have had a passion for music since I was ten years old, and I would love nothing more than to share that passion with the next generation of young musicians. I graduated with a degree in jazz performance from Rutgers University in 2020, and have performed all across the country with several phenomenal musicians, at venues such as Feinstein's 54 Below, Count Basie Theater, Carnegie Hall, and numerous colleges and universities across the east coast. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Drums Bass Guitar Synthesizer Ukulele Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion Conga Latin Percussion Music Keyboard Electric Guitar Djembe Classical Guitar Acoustic Guitar

All I want is to know that my students are enjoying music more deeply, and that they gain the self-sufficiency to learn between lessons. I make sure to point out milestones that a student has achieved to encourage that innate human drive for improvement, and always keep looking for what is exciting and inspiring for the student at a given time. I make sure each student I work with knows what elements to include in their practice, how to learn a piece of music from scratch, and how to break things down into manageable, learnable chunks. Read More

Instruments: Drums

We start by doing proper warm up exercises followed by learning or practicing rudiments. We work on our grip of the sticks and our movements while drumming. In other words, I teach economy of movement for maximum energy. If a student is flailing their arms, we talk about a more fluid movement by utilizing the wrists and incorporating finger control. Then we move on to reading out of instructional books which is then followed by practical application on the drum sets.With a beginner student I find Basix Syncopation for Drums by Alfred Publishing to be a very effective tool. Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice Drums Recorder Keyboard

Because every student has his/her own learning style, my lessons cater to those styles. I figure out a student's strengths and weaknesses. I acknowledge the accomplishments caused by the strengths while I focus on developing the weaknesses. For example, if a student excels melodically but has trouble maintaining accurate rhythm, I will engage the student in listening to and playing many interesting melodies that require him/her to pay close attention to counting the rhythms in order to master playing the melodies. Read More

Instruments: Drums Orchestral Percussion Latin Percussion

The first and most important thing that I like to do with the student is give them a general idea of how to basically read notation I then immediately get the student into basic coordination to be able to play basic beats so that they can eventually play to actual music the next important step that I like to accomplish with most students is to get them to actually be able to play some basic pills along with the rhythms so that I can prepare them to play music if their goal is to play in school band I immediately get them into the notation necessary to be able to audition for the school band 0 if they want to play in the dance band the goal is to get them to be able to play those rhythms to be able to perform in the dance band or the marching band if they want to participate in nysma I immediately get them into the exercises necessary to perform those types solos those are usually very challenging if they're in high school and want to go on to college to study music I also get them prepared for the necessary exercises and skills to be able to perform in the college setting as far as playing to music is concerned I love to work with a lot of pre-recorded tracks without drums many of the music minus one tracks are very effective to get a student ready to actually play in a band most students want to actually accomplish this goal the main thing that I like to emphasize is to have the student learn the things that they want to learn as far as styles is concerned for example if they really like Latin music all concentrate on that style if they really like rock music all concentrate on that etc etc etc. Read More