TEACHING METHOD
Learn your favorite Styles of Music!
Benefit from the experience & knowledge of a skilled and versatile pro-drummer who will adapt his teaching methods to each individual from a 3.5 year old child with a short attention span to a pro drummer who wants to add more stylistic depth, technique, etc.
Taking it easy on yourself is what learning and playing drums is all about. I have a very relaxed and accepting attitude toward over and underachievers, the ambidextrous and the not-so-coordinated. I've seen no corrolary between aptitude and who actually makes themselves into good drummers. Slow, gradually faster, patient, daily work trumps innate ability and sporadic long-hours of intense practice.
- Age 3.5 to 103.5? Great.
- Asperger's? Great.
- ADHD? Defiant? Turretts? NO SWEAT !!!
- 1995 Tufts Clinical Psych BA, special ed experience, clinical experience, and elementary teaching experience.
- UNFLAPPABLE, customizable pro
- Teaching drummers since 1977
- Thousands of paid gigs since 1970 (age 10)
- Ear-safe, yet exciting drum studio
- Joint-safe endurance and power techniques
- Fun monthly student showcases
- Comraderie between all ages of students, and between student families and friends
Taking it easy on yourself is what learning and playing drums is all about. I have a very relaxed and accepting attitude toward over and underachievers, the ambidextrous and the not-so-coordinated. I've seen no corrolary between aptitude and who actually makes themselves into good drummers. Slow, gradually faster, patient, daily work trumps innate ability and sporadic long-hours of intense practice.
Funk • Jazz • Latin • Rock • Alternative Rock • Punk • Thrash • Heavy Metal • Death Metal • Pop • Ska • Reggae • Blues • Pre-Bop • Bop • Post Bob • Hip-Hop • Rap • Swing • Big Band • Cool • Orchestral
Practice
I'm a behavior mod guy, with an BA in Clinical Psychology from Tufts University in Boston. I understand that my drum students must become drummers whether they have little or no practice in a given week, or not. Kids and adults are busier now than they've ever been. If you're super busy, what you need is a fun coach who can make your drumming inch ahead on the spot, not a typical assign homework, then test, then scold drum teacher. You and I will grade my performance on how much I can help you improve during your lesson. I'm always accepting of whether you have or have not practiced. And you will improve a lot studying with me. My focus is not on your performance in the lesson, etc. It's on work. I follow Carol Dewick's Mindset education system. Simply put, there are two mindsets, fixed and growth. With a fixed mindset, we feel like we either have it or we don't. With a growth mindset we feel like we can
acquire skills through effort. Since I started using this system my students have becomve very confident and resilient. Parents and I have stopped saying, "Good Job." Instead, we praise something else: Work. Work during the drum lesson, and work at home. It's been incredibly gratifying. This is making for some very resilient young & older people. This is working on around 95% of my students. We never say, "See how all that hard work has paid off, now you're awesome at this or that." We focus strictly on complimenting and even bragging to others in front of them about how hard they work. The encouraging results are something we let the kids discover on their own. Work, our secret weapon. Even so... You can't skip lessons certain weeks because you didn't get to work hard at home that week. Attend, work hard in the lesson, and feel great as you move a couple of more inches forward!
The Drum Studio
I teach drum lessons in a very convenient location for Redmond, Renton, Mercer Island Bellevue, Kirkland, Newcastle, and Sammamish drummers. Half of my drum students are from places like Seattle, Renton, Everett, Mercer Island, Burien, Kent, Woodenville, Bothell, Shoreline, etc,. But they're here in Bellevue working during my drum teaching hours. You'll only drive 15 minutes from Microsoft in Bellevue Square, or 10 from Issaquah to get to my home studio. I'm about 7 minutes from T-Mobile in Factoria section of Bellevue It's probably the most effecient way to get a drum lesson if you work or live in the Renton, Bellevue, Mercer Island, or Issaquah areas.
My daytime drum students take a break from work at Microsoft in Bellevue and Issaquah, WA, T-Mobile in Factoria, WA, Boeing in Renton WA, etc, for a weekly lesson, or are local full-time-parents who either take drum lessons (while their kids play in our toy room), or who bring their children for lessons, or both.
Teaching Experience/Skills
Education
Degrees in English & Clinical Psychology with honors from Tufts University, Medford, MA 1995
School Experience
Teacher & Therapist in strong behavior mod environment for violent 4th grade children, Somerville, MA
- Home Studio Bellevue, WA
- Home Studio Redmond, WA
- Home Studio, San Diego, CA
- Home Studio, Newton, MA
- Governor Dummer Prep, Rowley, MA
- Hollywood, CA
- Wagstaff's Music, Salt Lake City, UT
- Home Studio & USU Fine Arts Center, Logan, UT