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Levels: Beginner to Advanced
In-Home Lessons: Yes
In-Studio Lessons: Yes
Ages: 5 & up
Subjects Taught
Drums
Education
Valley High School - College prep - 1976-1980 (High School diploma received)
Drake University - Journalism - 1987 Graduate (Bachelor's degree received)
Specialties
I focus on the fundamentals of drumming, especially rudiments and time keeping. We also work on reading music and the role of the drummer in different situations.
Each student receives a custom lesson plan that helps them reach their goals as a drummer.
Lesson Details
I see our first lesson as an opportunity to get to know each other and for us to ask lots of questions of each other. It's important that we understand each other and I will find out what your motivation is to be a drummer, also your skill level.
Based on this information I will develop a lesson plan that will be used each lesson to keep us on track and making progress.
My lessons are FUN and productive. I start students out with a pair of drum sticks, a practice pad and a metronome.
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We work on basic rudiment skills and focus on the long roll, 5-stroke roll, 7-stroke roll, paradiddle, flams, ratamacue, and more. I'm not after speed, but accuracy as we work on these skills. Speed will come as a benefit of what we work on.
I've had students that started from ground zero with no prior drum experience and within six months were playing in bands making money. They were serious students that practiced what they learned in our lessons. Every student is different and will progress at different levels.
I have been playing drums since age 4 (my dad was also a professional drummer who got me started with a solid foundation). In junior high school I played in the typical "garage band" settings with some other musician friends of mine.
School music programs were a very important part of my background. I played in the percussion sections and eventually jazz bands in junior high and high school. As a senior at Valley High School in West Des Moines I was the percussion section leader of the
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Valley Marchmasters 35 member percussion section.
I got my first "professional" (paid) gig at age 14 when I was asked to be the pit drummer for a musical at the Purple Cow Dinner Theater (which became the Ingersoll Dinner Theater).
I received a full\-ride scholarship to play drums at Grand View University where I attended for 1.5 years before transferring to Drake University to study Advertising and Public Relations in the School of Journalism.
While at Drake I played snare drum in the marching band and drums in the jazz band. I also was a first-call drummer for local jazz and rock bands. I began teaching private drum lessons to a few local students out of my fraternity house.
After graduation I continued to teach and play in many groups. I also started my own band and booked musicians for events.
While having a business career during the day, I've been a professional musician/instructor at night and weekends all of these years. I've played with the Dukes of Dixieland in New Orleans, was in comedian Joan Rivers show band, was in a band that opened for the Kentucky Headhunters, played drums with national act Little Anthony and the Imperials, and many more.
I'm currently playing in bands that perform these styles: Early Traditional New Orleans jazz, Dixieland jazz, Gypsy jazz, Klezmer jazz, country, classic/southern rock, blues, and more.
I've been called the hardest working drummer in Iowa. I look forward to sharing my skills with students and help them reach their goals as a drummer.
