Drum Lessons & Classes in Downtown Mercer Island

and your family to achieve your music education goals!

p forty beats.

3) 15 years of PIANO: which utilize
several years of personal instruction in classical, popular, and some ragtime,
in addition to an intimate knowledge of Piano Proficiency (scales & modes,
chord structures & inversions, common chord progressions, intervals, circle
of 5th, and finger exercises)

4) 2 years of MUSIC THEORY and COMPOSITION at college level.

Lessons will include additional materials to the primary instrument such as sheet music for
sight reading, rhythm patterns, tabletures, and chord charts.

***Above all, I encourage students to select those pieces, tunes, or songs that have appealed to them the most; perhaps even inspiring them to learn a musical instrument in the first place. Adaptations are a common and enjoyable part of the teaching process.

*** Lesson Details ***
Expect efforts, on my part, to steer learning into areas of the students particular interest as well as conventional genres such as classical, popular, folk, blues, etc...

Moreover, I rely on ear training as a strong complement to written music theory and sight-reading; often using recorded music samples or simple patterns on a piano.

I try to balance method-type published lesson books with beginner, intermediate, or original composition sheet music to specifically selected pieces.

Ideally, with a reasonable practice schedule each week, full comprehension of the written music grand staff and an ear to catch a false note will become second nature. By then, more opportunities to learn actual pieces and styles become greater, having got the initial learning curve under the students belt.

*** Studio Equipment ***
*snare drum
*electronic keyboard/piano

*** Travel Equipment ***
lesson material/music media samples can be provided for copy
student would have own instrument

*** Specialties ***
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Drums, Percussion, Music Theory
finger picking styles and chord progressions - guitar
lead and rhythm patterns - electric guitar
latin, blues, rock, jazz styles - drum kit & percussion
classical & popular tunes - piano/keyboard

ory that I knew how much I not only loved the thrill of playing music but the discovery of how it worked. With this experience I can show you or your child why learning an instrument can be not only an exciting experience but an interesting and enthralling one as well.

I have been teaching music for over 7 years and have had the privilege of teaching children as young as 4 to adults in their late 80's. I am a very attentive teacher who can not only help get you moving in the right direction but keep you on that path until your are a self-sufficient musician. A level of musicianship that simply means you can learn whatever you want on your instrument on your own, whether it be for business, pleasure or for mere self-improvement.

Through my own student career in private lessons I had the chance to study with graduates of the Musician's Institute (MI), the California Institute of the Arts (CAL Arts) and Berklee College of Music. This has provided me with an inside look into how and what each institute teaches, as well as a first hand look at the techniques and ideas that the great players from these remarkable schools have come to produce.

My formal music education consists of 2 years at Pasadena City College where I obtained my general Associates Degree (much of the studies included music) and a semester at California State University Long Beach as a Jazz Guitar Performance Major. Additionally, I completed a great deal of California State University Long Beach's teaching credential program (focusing on the teaching of history/social studies), where I learned strategies and theories of how and what to teach my students - making me that much more knowledgable of my craft. At Pasadena City College I studied with jazz/classical guitarist, Ron Berman, who has played with such jazz greats as Herb Ellis and Jimmy Wyble. At Cal State Long Beach I studied with jazz guitarist Ron Eschete, a former teacher at MI who has toured with the likes of Ray Brown, John Dizzy Gillespie and Jim Hall.

Most importantly I hope to show you or your child a new way to love and appreciate music. And to provide you with the ability and know-how to have the most fun on your instrument as possible.

*** Lesson Details ***
Throughout my lessons, I always encourage basic skills including scales, sight-reading and technical exercises. But what I hope to give all my students is a basic understanding of music and their instrument, providing them with a practical ability to navigate the vast world of music for a lifetime.

Beyond these skills, I always have songs, styles and theory for you to work on but I am often more interested in what you as an individual want to learn on your instrument. Getting to learn concepts that you have chosen yourself will help encourage practice and will make the finished product all the more the rewarding.

I can custom tailor a teaching curriculum and/or style for any of my students: we can focus on learning songs, learning to read, how to write music, how music works, and even how to play specific styles of music (including funk, rock, jazz, Latin, flamenco, classical, country and blues). I also self tailor my own worksheets and set weekly goals with my students to help encourage practice, understanding and progress. For students interested in more advanced concepts, I can also teach ear training, music theory, advanced jazz improvisation as well as advanced playing techniques.

All this in a friendly and easy-going teaching environment.

*** Studio Equipment ***
Located in my home garage, it is equipped with a small stage, an upright piano, an electric keyboard, a PA system, amplifiers, a drum set, a lap steel guitar, a pedal steel guitar, 2 cellos, multiple guitars, 3 mandolins, a dobro, a 5-string banjo, a 4-string tenor banjo, 2 ukuleles, 2 accordions and 2 electric basses.

*** Specialties ***
Styles: Jazz, Rock, Reggae, Metal, Funk, Progressive Rock, Classical, Folk, Bluegrass, Country, Various forms of Latin Music, Blues, and a few others.

Instruments Beginner to Advanced: Drums, Accordion, Piano, Guitar, Mandolin, Cello, Banjo (5 String), Irish Tenor Banjo (4 String GDAE), Tenor Banjo (4 String CGDA), Electric Bass, Ukulele, Dobro, Lap Steel Guitar (6 String C6 Tuning), Slide Guitar, Pedal Steel Guitar (10 String E9 Tuning).

I also teach the Beginning and Advanced concepts of:
Music Theory, Ear Training, Sight Reading, and Song Writing.

books for a beginning drum student:
Fundamentals for Snare Drum by Garwood Whaley
Elementary Snare Drum by Mitchell Peters
Encyclopedia for Reading Rhythms by Gary Hess

Things that guitar students should have: A guitar, a guitar tuner, and a music stand.

Recommended book: Hal Leonard Guitar Method (Complete Edition) by Schmid and Koch.

My specialties:

Drum specialties: Jazz, Latin (Brazilian, Cuban), African, Rock, Funk, Metal, Pop, Hip-hop, R&B, Blues, Country, Reggae, and Marching. I am proficient in drum reading, drum transcription, practice techniques, and drum rudiments and their application on the drum set.

Orchestral percussion specialties: keyboard percussion (marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, chimes), snare drum, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, tambourine, triangle, orchestral excerpts, etudes, technique, important literature, and practice techniques.

Guitar specialties: reading music, tablature, chords, scales, improvisation, and technique.

D'Angelo. Aside from that, I am a co-founder of Table & Chairs, a new Seattle-based record label, as well as a co-founder of the Racer Sessions, a weekly forum and performance outlet for new and improvised music.

I began teaching in 2008, shortly after beginning my studies at the University of Washington. My private students have ranged from total beginners to advanced, each one presenting a unique set of interests and abilities to work with. In addition to teaching my own students, I have much experience as a substitute percussion teacher at Northshore Junior High School (Kingsgate, WA) and Spotlight Studios (Woodinville, WA). I have also presented many clinics and workshops at local schools including Garfield High School, Edmonds-Woodway High School, Ballard High School, Eckstein Middle School, and Holy Names Academy, as well as for Seattle JazzED. For these, the topics covered have ranged from free improvisation to straight-ahead and big band jazz.

*** Lesson Details ***
For beginning players, I like to start with the books "A Fresh Approach to the Snare Drum" and "A Fresh Approach to the Drum Set," both by Mark Wessels. These books do a great job of laying down the fundamentals that all drummers should learn at the outset of their education. Beyond that, what I teach depends largely on any specific path(s) the student may wish to pursue, though of course it is totally fine if the student doesn't immediately know what they would like to study beyond the basics. In that case, I would do my best to construct a rough curriculum that I think would work well for the student. The following books are all ones I have worked with and have found to be excellent at improving unique things: "Syncopation" (Ted Reed), "Stick Control" (G.L. Stone), "The Drummer's Complete Vocabulary As Taught By Alan Dawson" (John Ramsay), "Patterns" (Gary Chaffee), and "Portraits in Rhythm" (Anthony Cirone).

I prefer lessons to be focused on a curriculum, however customized it may be, as I have found that approach to be the most efficient, especially with younger players. While I believe that it is very important to learn the fundamentals of drumming, I also believe that some of the most rewarding experiences a student can have may be achieved through realizing their own unique creative potential. Thus, I find it great to set the curriculum aside for part of the lesson, either to allow the student some time to show me what else they've been working on, listening to, watching, thinking about, or perhaps to just jam and have fun. I also expect students to make progress on their own between lessons, though I understand fully from my teaching experience that the amount of progress I can expect is different for each student.

*** Studio Equipment ***
Two full drum kits

*** Travel Equipment ***
Sticks, practice pad, books

*** Specialties ***
Jazz, rock, pop, many Latin and African styles, free improvisation