The internet has made it easier than ever to learn to drum. You can get a drum lesson online now, so that you can start today without ever even leaving your house. I have a friend who has been doing just that. He has subscribed to a site which, twice a week, gives him an interactive drum lesson online. The technology of it is just extraordinary. It can actually show him the beats as it is playing. There is even a feature that will listen to his playing and make comments, but unfortunately it requires expensive midi triggers to detect the notes.

Of course, all of this technology is really positively neato, but it still doesn’t beat a real face to face lesson in my opinion. Sure, there are advantages to taking a drum lesson online. You can take it any time you want, it is cheaper than a normal lesson in person, and finally, it allows you to not leave the house for your lesson. But when you get down to it, there are things that a real teacher can tell you that a drum lesson online simply can not. First of all, he can tell you when you are making mistakes, and what to do about it. Even if a drum lesson online can detect your mistakes, it won’t be able to detect more subtle things like amplitude and “feel”. To learn really rudimentary techniques, all you have to do is practice, and listen to an expert play, but to learn some advanced licks requires a bunch more. You need some one who really knows their way around a drum kit to do that, and that is a hard someone to find online.

Although I took my first drum lesson online, I soon discovered that I really would do much better with a real, live teacher. I soon found my teacher, and began studying how to play drums. The difference was amazing. The drum lesson online did a little for me, but the teacher I got showed me right away how to become a better drummer. It was a drumming lesson I won’t soon forget that started it. I never even realized that I needed to develop hand independence to advance past the basics until my teacher told me that, but once she gave me some tips, I was soon on my way to becoming a great drummer.

Tags: Instruments, Music General, Musical Performance, Practice