Private coaching is built around what you are actually trying to improve: your playing, musicianship, recording skills, an audition, or preparation for professional work.
I work primarily with intermediate, advanced and serious developing drummers. Depending on the goal, that might mean one focused consultation, a short intensive, or a longer period of coaching when my schedule allows.
What are you trying to accomplish?
Tell me where your playing is now, where you want it to go and what you are trying to accomplish. I can evaluate what is actually useful and recommend a focused lesson, intensive or longer coaching program around your level, musical interests, professional goals and schedule.
Technique matters, but not as an end in itself. The larger goal is to become a drummer who can listen, adapt, understand the music and walk into different musical situations knowing what the job requires.
Areas of coaching
Technique & fundamentals
Build mechanics that make you more consistent and musical, not just faster.
- Hand and foot technique
- Rudiments, coordination and independence
- Speed, control and efficiency
- Dynamics and consistency
- Time, feel and groove development
- Practice habits that actually address your weaknesses
Reading & musicianship
Reading should help you understand the music around the drum part, not just decode notation.
- Drum-set reading and sight reading
- Charts and rhythmic interpretation
- Form, arrangements and cues
- Learning material efficiently
- Preparing for rehearsals and professional situations
- Following musical directors, bandleaders and production cues
Styles & versatility
One of my favorite things to work on is helping a drummer move beyond the musical environment they already know.
- Rock, pop, funk and contemporary commercial music
- Jazz vocabulary and interpretation
- Afro-Cuban and Latin concepts
- Metal and heavier music
- Show-band and theater playing
- Moving between styles without playing the same vocabulary over everything
- Learning what makes a style sound convincing
Professional drumming & auditions
This is less about playing impressive things and more about understanding what makes a drummer useful and employable.
- Professional auditions, college or music-school auditions, and ensemble auditions
- Cruise-ship and show-band preparation
- Touring-band and production-show auditions
- Reading and learning material under time pressure
- Working with musical directors and bandleaders
- Professional rehearsals, communication and preparation
- Playing consistently night after night
- Audition recordings, repertoire and presentation
Recording, mixing & production
Modern drummers increasingly need to understand what happens after the microphones go up.
- Drum tuning and preparation for recording
- Microphone placement and common recording approaches
- Recording drums in a home or imperfect room
- Interfaces, DAWs, click tracks and remote drum tracks
- Playing differently for the studio than for a live room
- Basic EQ, compression, gates, reverb and drum balance
- Overheads, room microphones, editing and stereo image
- Understanding the larger mixing and mastering process
The goal is not to turn every drummer into a mastering engineer. It is to help you make better recordings and communicate intelligently with producers and engineers.
Drum video & digital musicianship
A working drummer increasingly needs to know how to record, present and share good work, not just perform it.
- Drum performance and playthrough videos
- Audition videos and professional performance clips
- Audio/video synchronization
- Camera placement, basic lighting and usable drum audio
- Building a portfolio of your playing
- Remote collaboration and sending professional drum tracks
- Using DAWs and creating music independently
- Presenting yourself professionally online without making the music secondary
Music theory & drumming beyond the drums
A drummer should understand more than when to hit the snare drum. We can work on theory from the point of view of someone sitting behind the kit.
- Song form, phrasing, measures, subdivision and time signatures
- Practical harmony, chord progressions and melody
- Dynamics, arranging, tension and release
- Understanding what bass players are doing and how bass and drums work together
- Listening to guitar, keyboard and vocal parts
- Understanding how instruments occupy space in an arrangement
- Supporting the music rather than competing with it
- Communicating with musicians who use traditional theory language
Experience that translates into coaching
My perspective comes from working in very different professional musical environments: touring, recording, reading, cruise-ship and show-band work, large production shows, and situations where I had to adapt quickly to different musicians and styles.
I studied Drum Performance at Atlanta Institute of Music and Media, worked internationally as a cruise-ship drummer, and later became the final drummer for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Red Unit, performing more than 500 shows during the final era of the production. I am also a Vic Firth artist and have worked across rock, jazz, funk, pop, country, Latin music, metal and production-show settings.
That experience matters because professional drumming is rarely about one isolated skill. You need to read, listen, prepare, change styles, take direction, keep your sound together under pressure and make the people around you comfortable relying on you.
Who I work with
I work primarily with drummers who already have a foundation and want more individualized direction.
- Intermediate and advanced drummers
- Serious high-school musicians and college-level music students
- Adults returning to serious playing
- Working and semi-professional musicians
- Drummers preparing for auditions or professional opportunities
- Players who feel stuck stylistically or want stronger reading skills
- Musicians who want to understand recording, production and the rest of the band
- Drummers considering a professional music career
If you are a parent of a serious teenage musician, you are welcome to contact me directly. I can help assess where the student is now and whether a consultation, short intensive or longer coaching period would actually be useful.
Customized coaching
Coaching is customized around the goal rather than sold as a fixed package. The format depends on what you are working toward and how much time makes sense.
Individual intensive
One focused session around a particular problem, audition, recording, technique issue, style or musical question.
Short-term intensive
Several sessions centered on one objective such as reading, jazz, Latin styles, rudiments, recording, technique or audition preparation.
Longer development program
A broader period of coaching that can combine technique, reading, styles, theory, recording, auditions and professional preparation.
Studio, in-home or online
My Arvada drum studio
Private drum lessons and coaching can take place at my home drum studio in Arvada. It is generally the best option for detailed drum-set work, technique, tuning, drum recording lessons and hands-on work with microphones and production. The exact residential address is only provided after a session is scheduled.
Lessons in your home
I can also travel to students throughout the Denver metro area. In-home drum lessons depend on location and my schedule, and longer-distance requests can be considered individually rather than through a fixed mileage radius.
Online coaching
Online sessions work especially well for reading, audition preparation, recording and mixing, DAW work, theory, career questions, listening and analysis, and reviewing performance or audition recordings.
Limited availability
My availability changes throughout the year because of travel, recording and other professional work. Some students only need one focused session; others benefit from several weeks or a longer development period.
When you contact me, include your current level, musical background, what you want to improve, any upcoming audition or professional goal, your preferred timeframe, and whether you prefer my Arvada studio, lessons in your home around Denver, or online coaching.
Where do you want to take your playing?
Tell me about your background, what you are working on and what you are trying to accomplish. I’ll recommend a coaching approach based on your goals and my current availability.