Drum Lessons

Drum lessons cost between $25 – $50 USD for a 30-minute lesson, depending on teacher qualification, region, and in some cases student level. Individual teachers offering only a weekly lesson will tend to be closer to the bottom of that range, where schools offering a range of extracurricular activities will be closer to the top.

Generally, parents and adult students should expect to pay $125 – 200 / month for a full lesson program.

Online apps go for much less, normally in the $25-50/month range, but limited or no personal coaching, and largely pre-recorded material that requires a student to ‘self-guide’ and ‘self-motivate’ themselves through the process.

Generally, no – you can’t teach yourself how to drum. There may be a few exceptions where a drummer achieves a high level of competence without personal mentorship or coaching, but typically there are other factors involved such as musical family members, and/or many opportunities to be playing casually with other musicians.

Generally, a new drummer needs constant feedback and input on how to improve technique, how to practice effectively, how to stay inspired and motivated, and how to push beyond the comfort zone.

Further, drumming is more than simply knowing how to physically interact with a drum set. There are complex traditions, cliches, patterns, and performance conventions that are what permit a drummer to interact with other musicians or to ‘sound’ like a particular style of music.

Someone self-teaching themselves may even be able to emulate a complex solo perfectly – but without understanding which elements were improvised, which drew on cliche, or what the drummer was likely thinking about while doing it, it’s nothing more than rote learning and likely not very transferrable.

Just as you can learn a spoken language without a tutor, you can’t learn a language without a tutor and in a vacuum.

Learning the drums comes with its own set of unique challenges. While some may find drumming effortless to learn, others may find it very difficult – just as some may pick up piano easily, while others struggle for years.

It’s safe to say that on average, it takes less time to sound ‘competent’ on the drums as it does on some notoriously difficult instruments such as brass/woodwind or string instruments; but to achieve a top professional level, the amount of time and commitment is on par with other instruments.

Many teachers and programs will prefer that a student take weekly lessons. And most drum students will need between 1-2 years of practice before gaining strong confidence in their abilities.