Why did you start these courses?
The courses began as online group sessions each week during the pandemic. They were so successful, that I decided to continue the lessons online even after the pandemic had ended. Being online allowed players from all over Canada and the US to study from the comfort of their own home. However, there were still some issues that I needed to address:
Time Zones across North America: not everyone could make the lessons at the time I was offering them.
Schedules: even if you could make the lesson time, you may not be available on the particular evening that your lesson was on or from October to May when the lessons ran each year.
Recording: lots of students wanted to record the online lessons so they could play them back again and again after the lesson was over. This made perfect sense to me, but would create havoc with copyright issues if the videos ended up in the wrong hands as had happened to some of my material in the past. Therefore, no lessons were allowed to be recorded.
With the courses now available as video-on-demand, these issues have all been solved. Not only is the material presented in full from the original online courses that were previously available, but new videos and examples have been added to compliment what was already offered.
Do you teach one-on-one lessons now?
Yes! One other issue with teaching the online courses each week, was that I had no time left to teach individual lessons – something I had done for 30 + years before that. Students who are actively enrolled in any of the courses, get to now schedule one-on-one lessons with me to go over the course material or answer any questions they may have on it. Please see the calendar here to register for a spot lesson.
Why do the courses have time limits on them?
This is from my past experience offering digital products. Access to software changes, subscription companies change, websites and server companies change, nothing in the world of technology is forever so this is just a point of reality for this type of service. Access forever might sound good for a quick sale, but I’m not a salesman and I don’t like lying to people, especially my fellow drummers.
I allow each course to be studied for three years, which in my experience is enough time for most drummers to get through each of the levels. Some, like the beginner course, should only take a year or so to complete. The higher the grade, the longer it typically takes to become competent in it.