I offer one to one drum lessons from my purpose built soundproof studio in Brockham, Surrey.

I have experience of teaching children from age 5 up to retired adults.

I have been playing the drums for 35 years.  Through these years of experience I have been through many cycles of hitting a plateau in my advancement and going back to basics and identifying my weaknesses and overcoming them to move forward.

I began learning the drums when I was eight years old.  So I have firsthand experience of trying to balance drum lessons and drum practice with school work, other hobbies and also finding (probably too much) time for computer games and playing with friends!  I also started my own band when I was 12 years old and began playing gigs with them from age 13.  In the beginning I had a handful of favourite drummers and listened closely to how they played, learning their unique beats, fills and style by ear.  It probably took over ten years before I felt my own style emerge that was influenced by all the great drummers and musical styles I had learned.

I also have firsthand experience of trying to find time to practice and keep an originals band going whilst working full-time.  Then gradually moving into playing drums professionally.  Also, with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in 2016 I have had to do extra work to improve my technique to avoid injury.  I’m happy to say my hands have never felt better, despite flare ups and stiffness.

So, by studying the drums with me I will share all of my experience of:

• Constantly refining technique

• Learning to imitate favourite drummers and eventually developing your own style

• How to compose your own drum parts for songs

• Intelligent use of a metronome to develop naturally excellent time keeping

• Great dynamic control of the whole drum set

• Drum set tuning and maintenance

• Achieving a great drum sound on gigs and recording sessions

• How to improvise and solo

• How to maintain unity in a band

• How to handle work as a session musician

• How to quickly learn cover songs for a gig, either through sight reading music, learning by ear or notating your own score.

The great jazz musician Herbie Hancock said the following words:

“Music is an expression of what it is to live, so if we don’t inquire into how we should live, how can we create good music?”

In addition to dedicating my life to learning this wonderful instrument, I have come to a realisation that I only truly play the drums when I am fully expressing my humanity, overcoming my ego to not play for applause and instead to play the drums to bring joy to my audience. To make them feel that life is wonderful.  Of course it is well documented that there are many famous, incredibly talented musicians who are awful people.  However the truly world class musicians are great people, because they are only able to make that music from polishing their life to make it shine.

So it is my wish as a drum teacher that I can inspire the same passion and character development in you too.

The world renowned Cellist - Pablo Casals said the following in an interview when he was in his 80s why he continued to practice for 4 to 5 hours a day: “ because I think I’m making progress”.

It is my hope that I can inspire you to overcome the inner resistance to devote time to practice,

Please contact me by phone, email or text/whatsapp to discuss my availability and rates.

I hold a full DBS certificate with the Musicians Union as a music tutor.

The great jazz drumming teacher - Jim Blackley stated “I think that environment is one of the most important things in development. Music is a language and has to be learned…. If you’ve never heard Spanish spoken, then you’re not going to learn to speak Spanish. If you want to be a jazz drummer and have never heard jazz being played, then you’re just not going to learn to play jazz. You have to expose yourself to the jazz language. The first thing any musician should be taught is the art of listening.”