Online courses have been all the rage for the past several years. If you want to learn something, finding a set of lessons about it has never been easier. When it comes to drumming, online courses are abundant. We’re spoiled for choice as drummers with all the excellent options out there.
Finding a course to follow may be tricky if you’re not entirely sure of what you want out of it, though. So, I’m going to recommend some of the best online drumming courses I know of that suit varying learning goals.
Bottom Line Up Front
There are several amazing courses to find online that teach you how to play certain things on the drums. While some of them are locked behind monthly subscriptions, others can be purchased once off. You may even find some fantastic free courses.
Every drumming course has a specific end goal in mind, and knowing what that end goal is will help you find a course that best suits what you’re looking to learn.
My Top Picks at a Glance
- Drumeo Method – Best comprehensive course for all levels of drummers.
- Jazz Drums with Peter Erskine – Best course for learning to play jazz.
- DBO Academy – Best course structure for beginners.
- All 40 Rudiments by Daily Drum Lesson – Best course to learn rudiments.
- Drum Flow Coaching with Jacob Evans – Best course for intermediate drummers.
- The Art of Tuning Your Drums by Dave Weckl – Best course for learning how to tune drums.
Tips for Finding Drumming Courses
Subscription Websites
When looking for drumming courses online, you’ll notice that many of them are locked behind monthly subscriptions. I’ve found that most online drumming education platforms have monthly fees to pay that give you access to all of their content.
This is a bit different from the way other courses work in other industries. Buying once-off courses is the norm with those, but that’s not the case with the drum industry. You may find a few once-off options, but I’d suggest not sticking to that. If you accept that you may need to pay a monthly fee, your options will open up quite widely.
The benefit of paying a monthly fee is that you’ll have access to multiple courses instead of just one. You’ll get more value for your money if you utilize the available courses.
Levels of Drumming
Before finding a drumming course, you should identify where you are in your personal drumming journey. Typically, drumming levels are categorized by beginner, intermediate, and advanced abilities. Knowing where you fit on that spectrum will give you a clearer picture of what course to pick.
A beginner drummer isn’t going to get very far when following an advanced drumming course. You’ll find the topics being taught both confusing and frustrating as you most likely haven’t developed the fundamental skills to place those concepts yet. On the flip side, an advanced drummer is going to find a beginner course quite boring.
Intermediate drumming has the widest variety of topics. You could find plenty of value in an intermediate course, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced player. The great thing about drumming is that there are so many topics and skills to learn about that no drummer could possibly learn them all.
Specific Goals
You’ll find yourself progressing the most when you follow courses that have specific end goals. That’s what I strongly suggest that you look for. Thankfully, most drumming courses I know of follow particular goals, so you’re in safe hands!
Here are a few examples of course titles that show intent with an end goal:
- Practical Ways to Improve Foot Speed
- Learn the Fundamentals of Rock Drumming
- Cymbal Dynamics and How to Master Them
While those course titles are very clear in their intention, you may find a few courses that don’t have descriptive titles like that. This doesn’t mean they’re bad. In fact, some of them are the best, and you’ll see that in my suggestion list.
With those ones, you should read the descriptions of what the course offers. Some of them will have advertisement videos to watch as well.
Drum Courses vs Drum Lessons
When looking to buy and follow a drumming course, I recommend understanding the benefit of it compared to taking regular drum lessons. The goal of a course is to learn and accomplish something by the end of it.
Once you’re finished with the course, you can look back on it and continue working on what was taught. Courses take one or two things and focus on them for several lessons.
General drum lessons tend to cover everything, and they’re a lot more personal to what you want to learn. If you’re taking lessons from a teacher, you can tell them what you want, and they’ll guide you as best they can.
They’ll also give you feedback, whereas courses typically won’t. Going through a course is a one-time thing while taking lessons could be a weekly or monthly thing.
I strongly suggest doing both. Taking regular drum lessons is key to learning and improving, and going through a few courses will supplement whatever you’ve been doing with regular drum lessons. You should see courses as extra things to utilize to see greater improvements in your playing.
Selection Criteria
There are dozens of incredible drumming courses available online. I’ve chosen the ones below because I’ve either used them myself in the past, directed some of my students toward them, or kept up to date with them in case I decide to sign up for them in the future.
Each one has a set goal to achieve by the end of it, and each one fulfills a different purpose for varying drummers.
Best Drumming Courses Online
Drumeo Method
The Drumeo Method is the most comprehensive drumming course that I know of. It’s essentially a group of ten courses that are sorted into levels. Each level has dozens of videos inside it that cover the topic goals of the level.
The idea behind the Drumeo Method is that you can start from the very beginning of your drumming journey with it and level up all the way to advanced drumming. You could spend years with this course and learn an incredible number of things.
Drumeo is the largest drumming platform on the Internet. The platform has so many lessons that it can be easy to become overwhelmed. They created the Drumeo Method as a way of sticking to a set structure without that overwhelming feeling creeping in.
One of my favorite things about this course is that the lessons are taught by several famous drummers. You don’t get only one teacher showing you the ropes. You get different perspectives from drummers with varying background experiences. Some drummers may prefer learning from a single teacher, but I love the idea of having many.
Pros
- One of the most comprehensive drumming courses available
- Takes you from beginner drumming to advanced drumming
- Years’ worth of content to follow
Cons
- Some drummers may prefer smaller and more focused courses with a single teacher
Jazz Drums with Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine is a legendary jazz drummer, and going through the Jazz Drums with Peter Erskine course will improve your jazz playing dramatically. This course is offered by the Artistworks website, and it has a unique subscription model where you pay for a certain number of months to unlock the content.
In this course, Peter Erskine starts with the fundamentals of jazz drumming and takes it down all the way to advanced jazz concepts. It’s an incredibly elaborate course that will equip you to play drums in small jazz ensembles.
While you could learn content like this through other platforms with online drum teachers, I’ve picked this one as the best jazz course since the lessons are taught by Peter Erskine himself.
Pros
- Excellent course to learn jazz drumming
- Lessons are taught by legendary jazz drummer, Peter Erskine
- The course includes a set of jazz backing tracks to practice with
Cons
- Only for drummers wanting to learn jazz
DBO Academy
DBO Academy is an online drum education platform run by Gabe Helguera. While it’s an entire website, I’ve listed it here as a course considering the drum lessons are categorized into course levels on the platform.
I’m suggesting this option as the best drumming course for beginners as Gabe is fantastic at teaching beginners how to get started. All the course videos are also incredibly high-quality since they’ve been professionally filmed and edited.
Gabe’s personality is a huge drawcard, and he makes beginner drummers feel like they’ve accomplished great things after every lesson within the course. Like the Drumeo Method, the course is also structured into levels. Here’s what they are:
- Level 1 – Basics Builder
- Level 2 – Coordination Conquest
- Level 3 – Intermediate Icon
- Level 4 – On the Rise
- Level 5 – Master Drummer
I’d say the course is more geared toward beginner drummers, but advanced drummers may find a few valuable lessons here and there.
Pros
- One of the best drumming courses for beginners
- Gabe Helguera is a fantastic teacher with a welcoming personality
- There’s a special focus on rock drumming within the course
Cons
- Advanced drummers may find themselves wanting a bit more
All 40 Rudiments by Daily Drum Lesson
This next option is a YouTube video that is completely free to watch. It’s a single video, but I’m labeling it as a course as it’s something you’ll end up watching and working on over and over. Daily Drum Lesson is a YouTube channel where a drummer, who I can’t find the name of, uploads hundreds of drum lesson videos.
All 40 Rudiments is one of his most popular videos. In this half-hour video, he explains all the rudiments and teaches you how to play and read them. It’s a no-nonsense course video that breaks down the practicalities of rudimental playing.
If you want to learn about all the rudiments, this is the video to follow. I constantly find myself coming back to this video whenever I’m struggling to remember what a particular rudiment is.
Pros
- Free course video
- Complete breakdown of all 40 drumming rudiments
- Very easy to follow
Cons
- The rudiments are only played on a practice pad and not on a drum kit
Drum Flow Coaching with Jacob Evans
Drum Flow Coaching is a platform run by Jacob Evans where he takes intermediate drummers through to advanced drumming. Once you sign up for the platform, you get to speak one-on-one with Jacob for him to give you a bit of direction. After that, he takes you through a course that teaches you all the necessary steps to break through to advanced playing.
I love how this course works because it feels as though Jacob is along there with you for the entire journey. Everyone I know that has gone through the course has seen major improvements in their playing, so the results speak for themselves.
Since you’re working one-on-one with Jacob, he’s also there to keep you accountable. You’re going through a drumming course, but you’re getting the benefit of showing your work to a drum teacher as well.
Pros
- Great course for intermediate players to break through to advanced drumming
- Special focus on drumming technique
- Feels incredibly personal
Cons
- Only for intermediate drummers
The Art of Tuning Your Drums by Dave Weckl
There aren’t too many drummers who have achieved as much as Dave Weckl has. He’s a legend in the business, and he’s been world-famous for decades. He started an online education platform a few years ago, and he offers a few courses on there that are incredibly helpful for drummers.
One of my favorite ones is The Art of Tuning Your Drums. In this course, he breaks down how to get the best drum sound possible. He pulls from all the experience he’s gained over the years and teaches you how to tune your drums for both studio settings and live stages.
While Dave Weckl is an incredible player and his playing courses are excellent, this is the one course from him that I’d suggest to everyone.
Pros
- Expert tuning tips from a world-famous drummer
- Advice on tuning drums for both studios and stages
- Great course for drummers of all levels
Cons
- You need to pay a monthly subscription to maintain access to the course
FAQs
Answer: Learning drums online is easy if you find a good learning platform and remain dedicated to it. The online world is incredible, and you’ll be able to find every drumming concept being taught somewhere.
The trick with learning drums online is that you don’t have as much accountability as you would with a drumming teacher. This may cause you to stick with bad habits that haven’t been corrected. Those bad habits will make playing certain things a lot more difficult in the future, and that’s where you’ll find learning drums online to be more challenging.
To make the process as valuable as possible, you should find a learning platform that allows you to submit videos of yourself playing with a feedback system in place. Otherwise, you should go to an in-person drum teacher and use the online materials to supplement your learning.
Answer: The first thing I teach all my drum students is learning the names of the drums. It’s difficult to learn beats and fills without knowing the names of what you’re playing. After that, it’s ideal to learn how to sit properly at the kit, hold your sticks comfortably, and play a few basic beats.
Some drummers insist on learning to play rudiments before anything else. I disagree with that, as it’s a lot more fun for beginners to play beats first. They won’t understand the point of rudimental work at first, making it better to bring it in at a later stage once a student starts loving the drums.
Answer: They’re incredibly valuable if you utilize them regularly. You’ll get the most out of the money you pay if you invest a lot of your time into the content that is offered. A standard drum lesson will cost $40 or more, but online education subscriptions typically only cost $30 per month.
That $30 will unlock hundreds of lesson videos, courses, and live lessons where you can interact with whoever is running the platform. That’s highly worth the cost!
I’ve found that many drummers tend to start with motivation and then slip away. If you’re not watching and learning from the content regularly, then the subscription won’t be worth it.
Answer: If you’re looking for a drum teacher who teaches in person, you could go to your local music store. Most stores have some sort of advertisement wall where teachers offer their services. That’s where you’ll find their contact details. Otherwise, you could type in “drum teachers near me” to Google, and you’ll find a few options.
It’s also incredibly easy to find online drumming teachers. If you have a favorite drummer, you could contact them on social media or via email and ask for a lesson. You’d be surprised at how many professional drummers are available to do this.
Answer: YouTube, of course! It’s the best place to find free videos of anything, including drum lessons. Just note that it may be quite difficult to learn drumming entirely from YouTube.
There’s no cohesiveness between drum lesson videos on the platform, so you aren’t going to be directed in the way that a beginner drummer should. This may leave you feeling confused as to what you should learn next. That’s why drumming courses and education platforms are better options to go with.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a bit of drumming inspiration, following a course is a fantastic way of kicking you into gear. There are so many concepts to learn on the drums, and courses do an excellent job of focusing on one or two concepts, making learning new things a lot easier.
Check out all the drumming courses that I mentioned above. Choose whichever one stood out the most to you, sign up for it, and then get to the practice room. Good luck!
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