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Drum Lessons For Kids: Focus on Fun!

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Kids Love Drums and It's Our Job To Keep It That Way.

FUN IS THE NAME OF THE GAME.
Recently, here at BANG! The Drum School, we’ve been giving more and more drum lessons to younger kids and we’ve noticed that teaching them has a new set of challenges. The kids we teach are usually no younger than seven years old, but even at that age, their attention span can be limited. We’ve found a few ways to keep the interest of the younger set, however. The basic idea? Yup, you guessed it. Playing drums is fun! We keep things light, enthusiastic and positive. We use a lot of games. I have a six year old who is learning to read music and he is actually enjoying it because of this approach. The following are some of the ideas we’ve been using to get good results with these students. If you are a parent or a music teacher (of any instrument), hopefully these will be helpful to you. Remember, fun is the name of the game.

THE PARENT IS THE TEACHER’S ACCOMPLICE
Truth be told, the way I began figuring out how to teach younger kids was with the help of the parent of one of my students. Stella is a great mom, and her son is 6 years old. When Stella came to BANG with her little guy, Charlie, she was armed with a bunch of snacks, a bottle of water and an encouraging smile. One day, she brought pizza. We’d work on a little hand technique, and then Stella would offer Charlie a bite of pizza. We’d play some drums, then Charlie would have another bite of pizza. Little bits of “work” would be followed by little rewards. Snack breaks work. But the big picture here is that the parent can play a major part in setting the tone of the lessons if they want to. Stella is the opposite of the overbearing parent….she is helping me excite her child about drums.

ATTITUDE AND PERSONALITY
The overall attitude and personality of the teacher is key. Kids are interested in fun. That’s probably why they are taking drum lessons in the first place. Don’t spoil it by being too serious. When I teach younger children, my attitude is happy, encouraging, fun, low-key and even silly. The drum teacher is the younger student’s buddy, baby sitter, coach, clown and music teacher. Yes, I’ve got lots of music information to get across, but I’ve got to do it in little doses, and mix that in with a healthy amount of fun and games. A drum lesson with 7 year old should be more like a wonderful drumming party, not a serious lecture.

IT’S OK TO MAKE MISTAKES
It’s important to create a low-stress environment by communicating to the student that mistakes are part of the process of learning to play an instrument. If a student feels to pressure to be perfect or is under the impression that errors are not allowed they will feel stress and then the lessons will no longer be fun. I always tell students that it is OK if they make mistakes, that they don’t need to apologize for them and that I make similar mistakes when I’m learning something new (which is the truth).

“SIMON SEZ”
This is a great game to engage kids while sneaking in some information of importance about the musical instrument being taught. To help kids learn the different parts of the drum set, we’ve been playing “Simon Sez.” I’ll say, “Simon says, hit the snare drum two times,” or “Simon says hit the ride cymbal once.” It is rare that I can trick these kids when I don’t say “Simon says,” and they are so engaged in the game that they don’t realize that they are actually learning what all the different parts of the drum set are along the way.

HOW MANY TIMES CAN YOU DO “X”?
A big part of drumming is consistency. Drummers need to play repetitive patterns at a steady tempo and for relatively long periods of time. When a child is learning a pattern on the drums–a new drum beat, for example—they have a tendency to work on it until they can play it correctly a single time, and then stop. I want to encourage kids to play the pattern over and over and over again, because that is how musical patterns are absorbed. In order to motivate kids to do this, I like to play a game where we count how many times in a row the student can play the pattern that is being worked on, and then repeat that game, trying to break the high score. This method results in children playing a drum pattern over and over again, which is exactly what needs to happen in order for them to master any exercise.

MATCH THE METRONOME GAME
In this game, we turn on the metronome, pick a tempo and then either click the sticks together, play on the practice pad or a cymbal and attempt to match the pulse of the time keeping device. I always vary the tempos: slow, medium and fast. Steady tempo is an essential skill for all musicians, but for drummers it is everything. You can’t be a drummer if you can’t keep time. For younger students, breaking skills down into their essential elements is helpful, and that is what this exercise does. Instead of asking a 7 year old play a snare drum etude or drum beat along with a metronome, we’re simply having them play the exact pulse that the metronome is playing. The task is a much more reasonable one to have a child of that age complete, but it still teaches the basic time keeping skill, and that is our goal.

DRUMMING “FREE PLAY”
Part of the joy of making music is hearing the sound that the instrument makes when it is played. This “Free Play” exercise allows that to happen, and I’ve seen students experience great joy when they are encouraged to hit the drums any way they like…..no rules, no patterns, loud or quiet, fast or slow…..they are told to do whatever they want to do. This reinforces the notion that playing music is fun, and much of the time gets the child very excited. That joy and excitement is exactly what we are hoping for as it can be a big motivator.

DO WHAT I DO
Otherwise known as the rhythmic mimicking game, the teacher plays a rhythm and asks the student to play it back. Simple, but effective and fun, this is another game that keeps children engaged.

GIVE THESE IDEAS A TRY
Please give these ideas a try. Hopefully your young drum student will stay inspired, motivated and spend more time practicing their drumming skills as a result.

Mark Feldman
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Comments

  1. Axel F says

    Thanks for that article. I have quite a few young students and this info is very helpful, thanks!

    Reply

  2. Carolyn says

    I’m all for making learning fun for kids, and you’ve given some good tips here. All my children learnt an instrument, they’re not professionals, but still play for small groups of people. It takes a lot of persistence and encouragement from parents for the kids to continue through the hard times.

    Great post.

    Reply

  4. Oscar says

    Excelente articulo. Algunas de estas ideas las he estado aplicando segun mi metodo y criterio desde hace tiempo en adolescentes y ni├▒os. Me gusto esto porque encontre otra perspectiva para los mas peque├▒os. Gracias !!!

    Reply

  5. Callie says

    I just started teaching 2 7-year olds. I was only doing one of these things (breaking your high score game). The other activities are awesome! Thank you so much!

    Reply

  6. Christopher De Meo says

    I am teaching my first lesson tonight to my friend’s 7 year old son. I kind of fell into it. My friend asked me to evaluate his son’s skill after a few lessons at a certain rock school where they were teaching him how to play 7 Nation Army and We are the Champions. However, after 5 lessons he didn’t know how to hold the sticks and didn’t know the names of the instruments. So I agreed to teach him on the condition that it’s free.

    These lessons you provide are exactly what I was looking for as an appropriate approach to teaching such a young child. I was 8 when I started and it wasn’t nearly as fun as your list.

    Thanks again!

    Reply

  7. Nate Stein says

    I feel so thankful to have come upon this website. I teach drums and work with young kids, and I confess that I have not made the experience as fun and enjoyable as I should be making it. Thanks, I will try these ideas.

    Reply

  8. Richard Schwagerl says

    Thanks for organizing these lesson ideas.
    I have a drum workshop class for 25 kids at Art Camp this summer
    an I wasn’t sure how to keep them interested for 45 minutes.
    This should help.

    I have patented a Play-By-Numbers system to get kids started playing a drum set.
    Email me and I’ll send you a PDF of it.
    “Can’t We all Just Drumalong?” 🙂

    Reply

  9. Dustin Mott says

    I play:

    “Drum the word”. I ask them what they did in their day/week etc. Any word with two or more syllables I ask them to play it on their drum.

    “Repeat the beat” or Echo

    “Steady Beat”. They play with ‘Mr. Metronome the drummer clock’. I have them play eight times with one hand, then eight with the other. Then four times and repeat, three and repeat, two then with two I say, “one two twice as fast” and now they’re playing eighth notes with the metronome. Then I say, “one two twice as slow” and now they’re playing quarter notes. Then we play one and we go twice as fast and for some kids twice as fast as that so now they’re playing sixteenth notes.

    Then we play some drum sheets I created.

    Then we play along with music. I like Your Touch by The Black Keys. Easy beat and good tempo.

    Then we play drum solos. Use “old mcdonald had a farm” and “jingle bells” as their first drum solo then solo number three let them play what they want.

    Hope this helps.

    Best,

    Dustin

    Reply

  11. Amy says

    I started teaching a five year old drums it was tough because I just started playing drums myself but I think I might just be able to do it now, this was helpful to me.

    Reply

  12. Jack Turchin says

    I’ve noticed that alot of teachers on Youtube or in general show do not show ….how to hold the sticks, correctly, whether it be match grip or traditional? They go right into teaching a drum beat and i feel that is wrong….Maybe im being an old fart…i’m 60 and took lessons when i was 8….but shouldn’t we be teaching them that first?…Just a simple…..right…..left….right….left…..both methods….and make sure the student is doing it right….then….i was shown simple rudiments after i got the left right thing down….evenly….Comments?

    Reply

    • Mark Feldman says

      Hi Jack –
      Thanks for your thoughts on this. I do believe that technique is extremely important for success behind the drum kit. However, truth be told, in order to excite new students, regardless of age, I will often have them sit behind the drums so I can teach them how to play a few basic rock beats BEFORE I have a complete and in-depth technique lesson with them. The reason for this? New students sometimes get turned off if they are immersed too deeply in music theory/reading rhythmic notation or the minute details of hand or foot technique immediately. I believe my job, and the job of the teachers who work for me here at BANG, is to not only to teach these details, but to EXCITE our students about drumming. That is the reason that the order of what is taught may move around….However, note that these technical issues are always addressed, it’s just the matter of motivating the student that prompts me to change the order of what I teach. -MF

      Reply

  14. Adam Millest says

    Great post, thank you very much. I teach a lot of kids with learning disabilities and very low attention spans, so these are all great ideas for what to do with them.

    “A drum lesson with a 7 year old should be like a wonderful drumming party, not a serious lecture.” Great quote! Thank you!

    Reply

  15. Elena says

    Thank you very much for that great article!!It has been verey helpful!I really like your aproach in teaching kids!I just started to teach kids and I really needed to read somathing like this 🙂

    Reply

  17. Amanda says

    Hi Mark, thank you for this article. I have a 7-year-old son who has started to learn to play drums this year. The school he is at does emphasise fun, but I will pass this on, perhaps, just in case.

    I was looking for fun ways for me, as the non-musical/ non-musically trained parent, to reinforce the lesson he has with his teacher.

    I also would appreciate your advice on what you consider the optimal number of lessons per week for a 7-year-old – practise at home with the parent aside.

    Amanda

    Reply

    • Mark Feldman says

      Hi Amanda –
      Thanks for your comment. I would say that once a week is a good amount for lessons. This assumes a healthy amount of practice time in between lessons. hope this helps!
      Regards,
      Mark Feldman

      Reply

  18. Lucas Santos says

    HI Mark, Its very interesting and very usefull the information that you are giving us, thanks for that. I am a young drummer that started to teach recently and is very kind that you take the time to does it.
    Very good post, and sorry for my english

    Lucas Santos, from Uruguay

    Thanks

    Reply

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