It is now nearly a month since I joined Drumeo. Since then I have used it just about every day.
I have done online lessons before with the Artistworks school. On there you pay for lessons with one teach, and they do have top players on there. On Drumeo you get access to just about everything they have and there is so much. There is 'The Method' which takes you from the basics of drumming through to advanced techniques. I am onto the second part that deals with drumming music notation. That sounds dry, but you have to understand how rhythms work and being able to read opens up a vast array of resources. They have thousands of songs notated with backing tracks to play along with.
There is another course where you do a 10 minute drumming workout each day for a month. This is fairly basic stuff, but I think it helps me. As well as an endurance test it gets you used to playing a steady beat.
I am dipping into other material on there. They have profiles of drummers, interviews, product demonstrations and general chat about drumming. I also have access to their instruction for singing, piano and guitar, but have not had time to look at that yet.
On my trip to some music shops in London last week I picked up this book, which gets recommended a lot. It was first published in 1935, but still seems to be well regarded. It is full of drumming patterns.
Drumeo has various lessons that feature these patterns. They put a fair amount of stuff on public Youtube, but there is far more behind the paywall. I find my practice is more structured if I am following a set course.
The Drumeo site logs what lessons you have done as well as how much time you have spent practising with backing tracks. You can see how other people are doing, but music is not really about competition.
After I joined I was contacted by a 'mentor' called Joy who is in Canada. She has been a pupil too and is there to help me out with any issues. I told her I had not been prompted to give my details for the physical items that were part of my joining package. She sorted that out and they are on their way to me. They may take a while to get to the UK from California.
There is also a forum where you can discuss the course or drumming in general as well as comment sections on every video. You can be as social as you want.
I think I made the right decision in signing up for this school as it will keep be busy for a long time. I will be looking into working on some songs that I can do videos for to post on here. There is the prospect of another local band project where I may get to do some drumming, so I need to keep working on my skills. With music you really need to get lots of playing experience to train your mind and body so that playing becomes instinctive. That is why I aim to play every day.
Keep on rocking.