Lessons
BSM Drums LLC offers private lessons on drums and percussion instruments. All instruments are provided during lessons, however students should bring their own sticks and mallets.
Lessons are available on a weekly basis, or students may choose to take just one or two to get themselves started!
Lesson Pricing:
$40.00 – 1 Hour Lesson
$23.00 – 1/2 Hour Lesson
For more information and to get signed up, please review our studio policies, and visit our contact page.
Snare Drum
The snare drum is the percussionist’s fundamental building block. It is an instrument with hundreds of years of history, and is used in beginning bands, professional orchestras, and every step between! Lessons on snare drum cover some of the technical fundamentals that apply to all percussion instruments, and introduce concepts specific to drumming, such as buzzes and flams.
Keyboards
The Keyboard Percussion family consists of marimbas, xylophones, glockenspiels, vibraphones, and other more obscure instruments, such as crotales. The common element is the layout of the keys, in a chromatic order, just like a piano. While studying keyboard percussion, students will work to develop an understanding of melodies and harmonies, and, more importantly, how to express dynamics and tempo changes, which are some of the elements of music that are more open to interpretation.
Drum Set
The past 100 years of pop culture would not exist without the drum set. It is the gigging percussionist’s workhorse. Originally comprised of just a few basic instruments – snare drum, bass drum, and cymbals – all arranged to be played by one person, the instrument has been expanded by countless performers to include toms, wood blocks, cowbells, tambourines, xylophones, gongs, and (most importantly) cup holders. The drum set is one of the most fun percussion instruments, and is a place for drummers to develop their own voice.
Auxiliary Percussion
The Auxiliary Percussion category is a “catch-all” for an eclectic group of instruments including the triangle, tambourine, crash cymbals, sleigh bells, whistles, castanets, jam blocks, shakers, do-dads, and hum-dingers. Each one of these requires a little bit of a different approach, and the percussionist is expected to be able to play them all! The key to success for auxiliary percussion is to spend time experimenting with each instrument in order to discover the various techniques that produce different timbres.
Steel Pans
Steel Pans, also known as Steel Drums, are relatively new instruments, which hail from Trinidad and Tobago, a small island nation in the Caribbean, just off the coast of Venezuela. Steel pans emerged during the 1930s & 40s from the tradition of Carnival, and the prominence of the Calypso style. The instrument made its way to North America in the mid 20th century, and today is a common instrument for jazz musicians and experimental composers. While steel pans are technically their own instrument family, the task of playing them often falls to the percussion section.
Hand Drums
The only similarity between various hand drums is the use of the hands as a direct beater, rather than using a stick or mallet. Two drums of similar size may have extremely different sounds and require different techniques. For example, the African Djembe is a similar size to the Cuban Conga, yet the “heel-toe” technique utilized for Congas does not yield the same effect on the Djembe. Likewise, the Tambourine and the Brazilian Pandeiro, while almost identical in appearance, possess crucial differences in their construction, playing techniques, and sound possibilities. While studying hand drums, students learn the basic motions that apply to most hand drums, as well as the more advanced techniques which make each instrument unique.