In my nearly 25 years of giving drum lessons I've learned a lot and I think that the most important thing was taught to me by George Lawrence, and that was to RECYCLE the knowledge. Pass it on, as he did.

 

I was teaching full-time from 1994-1995 in Orange County at the world-famous Orange County Drums & Percussion storefront when it was a retail store off Lake Forest Road near Irvine, CA. (at the 5/405 split). It was a great time there; Taylor Hawkins was hanging out and I remember him asking if he could use the lesson room to woodshed his audition tape. Turns out he was learning the Alanis Morrisette gig!

After OC I ended up in Vista, CA. where I had my little drum spot- a converted garage in the house where I rented. It was a sublime arrangement in that I had plenty of room to set up and stretch out. I taught in Vista actually from two of the places I lived and ran somewhere close to 200 students through my room. I taught from 1995 until 2002 as a full-time occupation.

For a minute, I had a gig at Guitar Center San Marcos doing "The Tuesday Night Drum Lesson" in which I would plan out a full curriculum for the month, print out flyers, design lessons in MS Paint (I was oldschool), and get to the GC on time after having taught 12:00-5:30 at my home...But out of those efforts was borne my book "Time, Space, & Rhythm" (coming soon), and a full-on lesson plan entitled "Drumset University", a 4-week plan to fast-track a drummer from ground zero to a nominal amount of skill. Soon I will make it public in some sort of book form.

After I moved away from Vista my life was getting kind of hectic- I had a kid, a failing marriage and a monkey on my back of sorts. As a result, the teaching thing sort of fell off the table of "things I enjoy".

Currently I am not teaching but the yen to see someone learn something and "get it" is starting to eclipse within me.