TeachDrums is for any music teacher — not just drummers. Rhythm is essential to every instrument and style. If you can follow a clear “Do this, Say this, Watch for this” plan with click-to-access activities, you’re ready to use TeachDrums. It works great for general music classes, school percussion groups, and private or homeschool instruction.

TeachDrums was designed by a veteran general music teacher after years of creating lessons for his own K-5 classes. We firmly believe that anyone from age 5 and up can thrive in this program. Age will, of course, dictate speed in mastering the concepts, but progress, joy, and building musical knowledge can occur at virtually any age.

Great question! Over the next 9 units, your students will seamlessly advance from the BARE basics (what is beat, steady beat, simple subdivisions of the beat, rhythm syllables and counting systems, etc.) all the way through every category of the Percussive Arts Society rudiments. A graduate student of this program will be highly sought-after in any musical ensemble.

The only real requirement for this curriculum is a pair of drum sticks, and a surface that can be hit. We strongly recommend (in our included materials guide) a basic practice pad. They're cheap, they last forever, and they'll make your class noise level very, very tolerable. All of the exercises, songs, and playing activities can easily transfer to classroom instruments when appropriate (a great idea for your first TeachDrums school performance!) No drum set or expensive equipment is used for this curriculum - it is designed to be an extremely affordable curriculum to implement, in order to avoid any financial barriers.

Your class, your schedule, and your school's requirements are likely different from others. Our founder uses these materials as a part of a rhythm-centric focus, for the first 9-10 weeks of the school year, building rhythm awareness and literacy so that holiday music, spring performances, and every other component (melody, harmony, and form, etc.) can build on and refer BACK to our rhythm foundations. Typically, another long period of TeachDrums happens after the winter holidays, which seems to alleviate a LOT of the energetic behavior issues that arrive as the weather warms up. 

45 minute classes are a perfect length, but you can bring TeachDrums materials in and out of any lesson, as you see fit. 5th grade students, for example, are typically able to begin and finish a unit in 3-4 lessons. It is strongly recommended that you utilize a set of warmups (from our included exercises) for 5-10 minutes before each class to prepare the muscles and allow their minds to focus.

The TeachDrums curriculum is priced "around 2 nice cups of Starbucks" per month, or significantly less if the annual subscription is chosen. That works out to $12 monthly, or $8.33 per month annually. Most of us are in a situation that provides some sort of annual budget for expenditures. Our hope is that you will see the value in a curriculum that almost teaches itself, and the piece of mind that will give you as worth allocating a part of your annual budget. We strongly encourage the annual option as it saves a significant amount, and can be done once simply (through your school bookkeeper or personally) and know that you have regularly-updated experience that will thrill your students and make your work life significantly less stressful.

Everything is presented through a simple, elegant, and clean interface with modern active boards and projectors in mind. Each unit has a teacher guide, tons of exercises, activities, worksheets, composing opportunities, play-along unit songs (perfect for your next concert) and more. Navigation is simple: just log in, choose your unit on the left, and everything just works :)