How To Motivate Your Drum Students???

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...artist formerly known as...

...I prefer the old, "do this or I'll kill you" approach. Toss a few tattered bodies about the practice room, wear a "Silence of the Lambs" mask, and call all your students "clarice" They won't swat a fly from their noses while performing rudiments on the snare

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">LOL You guys rock. I'm glad you guys have a good SOH too, & didn't take offense to my silly post...since there were various good responses already, i decided to take the "designed to bring a 'chortle' approach" [that was for you, Joe's [img]wink.gif[/img] ] - there was no intention to undermine a good thread! [img]cool.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 25, 2005 10:00 PM: Message edited by: got_a_matchgrip? ]</font>

I love the answers on this topic. Any others out there with some ideas???

I have been working with my boys drum teacher and we found out that to motivate my 2 boys and keep their attention they practice for 1/2 hour.
15 minuets spent on stick work i.e. snare,rudiments,work out of "A Funky Primer for the Rock Drummer". The other 15 minuets are spent on jamming to a cd without drums. "WjojWorks sessions minus one". http://www.drummercafe.com/community...=wojoworks.htm
I have set them up with the Vic Firth SIH1's headphones with an in-line volume control and they are ready to go. See my sig below, my youngest is practicing with them.
My kids are 8 & 11 so the attention span is not too long. I have no problem getting them to practice with this program in place. The best part is the instant gratification they get using what they have learned from the books and applying it to the songs on the cd.They will sit down and jam when not asked to just so they can get a groove down.Also the fact my 8 year old has a little better feel and time than my 11 year old gets them to sit and practice together.
Very Cool [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

Monday; basketball, Tuesday, judo, Wednesday, drumming, Thursday, golf, Friday, hang out, Saturday, playstation, Sunday, tv!

I think you should ask what your student wants. If you know his / her goals, you can decide how to deal with them. I don't know if you need the income but maybe they are not the students you want / need. You could tell them that you are considering throwing them out to make more time for serious students who give feedback on their previous lessons and do their best to achieve something. Or if you are fine with their decision to show up without practicing, you can tell them that they are wasting money ignoring your valuable lessons but that it is OK for you. At least you know that you don't have to put too much energy in it, although that's not really satisfying. And last but not least, lock them up in your bassdrum and use the hour for practicing your double bass chops, they won't do it again [img]wink.gif[/img]

Great answers!!! Hey Jerbear: Dan Wojciechowski is a great drummer and friend. Sounds like you're getting some great results. Hey JP: I hear you loud and clear. I have a great gang of students right now. They all understand the rules: Practice, Practice, Practice!!!! [img]wink.gif[/img] HEY TEACHERS!!! Share some of your teaching tips!!! Thanks!!! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Great responses on this thread, guys!

One thing I used to do with my students is to allow some jam time at the end of the lesson as a reward for work well done. I used to start my lessons by reviewing the previous week's work. If they came in prepared, it would only take 5-10 minutes for them to nail their 'assignment'. Then, we'd do 10-15 mins on new stuff. That would leave time at the end of the lesson to 'jam' a bit, whether it be going over a song they brought in, or trading 4's (which my older jazz guys loved!).

Obviously, if the student came in unprepared from the previous week, we'd have to spend more time at the beginning of the lesson which would cut out the time available at the end. Most were usually motivated to get prepared!!

Of course, I'd have to use G.A.M.G.s pistol therapy on some of 'em!! [img]smile.gif[/img]

-Scott

Hey Scott!!! Your approach sounds like my approach!!! Cool!!! Thanks for your reply.

JP nailed today's kids well. They have so many activities going on it can be dificult to really focus on all of them, so some things do end up being lower on their priority lists. But don't let kids fool you. In college I had a 12 year old student who just didn't seem to pay attention to anything I said and just couldn't get the things I was presenting to him. I ran into him when he was 19 and he told me he was listening and gathering it all in; it's just that he wasn't putting in the time. At around 15 he said he got serious and began working on the stuff and it began to fall into place for him. The kid played great when I heard him. He went on to be one of the drummers for "Stabbing Westward" and now has a very successful music production company.

i think a really good way is to introduce them to new inspiring music and drummers, 90% of drummers i talk to here in hk dont know vinnie colaiuta, what a source of inpiration to be without

Also i find that when i tell my teacher about a cool cd to get and then the next week hes got it and plays me a song from it (him playing a long to the cd) i find this inspires me too!

I make compilation CDs for my students. A huge mix of music. Most are into it and few are not.