If you’re wondering if you can learn drums purely from online resources, you’ve come to the right place. Finding a private teacher can often be difficult, especially if you live in an area where drummers aren’t found easily.
To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of the best platforms to learn drums from. Each of them offers something unique, so make sure to read about all of them to see which one you like the most before signing up.
We’ve made sure to find drum lesson platforms that either have a lot of material, strong communities, or certain lessons that are hard to find elsewhere.
Contents
Top 3
Drumeo was our Top Pick for the best online drum lesson platform. Drumeo is arguably the biggest drumming entity in the world, with their Edge subscription being where they give the most value. We found thousands of lessons, with a variety of topics being covered by some of the best drummers in the world.
Our Best Budget pick was YouTube. There is so much free drumming content available on the platform, with the biggest downside being that none of it is cohesive. We wouldn’t recommend purely learning from YouTube, but it’s a great place to go to find a few ideas.
Drum Beats Online was our Editor’s Choice. The base version of it had the same price as most other memberships, but you can pay extra to get private online lessons with one of their drum tutors. We thought that was fantastic.
Best Online Drum Lesson Platforms
Drumeo
If you’re a drummer and you’ve spent a bit of time online, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Drumeo. We signed up for their Edge Membership so that we could let you know what was on the inside.
We felt a bit overwhelmed at first, considering that you have multiple tabs for different lessons, courses, playalongs, and sheet music. But we got accustomed to the interface quite quickly and then realized just how much value you’re given for the monthly subscription.
The platform had drum lessons for every topic we could possibly think of. We found that Drumeo was an amazing platform for both new and experienced drummers.
We loved the fact that you get to choose to watch lessons from world-famous drummers. Some of them do weekly live lessons under what Drumeo calls The Coaches Program.
We also loved the Drumeo Method. This is a comprehensive drumming course that takes you from basic chops and easy songs for an absolute beginner all the way to a gigging professional. We thought that this course alone was worth the membership, but it only forms a fraction of what you get.
The big downside of the Drumeo Edge platform is that it’s quite easy to get lost. They tried to guide us as much as possible when we first signed up, but we can easily see how a new drummer may get a bit overwhelmed.
YouTube
YouTube is the ultimate platform for learning anything. You get YouTube channels that cover every niche out there, and there are dozens of good drumming channels for you to learn from.
The best thing about it is that YouTube videos are free to watch. So, we went to look out for different drumming channels that we could learn something from and recommend to you.
We mostly found that all the best drumming YouTube channels were run by drummers who also have membership websites.
Some of them had some amazing lesson content, spanning from beginner to highly advanced drumming concepts, but you still get the impression that you need to sign up for a membership to get the best education. We completely agree with that sentiment.
Learning from YouTube is great for a bit, but the issue with YouTube is that it doesn’t keep you accountable or give you any structure.
So, we suggest using YouTube as a supplementary platform for learning drums instead of using it as your main platform to learn how to play everything.
To help out a bit, here are some of the best educational drumming channels that we found:
Drum Beats Online
Drum Beats Online is another incredible drum lesson platform to sign up for. It’s run by Gabe Helguera, and he’s the sole teacher for all the lessons on the site.
We loved how the lesson material was broken down into five stages. The first stage was for beginners, and it included several courses on getting started.
As we looked through the stages, we saw how the difficulty was raised, with the final stage having all the material that we as pro drummers could really benefit from.
We really enjoyed the courses on making great drum videos and gaining traction on social media. But all the courses are excellent and very cohesive. We could see how drummers will get a good sense of progression when going through all the lessons.
The most interesting thing for us, though, was the Teachers program. On top of our subscription, we could pay for extra one-on-one lessons with a verified teacher from the platform. The role of those teachers is to help DBO members if they’re struggling with sections of any of the courses.
We haven’t seen a system like that from any other online drumming platform, so that’s why Drum Beats Online was one of our favorites.
Orlando Drummer
Orlando Drummer is another top-quality drum lesson platform to consider signing up for. Adam Tuminaro is the man behind this platform, and he’s well-known for teaching amazing drum lessons on YouTube.
His YouTube videos have been some of the highest-quality drum videos put out on YouTube over the past decade, so we were very excited to check out what his platform had to offer.
The site had a mixture of courses, masterclasses, and practice loops. The courses covered all levels of drumming, but we were pleasantly surprised at just how many intermediate and advanced courses there were.
This is a platform that we’d easily recommend experienced drummers sign up for, as Adam has put out so many conceptual courses that a seasoned drummer could heavily benefit from.
The one downside of the site was that the production quality wasn’t as consistent as we thought it would be. Many of the courses were filmed years ago, so the later lessons look and sound miles better. It’s a natural thing to occur, but we just found that the other drumming platforms weren’t as noticeable in this area.
However, that wasn’t something that stopped us from loving every minute of looking through and using the site.
One of the things we loved the most was the large library of practice tracks. These were playalong tracks in different genres. They had extended lengths so that you can practice different concepts in musical settings.
Mikes Lessons
Mike Johnston is undoubtedly one of the best drumming teachers in the world, and Mikes Lessons is a great platform that allows you to learn directly from him.
The main bulk of the site was drumming courses that covered a variety of topics. We also saw that there were weekly homework assignments for the members as well as weekly live lessons from Mike where you could interact with him.
The thing we loved most about this platform was Mike Johnston’s teaching style. When we watched the drum lessons, it felt like Mike was talking directly to us and relating to our needs instead of teaching to the camera.
The homework assignments also made it feel as if Mike really cared about every student that had a membership on the site. A good teacher always wants to see every one of their students grow, and that’s what Mike does with all his virtual students.
We highly recommend signing up to Mike’s Lessons if you’re looking for a personalized experience with online drum lessons.
One of the benefits of signing up is that you get priority booking when it comes to Mike Johnston’s in-person drum education camps. These are week-long camps where Mike takes on eight students to improve their playing.
Matt Garstka
Matt Garstka’s platform is our top recommendation for advanced drummers. The lessons on here will twist your brain like no others.
Matt Garstka is one of the leading drummers in the progressive music world, and his lessons break down many concepts from his playing. We weren’t surprised to find out that none of them were easy.
The site doesn’t have a comprehensive lesson plan like any of the others, but it’s great for experienced drummers to pick and choose what they want to work on.
One of our favorite lesson packs on the site was The Madness of Matt Lesson Series. It involved Matt Garstka extensively breaking down all the drum parts from an Animals as Leaders album. You get the full transcriptions of the drum parts for every song. While they looked overwhelming at first, Matt’s way of explaining them helped us understand the song parts fairly well.
Instead of signing up for a membership, you can just purchase each lesson series individually. It’s a perfect system for advanced drummers who aren’t looking to spend a lot of time on a drum lesson platform.
While we knew that Matt Garstka was an amazing drummer coming in, we were pleasantly surprised at the fact that he was a very good teacher. He had a great way of getting concepts across and getting us to understand them better.
The obvious drawback of these lessons is that they’re out of reach of most drummers. If you’re still learning to play grooves, keep time, and jam with bands, this isn’t a platform you should look at.
Guide to Choosing the Best Drumming Platform
Free Trial
The best thing to do when looking for platforms is to test the free trials. We recommend you do this for every platform that you find appealing. Some drum sites have trials that last a week, while others have trials that last a month.
When you sign up for the free trial, make sure to participate in as much as you can so that you get a real feel for how the platform works. Doing it that way will allow you to see all the benefits that the site has for you.
Do Research on the Instructors
Anyone can make a website and upload videos these days, so you need to make sure that you’re signing up for lessons taught by a reputable teacher.
Luckily, most drumming platforms also have YouTube channels where you can find free drum lessons. Check those out to ensure that the drummers in charge of the platforms are good players.
This is also a good way to see if you like the drummer’s personality or not. You may not gel with certain personality types, and there’s nothing wrong with finding another platform where the teacher’s methods suit you more.
Most drumming education platforms are run by single drummers. Drumeo is the one large platform that we’ve suggested that has dozens of instructors. If you don’t like the personality or teaching style of one instructor on there, there are countless others that you can learn from.
Many drummers that run these platforms play in pro bands, so it’s a good idea to listen to albums and live gigs to hear them in action.
Final Thoughts on the Best Online Drum Lessons
If you’re feeling stuck in your drumming, signing up for a membership platform is one of the best things you can do to break through that wall. We also heavily encourage it for new drummers who don’t have an in-person drumming teacher.
To wrap up on our suggestions, Drumeo is the best overall site to sign up for. The amount of content you get is more than worth the price you pay. YouTube is a good budget option, considering that it’s completely free. However, we don’t suggest doing all your learning through YouTube. Drum Beats Online is our Editor’s Choice. On top of getting a comprehensive list of drumming courses, you can also pay extra to get private drum lessons on Zoom.