Drum Lessons with Jon Arkin

Jon is a wonderful teacher. He loves introducing his students to the delightful world of percussion. He’s patient, and knows how to work with all types of personalities and learning styles. He focuses each lesson on what the individual desires to learn, at the same time making sure they progress to become the best they can be. **Highly recommended! **

Contacted this guy regarding lessons awhile back and his hourly rate is ridiculously high. No wonder he can afford $ 2000 custom made drums from Japan. Guys like this cater only to rich people. Not the poor. Save some dough and look elsewhere. There’s plenty of pro-​level drum instructors who charge around $ 45 an hour. Not $ 60+ !

I was lucky to find Jon to be my first drum teacher. He is a professional drummer with a lot of experience in a wide range of styles — jazz, funk, afrobeat (I found him because he plays with one of my favorite bands — Albino), orchestral, and a bunch more. The main thing for me though was that he is an excellent teacher who knows how to break things down and patiently explain technique. Having played the piano, I knew that getting the technique right early on would prevent problems and having to relearn later. Jon tailored the lessons to this — explaining the advantages & disadvantages of holding the sticks in various ways (german, french, marching band), how to play so that hands stay relaxed, different ways to use the pedal, etc. etc. Some of this stuff was not at all intuitive — but once I got the hang of it, it made progress much easier.
We practiced rudiments and exercises from the classic books on beginner drum technique. When I started playing around with writing down my own rhythms Jon always took time to look at them and write down exercises and variations that built on these and talk through their relationship to different musical styles — this was especially awesome.
I’ve had to pause the lessons due to travel and work but will be going back to Jon as soon as I’m able.

Jon is the MAN! He’s very educated on drum technique and he’s got a wonderful rapport with his students. He makes difficult techniques seem easy to understand and he’s very affable as well. I would recommend him to any drum student.