Colin Woolway is a well known drummer, teacher and the author of Drumsense Volumes 1 & 2, which are rapidly becoming the standard books for teaching beginners to play the drum kit. As a professional drummer he toured the world for 20 years, including eight years as Suzi Quatro's drummer, and then hung up his touring boots to concentrate on teaching. This resulted in a very busy teaching studio, the aforementioned books, a percussion video and more recently, the Drumsense Teaching Programme. He wrote well over 200 educational articles over 25 years for Rhythm magazine: "Teasers", "Getting Started”, “The Next Step”, “21st century Rudiments”, “The Drumsense 8 Bar Pattern" and “Jazz Concepts”.
Drumsense provides services to drum teachers to help them bring structure and professionalism to their teaching. We provide a teaching syllabus based around the Drumsense tuition books, but which also taps into a wide range of other teaching resources, and takes the complete novice through the basics of drum kit playing, like a foundation course. We also provide marketing support to help tutors present themselves professionally and reach more students. Finally, we provide access to the music industry, including significant discounts on tuition equipment and supplies from our partner organisations. These services are described in more detail below ...
Probably the most important aspect of the programme to tutors is the teacher training which we provide. This is an ongoing programme of training for the tutor which gives them the skills and knowledge they need to deliver the Drumsense programme to their students. Many tutors in our network tell us that the training has also helped to improve their own playing significantly. As our tutors are spread all over the world, most of them take their training on DVD - the next in the series is automatically mailed out every two months (or quicker if you prefer). For a video sample, click here.
The Drumsense programme is designed to be supportive and constructive. We believe that enthusiasm and commitment are just as important to good tuition as technical ability. You do not have to pass a test or exam to be a Drumsense tutor - our view is that anyone committed to learning how to deliver the programme will be able to give great drum lessons. In terms of monitoring student progress, there are a number of options around exams and grades. One route is to use existing accredited grades, such as Rockschool or Trinity. The Drumsense programme complements these grading systems well. At a less formal level, we also have a set of Drumsense grades available to all tutors at no extra cost, which we believe are an even better way to mark progress for the student, especially at beginner level. We are working to enhance these grades and have them accredited.
Publicising your services as a drum tutor can be a daunting task - we get you off to a flying start. The following services, all included in network membership, will help you to promote your services:
We believe that we are the largest network of drum tutors in the world, which gives us some clout! We are proud to have relationships with some of the largest manufacturers in the industry, and our tutors are entitled to significant discounts from these providers, to reduce the cost of equipping their teaching facility. Our relationships include:
We also have connections with many of the world's best-known drummers and percussionists. Some of our tutors have used these connections to put on masterclasses and other events in their local area to put their teaching service "on the map". Participants to date include Carl Palmer, Rick Latham, Mark Mondesir, Ian Thomas, Chuck Sabo, Neil Robinson, Chuck Silverman, Jonathan Mover, Darrin Mooney, Pete Lockett and Adrian Erlandssen.
If you would like to know more, please fill in the short form below - we will then send you one of our information packs. If you haven't already, watch the video embedded on this page in which Colin Woolway talks more about Drumsense and how it works.