Drum Lessons in Fort Wayne, Indiana
Kyle “K. Edward” Smith is now accepting students (beginner and advanced) looking to take drum lessons online or in person in Fort Wayne, IN.
Contact info@kedwardsmith.com to schedule a free demo lesson.
See What Other People Have Been SAYing:
“Kyle’s knowledge and experience are invaluable, and I feel like not just a better drummer, but a better musician overall because of our lessons.”
-Nicholas, Drum & Composition Student
“My 10 year-old son has been taking lessons with Kyle for about 4 months. In that time, his skill and focus have developed so much thanks to Kyle’s patience and encouragement. My son looks forward to ‘drum night’ every week!”
-Andrea, Mom of Beginning Drum Student
Teaching Bio
Kyle is a long-time touring musician and recording artist and has been teaching drum lessons professionally for over the last decade.
He studied with Grammy Award winning artist/composer Jorge Casas and Nashville session musician/producer Luke DeJaynes at Greenville University. Kyle continues his studies with Fort Wayne drumming legend Todd Harrold.
Featured Video Lessons
Lesson Methodology
Drum lessons with Kyle are generally scheduled once-per-week for 30 or 60 minutes depending on the student’s age and availability.
Lessons are taught in-person in Fort Wayne, Indiana, or online through video conferencing software.
The material covered in lessons is individually tailored to each student, based on their skill level, musical interests, and desired skill development.
Typical Drum Lesson Structure
Here is the typical flow of drum lessons with Kyle:
- Start with a technique or reading exercise to warm up
- For example: using some of the patterns from classic drum books like Stick Control, or Syncopation, to get the hands and feet moving
- If you don’t know how to read sheet music yet, don’t worry! Kyle will cover this early on and get you reading in no time!
- Dig into technical material to work on developing new skills
- This is where most of the instructional work happens. Kyle and the student will review new material on a drum concept and analyze some examples of the concept in action.
- For example: more technique exercises out of drum books like Survival Guide for the Modern Drummer, The New Breed, or Advanced Funk Drumming; or exercises that Kyle specifically crafts for that individual student to work on specific skills
- Work on playing songs or instrumental pieces that apply these new skills
- This is an opportunity to put those skills into practice. Kyle will assign and assist with learning song parts as a way to challenge students to use what they’ve been learning.
- For example: reading groove transcriptions from books like The Breakbeat Bible and playing along with the recorded track; or having the student transcribe their own drum lead sheets by ear.
- Wrap up and review homework for the next lesson
- This step is pretty self explanatory, but incredibly important! Music lessons are the type of thing where “what you get out of it depends on what you put into it” so be ready to do some (hopefully enjoyable!) homework.
- Send out summary notes post-lesson
- Written lesson notes that summarize the material covered and homework are provided to the student and/or their parent/guardian after the lesson
Pricing
The first lesson with new students is a free demo lesson.
Contact Kyle at info@kedwardsmith.com to schedule your demo lesson today!
The demo lesson helps the student see if they connect with Kyle’s teaching style. It also helps Kyle gauge the student’s ability level and general musical interest for planning future lessons.
If you decide to schedule regular lessons with Kyle after the initial demo, here are his current standard rates:
- $30 for a 30 minute lesson
- $40 for a 60 minute lesson
He offer does offer monthly “bundles” if you want to pay once a month and save a bit per lesson:
- $115 for 4, 30 minute lessons ($27.50 for a 30 minute lesson)
- $140 for 4, 60 minute lessons ($35 for a 60 minute lesson)