Learning to play the drums is an exciting journey filled with rhythm, technique, and creativity. While traditional face-to-face drumming lessons with a tutor have their merits, digital platforms have revolutionized the way we learn. They offer flexibility, personalization, and a vast array of resources that you can access at your convenience.
Drum learning apps are designed to cater to your individual learning style and pace. They offer a range of features from video tutorials, interactive lessons, play-along tracks, to handy drumming tools. With these apps, you can learn the fundamentals, practice new drumming techniques, compose your own beats, and even record your performances.
What is it?
We built Melodics to help drummers learn by playing, with a strong focus on an interactive experience that takes drummers beat by beat through lessons and provides specific feedback on their performances.
Melodics is the only drum lesson app that tracks performance & progress on your kit; you can actually see how you are playing in real-time! It’s a highly interactive drumming experience: Either plug in your electronic drum kit or turn on your device’s microphone near your acoustic drum set and start playing. Melodics will then provide guidance on how to play songs & techniques while showing you your progress overtime and providing specific feedback on how to improve.
Melodics has a broad range of lessons and courses designed for all skill -levels as well as an extensive song catalog. You can enjoy a number of exclusive drum experiences with learnings from your favourite drumming stars like Ilan Rubin and Butch Vig, as well as connect with drummers around the world in our active community.
Key features at a glance
What the experts say:
"Melodics is a great tool for learning songs. It allows people to see what they might have been missing when listening to improve accuracy." - Ilan Rubin - Drummer for Nine Inch Nails, Angels & Airwaves and solo artist.
"Melodics is one of the best innovative tools to keep you in the practice room and having fun doing so" - KJ Sawka - Grammy nominated drummer & producer and in the group Pendulum
"I wish i’d had Melodics when I was learning drums!" - Butch Vig -
Award winning producer, Drummer for Garbage.
Getting Started with Melodics
Run by accomplished drum educator, Mike Johnston, Mike's Lessons is a fantastic platform for beginners and seasoned drummers alike. The site offers a wealth of courses and topics, from drumming fundamentals to advanced techniques.
Whilst there is no personalised feedback element when watching video content, there are frequent live streams and Q&A sessions where you can connect directly with Mike and other drummers to discuss your playing.
For intermediate and advanced players based in the USA, you can also reserve a spot at semi-regular drum camps to build upon your learnings online.
Check out some of Mike's Lessons on YouTube:
Founded by drumming legend Don Lombardi, who also founded DW Drums, Drum Channel takes pride in its superior learning curriculum which is backed by expert drummers. They have a range of learning videos, interviews and live performances as well as well-crafted courses to guide you through all the way from a total beginner to a pro.
Courses are created with iconic drummers such as Chad Smith where you can actually learn directly from him. They have also featured some of the biggest names on their channel including Sheila E., Neil Peart and Stewart Copeland.
Drumeo is another video streaming platform which is popular around the world. The site offers a vast collection of free and premium video-based lessons, covering a multitude of drumming topics. Drummers can watch the clips and drum along to the content.
They have an awesome array of entertaining videos from popular drummers taking on challenges and doing epic performances to full historic reviews of the world's greatest drummers. They host a lot of their learning content on YouTube for free which can be a great support in addition to other more personalised learning options.
As the name suggests, this platform offers drummers a way to practice and play drums virtually. It has customizable settings and variety of different tracks and songs, making it a fun and easy way to get familiar with different beats.
You can follow their music notation which can be helpful for total beginners who are wanting to upskill in this area. However, there are obvious limitations with this learning style as it is not catered to support you playing your actual kit. This is likely an ideal supplementary tool alongside other learning apps or platforms.
With countless free tutorials, YouTube is a goldmine for anyone looking to learn drumming online. Channels like 180 Drums, Drum Channel and Alex Ribchester offer a wealth of educational content for drummers of all skill levels.
With so many options on the market, choosing the right drum learning app can be overwhelming. Here are some factors to consider when making your decision:
Learning to play the drums has never been more accessible, thanks to the plethora of drum learning apps available today. Whether you're a beginner looking to master the basics or an experienced drummer aiming to refine your skills, there's an app out there that can help you achieve your drumming goals. So grab your sticks, download an app, and start drumming to the beat of your own rhythm!