As I was driving home from work today I was stuck in traffic… bad traffic. It gave me a lot of time to think about what is currently happening in the drum education industry. There are so many good teachers and websites out there, but sadly, there are so many bad ones as well.
It got me thinking about something I heard on the radio once. I forget who was saying it, but they said that when a person pays for something they will value it more. This person was referring to education and was basically saying that if you pay for your education, you will be more likely to use it and actually improve.
On the surface, the comment makes sense. But when I really think deeply about it, I actually totally disagree.
Saying that students should pay for their education makes a lot of sense if you’re in the business of giving private and online lessons. Of course I’d love it if everyone was just throwing money at us for our lessons!
But here’s a question: Do you think that a poor starving child will appreciate food more if they have to pay for it? Hell to the no!
If the child is hungry they will appreciate any food. Obviously they won’t expect a filet mignon or anything like that, but some form of sustenance would likely be appreciated.
In the same way, if a person is “hungry” to learn the drums and play music they will appreciate any form of education and likely eat it up.
Now, I get it, drum teachers can’t go around giving away free private lessons. They all have bills to pay as well. But when the cost of distributing lessons through YouTube and Facebook is low, then it makes more sense to help where we can.
This is one core value that we have at Drumeo: We believe that everyone has the RIGHT to learn to play drums, regardless of how deep their pockets are.
We also put our money where our mouth is by creating FreeDrumLessons.com in 2007, and then continuing our tradition of posting free lessons by creating an amazing Drumeo Blog, and constantly updating our YouTube channel with high-quality free education from the best drummers in the world.
My goal for Drumeo is to TEACH EVERY DRUMMER IN THE WORLD, regardless of age, race, skill level, financial status, and location. So how would I ever achieve that goal if I charged for every single lesson? It wouldn’t happen.
Now here’s the caveat… if you can afford to pay for your education, I HIGHLY recommend it. Doing so will not only give you more access to amazing lessons and teachers, but you will be investing in the growth of the drumming community. And by signing up for Drumeo, you will be getting the “filet mignon” of online drum education. Shameless plug, but c’mon, I had to do it!
So here are some questions and I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments section below!
What would it mean for the drum community if everyone who had the funds paid for their education? What if every person in the world who had the desire to play drums was freely given the right information to help them reach their goals?
Personally, I think if all teachers thought this way the community would only grow. We’d be creating more drummers, more teachers, more jobs, and as a result, there would be more innovation.
So please, help me spread the Drumeo love. Share our blog posts, share the YouTube channel, and share the website. Thanks for reading!
P.S. To achieve my goal of teaching every drummer in the world, I’m going to need lots of help and great partners. If you would like to work together on translating videos to other languages, writing articles, filming lessons, and much much more, please drop me a line through email: jared@drumeo.com (I will try and respond to everyone, but please be patient!)
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