Great online drummming course

A little while back I shared JP Bouvet’s YouTube masterclass in the Rllk pattern or paradiddles, that was free content.

I felt as though it was the exact sort of material I was interested in studying, and JP explains what he’s teaching better than any online teacher I’ve encountered. He demonstrates and gives a bunch of practice examples that you tap along with.

Anyway, a free trial for the online subscription based course was advertised and I decided for the first time to sign up to online “lessons”.

I think it’s only been 3 or 4 months but I’ve had my head down practicing these different courses with every spare minute and I’ve developed a whole bunch of vocabulary that sounds quite advanced, and I can just let it flow out of me all day if I’m in the right mindset, my paradiddles have never sounded so fast or smooth because I’ve been repping practice examples. I’ve downloaded a bunch of course pdf’s and might pause my subscription to shed them all for a year, I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting to get this much out of the site.

Anyway I see there’s a free trail advertised and thought I’d pass a referral on, click the link below to do a free trial.


Now I’m wondering what other sites are good, or if there are some to avoid signing up to?

Agree, it's the best online resource I've seen. I bought his book and got a yearly subscription last black friday. Highly recommend it.

Jeez, as far as I can see the actual information is not bad-- I'm glad it's working for you, to do something-- does the tone of it ever wear you out?






Reading the blog it's relentless with that stuff, a relentless sales pitch. I never thought to package every single drumming insight I ever experienced into hype-seminar form, or sell somebody blues form like some kind of branded trade secret. The terms are also highly strange-- "improvisation strategy", elsewhere he's talking about "leveraging" whatever drumming thing.

It's nothing if not well ordered, and the little actual information I can access for free is not wrong-- at the very least someone can learn a few licks and maybe get a couple of things to think about, and mess with. But the actual thing he's selling is kind of bullshit-- music does not happen the way he's selling it. You wouldn't want it to, nobody wants to be around somebody who thinks like that.

I wish him all success, get what you can from him, but I would be skeptical of the larger picture here.

Well you know the saying

Never judge a book by its cover

toddbishop said:

music does not happen the way he's selling it. You wouldn't want it to, nobody wants to be around somebody who thinks like that.

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I think I understand the point you're making...but just to be sure...and also for the sake of others who may read this...will you elaborate a bit more on what you mean here?

Duck Tape said:

Well you know the saying

Never judge a book by its cover

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Sorry. I've just never seen anything like that, that level of hard sell. If the actual stuff is doing something for you, great.

MattRitter said:

I think I understand the point you're making...but just to be sure...and also for the sake of others who may read this...will you elaborate a bit more on what you mean here?

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I'm still processing what I'm even seeing there. It's giving me 80/20 drummer flashbacks, although this guy seems better at it. The writing seems AI assisted-- I hope it is, because I don't know a human musician that talks that way-- "leveraging ghost notes" and whatnot.

What I meant with the line you quoted is that you don't learn to play this way, like by going to a "fill seminar", where they teach you what rhythm is before getting into the Weckl shit. You and I have both taught many hundreds of students, how many of them were actually prepared to do this kind of thing in linear order? You'd get sidelined for weeks just getting the rudiments you want them to know together.

It reads more like a description of a video series than a lesson plan, which seems to be what it is, where the guy gives you "feedback" on your video at the end of the week. Which is not a legitimate form of instruction.



It's also extremely irritating to be giving an ordinary stock musical phrase a branded name-- "3+1 Approach."

toddbishop said:

I'm still processing what I'm even seeing there. It's giving me 80/20 drummer flashbacks, although this guy seems better at it. The writing seems AI assisted-- I hope it is, because I don't know a human musician that talks that way-- "leveraging ghost notes" and whatnot.

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I also thought it had an AI Vibe.

toddbishop said:

What I meant with the line you quoted is that you don't learn to play this way, like by going to a "fill seminar", where they teach you what rhythm is before getting into the Weckl shit. You and I have both taught many hundreds of students, how many of them were actually prepared to do this kind of thing in linear order? You'd get sidelined for weeks just getting the rudiments you want them to know together.

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Got it. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

I think we largely see this sort of thing from people who become “online teachers” before logging substantial years as regular, in-person teachers. They simply don’t have the experience to know what happens when real people attempt to learn the drums.

Thanks for the reply and the clarification.

Speaking to all - I might not be at your level, but I am experienced, I am a working professional, have been through a few books and I teach drums and I am saying it’s a very good course that has inspired and pushed me ahead, maybe what’s written on the box is a bit of hype but I’m telling you that I’ve picked up a lot of vocabulary and learned to orchestrate rudiments in ways I didn’t figure out by myself. I am not a fanboy or anything but the guy did go through Berkeley and win a national drumming competition at a fairly young age, so I would give him some credit.

The writing is just standard online marketing stuff. Drumeo's is much worse, and less usuful in my opinion.

JP Bouvet has taight people in person for a while as well, he has his method, he's just younger than most of us are here.

His stuff work, it's not licks, it's about improvising. His main thing is using downbeats and upbeats as a rhythm skeleton, keeping your mind on that while you execute more complex stickings on top, not unlike the syncopation stuff a lot of us do, but in a more step by step way.

Sometimes he promotes by giving away a free week (even a free month, that's how I tried him first), so you can see for yourselves if it's worth it for your situation.

Duck Tape said:

I am saying it’s a very good course that has inspired and pushed me ahead

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Duck Tape said:

I’m telling you that I’ve picked up a lot of vocabulary and learned to orchestrate rudiments in ways I didn’t figure out by myself.

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Thank you for sharing with us that you've had a positive experience with the course.

Todd has a history of intelligent and frank commentary, so I found it interesting to hear his impressions after he did a preliminary investigation.

That doesn't mean that your positive experience is any less valid. I myself have no opinion of the course since I'm not at all familiar with it. However...I imagine that there must be something of unusual value in it for you to be so enthusiastic about it.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts on the course with such sincerity. You've piqued my curiosity enough that I may end up checking it out.

JP is definitely legit. Been a member of a few courses myself. Tried Hesslers online site. Good stuff also but too much basic technique oriented. And all about the hands. JP's site is much more set oriented and practical. There is tons of material to absorb. For that price you can't get any better imo. No need to go to Tim Alexander's site who charges thousands of dollars. No mistake here I love the guy but what is too much is too much.

Check out JP's site and see if that is your thing.

OHD said:

The writing is just standard online marketing stuff. Drumeo's is much worse, and less usuful in my opinion.

JP Bouvet has taight people in person for a while as well, he has his method, he's just younger than most of us are here.

His stuff work, it's not licks, it's about improvising. His main thing is using downbeats and upbeats as a rhythm skeleton, keeping your mind on that while you execute more complex stickings on top, not unlike the syncopation stuff a lot of us do, but in a more step by step way.

Sometimes he promotes by giving away a free week (even a free month, that's how I tried him first), so you can see for yourselves if it's worth it for your situation.

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The thing that turns me off about Drumeo is that they got online and started drum courses for students without any history. They were too young for that. What credentials do they have to teach to a worldwide audience? They're running a business model by simply inviting big name players into their video studio and collating material.

They have a nice production facility it's a real shame it's put to use by chuckling behind the glass while a guest drummer attempts to play an unfamiliar song that's been selected from a list of favorites.

They're arrogant and overtly confident without the decades of experience which is becoming a hallmark of YT content creators.

SimSalaBim said:

JP is definitely legit. Been a member of a few courses myself. Tried Hesslers online site. Good stuff also but too much basic technique oriented. And all about the hands. JP's site is much more set oriented and practical. There is tons of material to absorb. For that price you can't get any better imo. No need to go to Tim Alexander's site who charges thousands of dollars. No mistake here I love the guy but what is too much is too much.

Check out JP's site and see if that is your thing.

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So what is the product, is it actual lessons-- which is one-on-one time with another person-- or do you watch videos and then send them a video and they tell you if you figured it out right?

Jeremy Bender said:

The thing that turns me off about Drumeo is that they got online and started drum courses for students without any history. They were too young for that. What credentials do they have to teach to a worldwide audience? They're running a business model by simply inviting big name players into their video studio and collating material.

They have a nice production facility it's a real shame it's put to use by chuckling behind the glass while a guest drummer attempts to play an unfamiliar song that's been selected from a list of favorites.

They're arrogant and overtly confident without the decades of experience which is becoming a hallmark of YT content creators.

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They're a media company, the educational aspect is accidental.

Jeremy Bender said:

The thing that turns me off about Drumeo is that they got online and started drum courses for students without any history. They were too young for that. What credentials do they have to teach to a worldwide audience? They're running a business model by simply inviting big name players into their video studio and collating material.

They have a nice production facility it's a real shame it's put to use by chuckling behind the glass while a guest drummer attempts to play an unfamiliar song that's been selected from a list of favorites.

They're arrogant and overtly confident without the decades of experience which is becoming a hallmark of YT content creators.

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They've kinda morphed into that silly realm that you mention. I kinda liked the older ideology they had by bringing in some good high quality players like Frank Briggs, Sonny Emory and that awesome brush player who imparted some of their knowledge and broke a few concepts down with some PDFs to print off. At least it had some possible educational impact for kiddies and newbies to be inspired to learn. Some of the stuff I picked up had an impact. Which was cool considering that it was free. But now, yeah, it's just become a horrible, horrible shadow of its former self. I just wish @toddbishop would do some kind of online course. It may not necessarily be what you would want to do Todd ,but I'd reckon you'd have a good cohort of the drumming community want to be in your circle. You've got a hell of a lot to say, honest, straight to the point, pragmatic and it'd be coming from a place of sincerity.

toddbishop said:

So what is the product, is it actual lessons-- which is one-on-one time with another person-- or do you watch videos and then send them a video and they tell you if you figured it out right?

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Well I don't know if that was sarcastic question but I am gonna answer it anyway. Its packed with tons of lessons. From beginner intermediate to advanced. They also have nice guest lessons. All the lessons are thoroughly explained and demonstrated by JP. It's all there. It has all the tools you need to become creative on your own. What you do with material then is your task. How you approach your own arrangements for the songs is your thing. I paid like the same money for one on one online shitty lessons. For me personally it's money well spent.

SimSalaBim said:

Well I don't know if that was sarcastic question but I am gonna answer it anyway. Its packed with tons of lessons. From beginner intermediate to advanced. They also have nice guest lessons. All the lessons are thoroughly explained and demonstrated by JP. It's all there. It has all the tools you need to become creative on your own. What you do with material then is your task. How you approach your own arrangements for the songs is your thing. I paid like the same money for one on one online shitty lessons. For me personally it's money well spent.

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Not sarcastic, I was asking what is the nature of what they do. To be clear, the things you're calling lessons are videos, right? Not actual lessons taught to you live by a person?

toddbishop said:

Not sarcastic, I was asking what is the nature of what they do. To be clear, the things you're calling lessons are videos, right? Not actual lessons taught to you live by a person?

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Site is packed with content. Every course has video explanations of every exercise. Every course has separate pdf material. We are not talking about 2 pages of pdf. Every pdf is literally mini book. You have option of submitting video and you get your own kind of person that reviews the video. I didn't send anything but the option exists. It would be great if JP could submit some advice but I got the feeling the user count has grown too much to cover every person. Not to mention the material is updated regularly. Everything is up to date. As I said. I have been a member of few online sites, but this one is the best for me personally. Its 30 bucks a month. You can try it and see if it suits you. And I am far from making commercial for this site. This is just my personal experience.

SimSalaBim said:

Site is packed with content. Every course has video explanations of every exercise. Every course has separate pdf material. We are not talking about 2 pages of pdf. Every pdf is literally mini book. You have option of submitting video and you get your own kind of person that reviews the video. I didn't send anything but the option exists. It would be great if JP could submit some advice but I got the feeling the user count has grown too much to cover every person. Not to mention the material is updated regularly. Everything is up to date. As I said. I have been a member of few online sites, but this one is the best for me personally. Its 30 bucks a month. You can try it and see if it suits you. And I am far from making commercial for this site. This is just my personal experience.

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I'm not looking for lessons, I was just wondering what the product is.

Can you share one of the pdfs, so I can assess it? I'll trade you for one of mine, or all of mine.

toddbishop said:

So what is the product, is it actual lessons-- which is one-on-one time with another person-- or do you watch videos and then send them a video and they tell you if you figured it out right?



They're a media company, the educational aspect is accidental.

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That's the vibe I get, It's more marketing than musician. If they choose to release videos to YT featuring master players for us to observe their playing and technique, I'll watch them.

But as soon as I see a millennial who'd rather stare down at a computer screen while the accomplished professional next to him is playing their ass-off or someone starts smirking behind the glass while their guest attempts to play an unfamiliar song I change the channel SMH...