The programme
How the programme is built
Four terms, each with its own focus and its own exam. The course supplies the material and the pace; one-to-one teaching supplies the correction. Both belong to the programme; neither is an add-on.
Certificate, diploma, bachelor
Two awards that exist, and one being worked on. What applies to which is written on the card, not in a footnote.
- Entry route
Certificate
12 months · terms 1–2The foundations, taken far enough to hold. Anyone who stops here can play cleanly, read a chart and hold their own in a band.
- Two exams, one at the end of each term
- One-to-one teaching across all twelve months
- Award: certificate of the Drum Masters Academy
- The full route
Diploma
24 months · terms 1–4The certificate year followed by a second year of independence, style in depth and studio work. The award the programme is designed around.
- Four exams, plus the final examination
- A prepared programme and a sight-reading section
- Award: diploma of the Drum Masters Academy
- In preparation
Bachelor
Accreditation in progressThe curriculum is built around the requirements of a bachelor programme. The accreditation procedure is under way; it is not complete.
- No academic degree while the procedure runs
- No promise of a later place
- Enrolled students are told as soon as anything changes
In Germany an academic degree may only be conferred by state-recognised higher education institutions on accredited programmes. Until the procedure is complete that does not apply to us — and we do not phrase anything as though it did.
The programme
What the programme consists of
Lessons with sheet music and play-alongs
Every lesson brings what you need to practise: the video, the chart to print, and a play-along at several tempos. The platform remembers where you stopped. Subtitles are mandatory — a lesson without a checked subtitle track cannot be published.
One-to-one teaching with a fixed allowance
A fixed allowance of sessions per academic year, with the same person throughout. You arrange appointments directly with them. How many sessions remain is shown on every page of the platform, not tucked into a billing area. If the allowance runs out, you book more.
Playing analysis in between
Between appointments you can submit a recording at any time and get written feedback on what to work on next. The same route as the free first analysis, only ongoing — and without using up an appointment.
An exam at the end of every term
A set programme, assessed by your own tutor and a second person from the faculty. Pass and you move on. Fail and you repeat the section and sit it again — nobody is thrown out, but nobody is passed along either.
Recording instead of self-deception
You hear yourself differently while playing than on a recording. So recordings are made regularly, and not only when things happen to be going well. In the second year studio work is added: playing to a click, thinking in tracks, finishing a take.
All of it on a phone
There is rarely a computer in a practice room. The platform is built for the phone rather than shrunk to fit it: open the chart, start the play-along, carry on where you left off — with a thumb.
The four terms
Each term has a focus and ends with an exam. The first two make up the certificate, all four the diploma.
Term 1 · Hands and time
Rudiments, stroke, rebound, stick height. Subdivision from quarters to sixteenths, playing to a click. First basic grooves in rock and funk. Exam: clean, even playing at a moderate tempo, both hands audibly equal.Term 2 · Reading and groove
Notation, sight-reading, counting, simple charts. The basic forms of the four style families and the fills that go with them. Exam: an unfamiliar chart on the first pass, plus three grooves on request. This concludes the certificate year.Term 3 · Independence and style
Ostinatos across all four voices, comping, broken figures, double bass drum, odd meter. Style in depth rather than as a collection, plus brushes and band playing. Exam: three styles on request and an ostinato with a shifting melodic voice.Term 4 · Recording and finals
Play to a click, listen back, correct. Studio work, thinking in tracks, a finished take. Final examination: a prepared programme of around twenty minutes and a sight-reading section, assessed by two people from the faculty.
The subjects
The six fields a drum programme has to cover. Each runs through the whole programme but shifts its focus from term to term.
Hands
Rudiments, stroke, stick height, rebound, Moeller. The aim of the first year is that you can no longer hear which hand is the left one — same volume, same sound, same control. Speed and stamina follow in the second year.
Time
Subdivision, holding a tempo, changing it deliberately, playing with and without a click. The part nobody sees and everybody hears. Second year: odd meter, metric modulation, and holding a groove against a band that pushes.
Reading
Notation, sight-reading, charts, band material. A groove learned by ear is quick; playing an unfamiliar chart off the stand is work — and the difference between someone who plays drums and someone you can call.
Independence
Four limbs, four jobs, none of them leading. Ostinatos across all four voices, comping, broken figures, foot technique including double bass drum. The field where two years show most clearly.
Style
Rock, funk, jazz, Latin and what follows from them — not as a collection of grooves but as the question of why a style sounds the way it does: what the hi-hat is doing, where the ride sits, how the bass drum relates to the bass. Plus brushes and playing in a band.
Recording
Play to a click, listen back, play again. Microphone basics, tracks, takes, editing — far enough that a submitted recording is usable. Anyone who has recorded before knows why this is a field of its own.
What a week looks like
The question that always comes up in the first conversation. Four to six hours a week is realistic — spread out, not in one block.
Twenty minutes of technique, daily
Rudiments on a pad or the snare, with a metronome. The part that hurts and works. It may be short, but it may not be skipped — hand technique builds over days, not over hours.
Two or three sessions at the kit
Forty to sixty minutes each: the current lesson, the play-along, the groove of the week. This is where what you prepared in technique gets applied.
One recording a week
Two minutes, a phone will do. Listen to it once without clicking away. Send it in if you like and get written feedback.
The appointment with your tutor
Depending on your allowance, usually every two to four weeks. This is where what you cannot spot alone gets corrected, and where the next stretch of work is agreed.
How you get in
There is no entrance exam and no self-registration. Instead there is a conversation in which both sides check whether it fits — and in which you receive the terms in full before you decide.
Register interest
Through the form. A name and an email address are enough; anything else helps us write back usefully.
A playing analysis, if you like
A recording of your playing, free and without obligation. It is not a condition, but it helps both sides work out which route fits.
A conversation with the academic leadership
About thirty minutes. Where you stand, what you are aiming for, how much time you have — plus the terms in writing, with amount, payment method and start date.
Enrolment and access
After enrolment the academic leadership creates your account, you receive your credentials, and you are assigned a tutor.
Admission and terms
Two start dates a year, in spring and in autumn. Included are all lessons with sheet music and play-alongs, the allowance of one-to-one sessions for the academic year, ongoing playing analysis, the exams and the award. The fee is given to you by the academic leadership in the conversation — in full, with payment method and instalment option, and in writing before the first payment.
Apply to us now.
One video, a few questions, done. A tutor watches your playing and replies in writing — with what to work on next, and with which of the three routes fits you. If you would rather write than play, that works too.