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Bill Powelson's School of Drums

Testimonials

Free Lesson Menus

  1. "Hi Bill,

    Just a quick thanks for your professionalism. I have never had a person to person lesson. Before I stumbled onto your website I was the worst drummer, and had lost interest. Now after 4 months I'm playing with different guys from different bands and loving it!!!

    I also started helping teach my girlfriends eight-year- old. At eight years of age, she has memorized all the basic dance beats and is now learning the rudiments/fills. I will refer your site to all my friends and thank you again for your knowledge and ability to share it".

  2. Dustin Hughes

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  3. Hi,

    "I am writing to let you know that I have been trying out your ideas and they work.  I've been playing along with music like you suggested, and besides having a heck of a lot more fun and practicing longer, my playing has improved.  In just a few weeks I've noticed my playing has become more rhythmic and natural.  Additionally, I have expanded my ability to improvise rolls and fills. Thank you".

    Thanx,
    Jim Mauroff

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  5. To my drum teacher Bill,

    "I have been practicing my drums.....  LIVE.
    In the absence of the lead drummer I've recently done two contemporary Christian services and a 2 hour Christian concert. Plus I have been invited to do another 2 hour Christian concert - possibly on live Christian radio and a week of drumming at a local Christian camp.

    I used my electronic drums and all the ideas you taught me through your on-line course. I am having a great time with my drumming!

    At 48 years old with only 2 years behind a drum set, using your lessons . . . I have advanced quickly. I should have started with your lessons sooner.

    I want to thank you for all your help - in my opinion you're the greatest"!

    Thanks again.
    A very content student,
    John Babicz

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  7. Hello Bill Powelson,

    I'm sure you are aware already of your superior teaching techniques, but I wanted to share with you what I've already been able to learn from just a few minutes online at your site with about 20 minutes or less of my attention.  I am a guitar player but I have a set of drums in the studio for jamming sessions.  I found your site on Saturday.  I practiced the dance beats with different cd's on Saturday.  On Sunday, two other band members (guitar and bass player) came over to practice.  I said I wanted to play the drums.  They could not believe that I learned to play as well as I did overnight.  In fact, rhythm is my weakness.  Yes, I'm definitely a novice, but I can keep those basic beats already.  I can't believe it.  Either I'm a genius or you are, and it ain't me.  Great work"!

    Sincerely,

    C Stuckey, La

    PS.
     " I know you are in the business of selling your lessons and I haven't bought a thing.  Sorry I haven't spent a penny and most people reading this would think I wrote this as a promo for you.  But this is the truth.
    .

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  9. Mr. Bill,

    "Thanks a lot for all your help. Your webpage is really, really great! I thought that learning how to play the drums would be very difficult and confusing. I was planning to hire a profesional to teach me, and searched the web to look for some tips. When I saw your webpage, I decided to ditch the hire-a-profesional-drummer plan; and follow your webpage instead. I really think I can do this. Keep up the good work and don't even think about closing down the site"!

    See ya, when i see ya,


  10. Zoey C.

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  11. Hello, Bill...

    "My first visit to your homepage was about 4 or 5 years ago. I was looking how to read drum notation. And now I can (because of You). I'm teaching right now and do some drum clinics for Pearl and Zildjian lately, around my country (Indonesia), and gee . . . I play like Dennis Chambers now!! Thanx to You Bill,

    Many Thanx, my drum teacher".
    Denny Warren, Indonesia

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  13. Bill,
    Thank you for your help so far!
    First Gig finished, what a blast!  Got paid $80 as well, so now the cost of your course is covered!

    Tips and lessons were invaluable , nobody can believe what I've learned in such a short time.

    Anyway, 'Mustang Sally' went down well.  Thanks for the special help on that.

    Great stuff!
    Harry H.

    Sorry, but i just had to tell somebody!

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  15. Dear Bill:
    You are THE BEST!!!!!!! : )
    I am forever indebted to you for your help (I was really starting to panic!!) I will follow your wonderful directions and be sure to go back to your website and see all the other great things you have there. Thanks again so much for making our entry into the 'world of drums' so much easier and enjoyable. You can't be 'beat'!! (pardon the pun!)

    Truly,
    Cindy

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  17. Hi Bill,
    Thanks for your help!

    Since taking your course...I have been hired by a local band and am now a "semi-pro drummer".

    I play mostly, swing, latin and some jazzy stuff...also blues...pokas...love dem jump blues the best!

    Keep up the great job!
    allan

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  19. Bill,
      This is just a quick line to let you know all is goin GREAT!!! I've come so far in just about 5 months time. All my friends come over to listen to me and my cousin (plays guitar) jam out in my basement, they still dont believe that i just started playin drums the beginning of this year.. i think its awesome! Sorry i missed you when i went down to Florida back in May. We had stayed down there for almost a week and my 2 boys had me so busy there at disney world. I've come to the conclusion to really do all the things you plan to do in Florida you need to take at least a month vacation! haha.... Anyhow, if you dont mind i would like to send you a CD i made of me and my cousin jammin, but I dont have the address to send it to.. Some of the songs could use a little more spicin up but i look at it this way, IN DUE TIME! i really cant imagine what i'll be playin like in about 2 years if i accomplished this much in only 5 months time!

     

    Once again thanks Bill for leadin me down the right road, and showin me the basics of doin what i had always dreamed of doin but just never knew how to start without payin for them long expensive sessions....

    Your Friend from NJ
    Doug Biernacki

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  21. hi
    im chris brooks, a 15 year old drummer from new milford CT. one day in early october I decided that i wanted to start playing an instrument for a typical garage rock band, although i had no experience in bass, guitar or drums before. i started to search through different websites for all three, reading other peoples opinions and such. i found your website and the free lessons provided. i took the beginners lesson, the basic pat-a-pat of just hitting the table with your hands and the ground with your feet. it took only a few minutes to get it with the audio clips and tips. i continued with a few more beats, and got them down too. i kept telling myself that it couldnt be that easy, and it isn't, with all the possibilities that i've now discovered. but, with the way you've set up these lessons it is hundreds of times easier than it would be without the knowlege you provide. i got my drum set for my birthday, and i just sat down and realized that i could play basic beats from just tappin a table. ive made great advancements in the past few months, all thanks to the online drum lessons.

    Thanks for taking the time, you work wonders;
    Chris

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  23. Dear Bill,

    I dont know if you'll get this or not but I hope you do. I have never taken the time out to write to a TV show, newspaper/magazine editor, or website because I have never seen a piece of work that really pleased me enough to have the urge to do so. UNTIL NOW! I've never been a drum enthusiast and I've never really even thought much about playing the drums. I always thought the guitar would remain my favorite instrument. It wasnt until I decided to make my own hip-hop beats that I began to research drums. I went to many drum lesson websites in attempt to figure out the basic concepts of drums like what order I'm supposed to put each drum sound in and why. None of the sites I looked at helped until I found yours. Within minutes I found exactly what I wanted to know and it was explained in the exact way I needed it to be explained. Now I find myself drumming beats on tables and walls at any time and any place. Out of all the guitar tab websites, how-to websites, and any other informational website I've looked at I have yet to find one as helpful, interesting and well thought out as yours. It was so quick, easy, and helpful that even MY synical-self was so impressed I just HAD to let you know. Thank you Bill, I'll never listen to a song the same way ever again.

    an appreciative fan,
    Daniel

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  25. Bill
    I got your E Mail. Thank You for responding so fast your lessons have made me a better drummer I now play for a Christian Gospel / Rock band and I love it .Thanks to you I can keep a beat now I've only been playing about one month now and it sounds really good. I'm 45 years old and I love to play

    Thanks again Bill your the best
    your friend Tommy

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  27. Mr.. Powelson,
    Thank you for the on-line lessons that you have been providing to me. My 7 year old son and I have learned quite a bit from the lessons you've sent.

    We have taken what you have given, and applied it just like you ask, and it works great. Although my son  (crazy kid) doesn't go for the kiddy music, he is a Led Zeppelin and AC/DC fanatic and loves to try to play along to their music as well as most classic rock songs.

    He and I can actually play some songs together now. He plays along as I play guitar. I am just also learning the guitar because I play Bass, actually.

    I have now started to teach my 5 year old son also, and he picks up the back beats on songs real well. Soon he will also be taking your lessons. I just encourage both of them to bang around on the drums just like you said.

    I have also applied your lessons myself and have learned quite a bit for a bass player. I never knew how hard it is to work your brain when playing drums. I think my oldest son is a natural and he wants to play everyday and keep learning.

    So once again thank you for your lessons, We will keep on drumming and following the lessons you have provided.  One day when we are rich and famous rockers we will owe it all to you.

    thank you,
    AJ. Garcia

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  29. Bill,
      I have to email you to boost your ego a bit.  Having all of this stuff on my computer is awsome and I am improving every week. The way your lessons are presented is toatlly positive and is exactly what someone like me (32 and not having 5 years to sort through all of the mystery) needs.  I have to tell you that the whole rhythmic reading thing is really opening my eyes in the bass and guitar areas too.  Even though I have been playing these other instruments for years and have played in bands,  I am finally begining to have a better understanding of how everything meshes together.  I am well on my way to being able to created my own music between the three instuments.  The material is driving me to want to practice more and more which is no longer going to be a problem being I have the Yamaha DTEXPRESS II Digital kit on the way and won't wake the wife and kids on a Saturday morning at 5AM or late at night. No more drum samples and loops that sound like everyone elses recordings  (well, once I get a little better).

    Your lessons are the "best kept secret" to someone who does not have internet access.  Having gone through many instructional books/tapes with the guitar and bass learning process and developing my own "essential instruction methods"  Your method of teaching ranks at THE TOP.  Have you ever considered marketing a method in Hard Copy?  Be it book or tape, if you could get it out there it would be on the "MUSICAL INSTRUCTION BEST SELLER LIST" for the next hundred years.

    If you ever need personall testimony (I'm sure you have had enough through the years), let me know.  In the future when I get a web sit up, you can expect more students as you will be a top link on that site.

     

    Have a great day
    Jamie Wicks

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  31. Review of "Finite to Infinity", by: renegade77 on Jan. 28, 2014 :(***** 5 Stars): When I started off trying to learn how to make hip hop beats, I started studying music theory. Learning the scales, the chords, modes and so on. It has helped me alot. But last week I had to accept that my skills in making the actual beat, the drumming, was limited. I had no problems in putting a synth on a beat and make it sound as I wanted, but I often ended up feeling that my beats needed some dynamic variations beside changing of the chords/melody line or whatever.

    I needed to improve my drumming!

    But, I have never understood the time-signatures in depth, and the real relationship between the hihats and the kick/snares. When I surfed the internet in how to make hip hop beats, all sites that I ended up reading said I had to start first with the kick and the snare. Well, after reading this book I have got an entire new view, and approach, in how to make beats. Its a logic in drumming, not just a feel. It is a logic that acts as a basic to achieve that groove we feel. And after reading this book I have overcome the barrier I had making drum beats.

    Why use triplets? When to use 8th notes and what options will that give me? What time signature should I keep my beat in, and if I choose a certain time signature, what kind of natural options will it give me to create a cool beat? And the best of all, what options do I have to "break the rules"?

    Its all in this book. And it applies to all kind of genres, from Waltz to metal.

    I recommend you to read the book several times until you actually get the point. The book is not more than 40 pages or something, but everything you need to know is there!

    Also have to mention that I've corresponded with the author through email because I had a few questions. This guy is brilliant and really interested in sharing his knowledge. Top notch!

    (reviewed within a week of purchase)
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  33. Hi Bill,

    My niece left her new drums that I bought her for Christmas here while on vacation. Being the curious auntie that I am I looked up drums on the net and found your web page. WOW!!! This old auntie is drumming away. Who says older folks can't learn.

    I have since ordered the package and enjoy every minute of them. Yep you guessed it, the old auntie had to go buy herself a set a drums.

    Thank-you for the informative web page and great instructions. I urge any level player to buy the online course.

    Respectfully,
    Auntie Angie


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