Drumming System Review

Course Rating

Overall: 5/5 Features: 5/5 Quality: 5/5 Ease of Use: 5/5 Support: 4/5 Price: 4/5

Publisher: Rail Road Media Inc. Course Website: www.DrummingSystem.com Best Price: $147 (for Online Edition) $297 for DVD Edition Best For: Beginners, Intermediates and Advanced

After 21 months of development and recording Mike Michalkow and Rail Road Media have developed the most in-depth self study video drum course you’ll find anywhere. With over 20 hours of video instruction spanning across 20 DVDs (or online videos) this course is huge.

The Drumming System program was written with beginners in mind, which is apparent as the first 4 DVDs cover how to play drums by ear, how to practice effectively, drum theory & notation and hand techniques. How ever this doesn’t mean that intermediate players won’t get something out of this course. By DVD 7 Mike is discussing foot techniques and then on DVD 8 the genre specific lessons start with Heavy Rock.

UPDATE Sept 2011: The Drumming System is now available in an Online Course. This new online version comes with all the same great content as the DVD course but you get instant access and save about 50% of the cost. Get the Online Version of the Drumming System for only $147 and start learning tonight. Click the ORDER button on the official site to see the option to order the online edition.

Video Review

After watching many of the lessons in this course, listening to the play along tracks and using the workbooks I feel this course is great for anyone from an absolute beginner to someone who’s been playing the drums for a few years.

What Comes in the Box?

There are a total of 20 DVDs, 15 play along discs and 5 workbooks included with the course. This all amounts to over 20 hours of lessons and over 30 hours of instruction. In terms of cost this would be over $2000 in private drum lessons.

AS mentioned above the first 6 DVDs cover basic topics such as: hand techniques, drum rudiments and foot techniques. Even if you’ve taken drum lesson before these first six discs are a great refresher. While I found they were a little slow going an absolute beginner would enjoy the step-by-step explanation that Mike gives on every point.

Screen shots

Screen Shots from the Drumming System – Click to Enlarge

My Experience

Now I am not a professional drummer but I do play, so when I had the chance to review the Drumming System I was excited to learn a few new tricks, and let me tell you there’s a lot more then just a few tricks to be learned from this course.

Beginner Lessons

Mike is a well respected drum teacher who’s been providing private drum lessons for about 20 years. With those years of experience he’s learned how to best explain the basic topics of learning the drums in an easy to follow method. Mike duplicates his private drum instruction technique almost perfectly during the first quarter of this course.

The videos include a mix of split screen and close up shots when necessary to ensure you see exactly what Mike is talking about on screen and the Beginner work book is there to support what your learn. This is the best series of beginner drum lessons I’ve seen.

Genre Specific Lessons

The remainder of the Drumming System course splits it’s time between intermediate and advanced skill development and genre specific lessons.

Discs 7 – 10 provide instruction on Heavy, Groove and Mixed Rock as well as Latin and Jazz style drumming. With these basic styles down you’re then ready to take on some more advanced skills.

Technique Lessons

I have to admit by the time I had made it to DVD 11 when Mike starts discussing drum fills I was amazed at just how much content there already was, how ever I had just touched the tip of the ice berg and what was left to come would be be pretty nuts.

The 11th disc covering drum fills was broken down into eight different chapters. Mike started with drum fill basics which was a lot of talking but gave a really good explanation of what drum fills are, the different types that exist and when to use them.

The next several chapters then introduced beginner, intermediate and advanced drum fills that are in the workbooks.

I enjoyed this format of learning where Mike would present a pattern on screen and then it would reference which page of the workbook I could find the same drum fill. This made practice on my own a lot easier after I watched a lesson.

Play Along Discs

These 14 CDs are the ultimate in Drum practice. Containing 100 full-length songs which are recorded with professional musicians not computer sequenced instruments you can easily kill an hour or more practicing with these.

There are two versions of each song, one with a metronome track to help you keep in time and on without a metronome track for use as you advance.

I would suggest importing these tracks to your MP3 player if you have one. This will make it easier to switch between tracks while you’re sitting at your kit.

A Bit About Mike

For those of you who don’t know who much about Mike Michalkow he is a professional performing drummer, studio musician and instructor. He’s endorsed by some of the biggest names in the business including Yahama drums and Sabian cymbals.

Mike has a soft spoken way about him in all of these DVDs and he takes a step-by-step approach when explaining each new concept. He might take a bit longer to explain something then another teacher but you’re sure to understand it after Mike teaches it to you. I don’t think you’d find a better drum instructor if you tried.

Downsides of the Drumming System?

Well this course is HUGE, I mean 20+ hours of content takes a lot of time to go through and it can be over whelming for a beginner. I’m not saying that they could have presented this much material in less time but some beginners may choose to not complete the entire course all at once. Since the Drumming System is a DVD self study course you have the benefit of being able to take a break and come back to it any time you like.

Other then the length of the course there isn’t much bad I can say about the Drumming System.

The videos are all shot in High Definition, the play along tracks are well recorded using all real instruments not sequenced computer sounds and the workbooks are easy to follow and reference while practicing. If you’re a beginner or intermediate drummer who’s looking for a self study program or thinking about taking private drum lessons I think this course is it.

Conclusion

At this point I have not made it through the entire course. With over 20 hours of material to watch and practice you can’t just sit down in a week and process all of this. This course is designed to last a drummer at least a year if not two. It truly is a worth replacement for private drum instruction you can take at home.

Rail Road Media provides a 90 day money back guarantee on the Drumming System. If you’re not completely satisfied with your purchase you can contact their customer service department and request a full refund on your purchase. You will of course have to send you course back to them.