10 Best Drumming Lessons on YouTube – #3 May Suprise You

YouTube is one of the best places to learn how to play drums from. With most videos being completely free to watch, there’s a lot that you can get into without needing to pay for drum lessons or courses.

It can be a bit daunting to sift through different drumming YouTube channels, as there are thousands. So, I’ve compiled a list of all of the best ones.

You’ll find fantastic free drum lessons from every channel that I’ve listed below. I’ve made sure to include ones that offer a variety of topics and personalities, all related to drum education.

Drumeo

Drumeo is the biggest drum education channel that is currently running on YouTube. The brand has a large website that runs a monthly membership, but they post several videos on YouTube every week.

Most of the videos are educational, but they often post videos that are for pure entertainment.

The biggest draw of Drumeo is that they bring all the best drummers in the world into their studio to film lessons and courses. These make their way to their channel, allowing us to watch free drum lessons that would usually cost hundreds of dollars to have with these drummers.

They have a few ongoing video topics that get covered in different ways, including one where Brandon Toews covers various drum parts that pro drummers played in popular albums. These teach you exactly how to play those parts, and they’re broken down in an easily understandable lesson.

The channel has a weekly podcast where some of the guys who work there talk about different drum-related topics. Some are lesson-style talks, while others are debates on certain drumming topics.

On the entertainment side of things, one of the best recurring topics that the channel uploads are when they get a famous drummer to listen to a song once and then play it. You get to learn about their thought process and see just how brilliant these drummers are.

Overall, it’s an incredible drumming channel that has content for drummers of all levels.

Sounds Like a Drum

Sounds Like a Drum is an educational drumming channel that purely focuses on drum gear. The guys in these videos go through everything you need to know about tuning drums to achieve specific sounds. They also have in-depth explanations of how to set up certain pieces of hardware.

While this channel won’t teach you how to play anything, it’s a YouTube channel that every single drummer can benefit from.

Tuning is one of the hardest aspects of owning drum gear, and this channel has dozens of videos that are golden in their execution.

All the videos are part of an ongoing series labeled as seasons and episodes. However, you don’t need to watch the videos in order. You can just browse through all the thumbnails and titles when looking through the channel’s personal page and pick the videos that will help you.

At this point, they’ve covered almost every hardware and tuning issue that drummers can have, so you’re sure to find the answer to any drum gear problem here.

I love the idea of this channel, as it’s one of the few channels I know of that purely sticks to talking about gear. That sets it apart very nicely.

Drum Beats Online

Drum Beats Online is a YouTube channel that is primarily run by Gabe Helguera. He has a team behind him to help make the videos, but he’s the face of every post that gets uploaded.

This channel started out as an educational channel for beginners only, but it’s evolved into a massively entertaining platform for drummers of all levels.

Gabe plays drums for the rock band I Prevail. He pulls a lot of experience from that band to create lessons about rock drumming, but he’s covered a huge number of topics since his channel was created.

The standout feature of this channel is the production quality. Every video is fast-paced and full of action, but there’s always great depth to the material that he teaches. Gabe has managed to hit a great balance of exciting editing mixed with interesting topics to learn.

I find the titles of videos to be a bit “clickbaity” at times, but those titles usually live up to the expectations that they create. It just makes it difficult to find certain educational topics that you’re looking for when they’re not plainly mentioned in the titles.

The unfortunate reality of the YouTube algorithm is that those are the titles that get more views, so I don’t blame Gabe here!

Stephen Clark

The original name for Stephen Clark’s YouTube channel was The Non-Glamorous Drummer. While he changed the name as the channel got popular, the original name suits it perfectly.

This YouTube channel is all about giving tips and tricks to beginner and intermediate drummers that will set them up better for improving over time.

Most of the videos focus on techniques and different ways of setting your kit up. All of them have the topic of optimization as the key point. Stephen posts videos that help you optimize your drumming in simple but effective ways.

While I’ve been playing drums for over two decades, I’ve found major benefits to watching videos on this channel. Some of them have shown a few flaws in my playing, while others have given me ways to better explain techniques to my drum students.

I find his videos to be quite raw in their production value. I enjoy that a lot compared to the highly edited and glamorized videos that you’ll see from channels like Drumeo and Drum Beats Online.

If you’re a beginner drummer, I highly recommend checking this channel out to make sure that you’re learning and practicing in the best ways possible.

Stephen Taylor

Stephen Taylor is another YouTube drum teacher that has been on the platform for years. I’ve been watching his videos since I was in high school, and they always have nuggets of information that I find incredibly useful.

I’d say that Stephen is a working drummer, and his lessons are catered to beginner and intermediate drummers that want to learn how to create the best drum parts possible for songs.

So, he has an incredible YouTube channel if you’re looking to learn how to play drums with other musicians in live band settings.

He also covers a lot of trending YouTube topics. While those aren’t exactly educational, it’s always fun to see how the trends that other YouTubers do apply to drumming.

rdavidr

David Raouf is a genius when it comes to DIY projects, and he’s based his YouTube channel around the combination of DIY and drum gear. He mostly uploads videos that show him working on different drum-related projects, but all of them are educational in the fact that they inspire and give you ideas to try out yourself.

His channel first gained major fame when he uploaded videos explaining quick drum hacks. All of them are very simple things that we can all do to our drum kits that will save us time and money.

Since then, David’s projects have gotten a lot bigger, including creating his own drum kits and cymbals.

He does a lot of gear reviews as well, which can be very helpful for drummers that are thinking about purchasing the items of gear that he looks at.

He’s another YouTuber on this list that is great to watch for both education and entertainment. My favorite video of his is where he shows you how to use old drumheads in six different ways. The ideas are so clever and useful, but none of them are things that I ever thought of myself before watching the video.

Mike Johnston

Mike Johnston was the first drum teacher that I ever learned from on YouTube. Since then, I’ve been watching most of the drum lessons that he posts to the platform. I watch some of them to learn how to play the concepts. I watch others just to appreciate how good of a teacher he is.

Teaching is the thing in life that Mike is most passionate about, and it comes through so clearly in all of his video drum lessons.

He covers everything from groove and fill lessons to general gigging advice. He just seems like one of the most genuine people out there, and that’s what draws a lot of drummers to his channel.

Mike is also a brilliant photographer and videographer, so all his drum lesson videos look incredible. He doesn’t ever overproduce them, though. You’ll always get a natural vibe from them, but they feel a lot more professional to watch than many others.

Mike runs a monthly membership program on his website where he offers elaborate courses for beginner, intermediate, and advanced drummers. His YouTube channel is just a funnel for drummers to get there.

So, he essentially just uploads quick fill and groove tutorials on his channel while all the in-depth and step-by-step lessons are on his site.

Adam Tuminaro

Adam Tuminaro was originally called The Orlando Drummer on his YouTube channel, and he’s another teacher that has been on the platform for over a decade.

The thing I appreciate most about all his lesson videos is the sheer amount of thought and planning that goes behind each one. If you’re an analytical type of person, you’ll love the way that Adam explains different drumming concepts.

He’s very into philosophy, and he brings that across in the way he breaks down different areas of drumming.

He doesn’t post as many full lesson videos as he used to, but there’s an entire library to look through if you haven’t watched them yet.

If you’re looking for a few tasty drum grooves or fills to learn, you’ll find plenty of them here. Adam makes sure to teach them in a way that will expand your drumming as well, which I find very appealing.

He’s another drummer that puts extra detail into making all his videos look good, so he’s a great drum teacher to watch if you’re looking for videos with high production value.

With that being said, he also regularly uploads short lessons from his drum lesson website that only have single camera positions.

Rob Brown

Watching Rob Brown’s drum lesson videos on YouTube is the closest thing I’ve felt to resembling what it’s like to have a lesson with an in-person teacher.

All his drum lessons are very casual, and you can play along while watching the video. He’s a brilliant drummer himself, and he has a great way of breaking everything down in understandable ways.

Many of his videos are for beginner drummers, but he has a few good ones for intermediate and advanced players.

When looking at his most viewed videos, you’ll see that the top one is a beginner lesson, and the second most viewed one covers a much harder topic. That gives you an idea of the variety of all his lesson content.

He also gives a lot of advice that can help any drummer in various situations. Some of it is about gear, and a lot of it is about playing gigs.

If you want to watch a relatable guy teach you how to play drums in the same way that an in-person drum teacher would, I strongly recommend checking Rob Brown out.

Art of Drumming

Art of Drumming is the final YouTube channel that I think every drummer needs to check out. They offer a wide variety of content, including drum lessons, drum covers, and general gear discussions.

However, the biggest reason for me suggesting this channel is their Recreating Iconic Drum Sounds group of videos. They teach you how to manipulate your drum gear to get the same sounds that drummers got in popular albums.

It’s a brilliant idea, and it’s not one that I saw before watching this channel. While they don’t go incredibly deep into each concept, you get an overall idea of how to get those sounds, and then you can go try them out yourself.

The channel also has a lot of drum lessons that cover how to play all the most popular grooves and fills out there. Everything is clearly demonstrated, making the lesson easy to follow.

Like Drumeo, the guys running the channel often bring famous drummers to their studio, so you’ll find a few lessons from big names on their channel as well. This includes John Riley, Claus Hessler, Eric Moore, and Jost Nickel.

Top Drumming Lessons on YouTube, Final Thoughts

I recommend subscribing to every channel that I mentioned on this list. As you watch all of their videos over time, you’ll find yourself preferring certain personalities and video types over others.

That’s when you should choose to stick to learning with those particular channels. You’ll be able to learn an incredible amount, and then the other channels are excellent to watch for entertainment purposes too.

I wouldn’t suggest purely learning from YouTube, as sporadically uploaded videos don’t offer the same structure that a drum teacher or course would. However, using YouTube drum lessons as additional tools for improvement will speed up your drum learning process.