Drumeo Edge Review 2024 – Can They REALLY Improve Your Drumming?

Looking for online drum lessons?

Well, you could spend all your time trying to cobble together playlists on YouTube and attempt to figure it all out yourself (risking frustration and confusion)…

Or become a member of a site that has all the resources you need to take you from beginner to advanced in one convenient space.

Given the options, many will choose the latter, and Drumeo is one such resource that’s sure to come up in your searches.

But is Drumeo worth it? Do they offer the best drum lessons on the internet? We’ll cover all this and more in this hands-on Drumeo review.

What Does Drumeo Claim To Offer?

Drumeo’s guarantee is that you will learn the drums faster with the help of the best teachers in the world. We find this claim both compelling and even a tad audacious, but we’ll reserve judgment for the verdict.

Drumeo’s three-pronged approach includes a step-by-step 10-level drum curriculum with 230+ courses on all topics and styles, 1,000+ play-along songs with transcriptions and practice tools, as well as coaches to offer motivation and support through 10+ weekly live events and personal feedback and video reviews.

As you’re about to find out, though, this is really just the beginning in terms of content Drumeo offers inside their membership.

We’ll be taking a closer look at the course instructors and coaches later, but Drumeo’s main coaches include Aric Improta, Domino Santantonio, Dorothea Taylor, John Wooton, Kaz Rodriguez, Matt McGuire, Larnell Lewis, Michael Schack, Sarah Thawer, and Todd Sucherman.

Drumeo founder and CEO Jared Falk also lends his expertise in many courses and lessons. He’s a professional drummer, teacher, and businessman from Vancouver, BC, Canada.

In addition to everything we’ve covered, Drumeo also claims to be the ultimate online drum lessons experience.

How Much Does Drumeo Cost?

In essence, Drumeo only has one membership option (called Drumeo EDGE). But you can also request personal lessons, which are available on an on-demand, per-lesson basis.

Here’s an overview of the costs of each and what’s included:

• Drumeo EDGE Price: $240 per year, which on average works out to be $20 per month. This includes step-by-step curriculum, consistent and qualified advice, progress-tracking, live lessons and questions, personal reviews and feedback, 1,000+ popular songs, downloadable sheet music, the ability to connect to drum legends, 100+ world-class teachers, the ability to re-watch any lesson and learn from home, supportive community, and a 100% money back guarantee.
• Private Lessons: $50+ lesson gets you access to the step-by-step curriculum, consistent and qualified advice, progress-tracking, live lessons and questions, as well as personal reviews and feedback.

This is still just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s available on Drumeo. We’ll be covering more of what you can expect to find on the inside throughout this guide.

The Drumeo Experience

In this section, I’ll offer a bit of a blow by blow of my experience of logging into Drumeo for the first time and some thoughts on what I experienced.

Getting Started

Log in to Drumeo and… BAM! You’ll be greeted with a ton of links, videos, and resources all at your fingertips. This could prove a tad overwhelming to the newcomer, but it’s important to remember that Drumeo is the largest drum memberships online. That’s what I had to remind myself as I embarked upon this online journey.

Finding Your Next Steps

From the member dashboard, you can access starter lessons (under packs), forums, method (levels one through 10), coaches, songs, courses, quick tips, shows, play-alongs, student focus, rudiments, live, schedule, settings, and shop.

I decided that I wanted to get started with a course. Glen Sobel’s The Grooves Of Alice Cooper caught my attention, so I decided to jump right in.

Taking A Course

I was first brought to a page that offered a brief explanation of the course, how many lessons were inside, how long the course was, how much XP I could earn from taking the course (we’ll talk a little bit more about the gamification aspect of Drumeo a little later), as well as links to each lesson.

I decided to skim through the entire course to get a better sense of what my Drumeo experience was going to be like, as well as what the course was all about.

Upon clicking into the first lesson, I was greeted with a video, as well as standard controls, the ability to navigate to the previous lesson and next lesson, and a “downloads” button to access the course resource pack (usually includes MP3s, PDF sheet music, and so forth).

I could see immediately that the videos were of a high quality, with the ability to upscale to 4k quality, multiple camera angles, and other onscreen elements (like sheet music) to help the student navigate the lesson content.

As I skimmed through the lessons, I found the content to be quite comprehensive. In this case, Sobel demonstrated, in exact detail, how to perform various Alice Cooper classics like “School’s Out,” “Billion Dollar Babies,” “Feed My Frankenstein,” and others.

The lessons were accompanied by segments of sheet music (below the video), each of which I could practice along to. This is a nice touch, given that you often need to work on one part before moving onto the next.

The only thing I would change about the course is that it was entirely too short. I would have loved to have learned more Alice Cooper songs on the drums!

Overall Drumeo Experience

If I were to cover every aspect of the experience in this Drumeo Edge review, we would be here all day. Not to mention, even if it’s just in broad strokes, I cover every aspect of Drumeo throughout this guide, so it could get redundant.

So, here is a summary, and a few generalized statements about the Drumeo experience that rung true for me:

• I could see myself spending a ton of time learning new drumming techniques and songs on Drumeo. There’s just so much to dig into. Navigating the site could take a bit of time to get used to, but thanks to clear navigation, at no point should you find yourself completely lost.
• The coaches and community offer opportunities for interaction, inspiration, accountability, support, and more. This would help me stay on top of my coursework, lessons, and overall development.
• There’s always something going on with the live schedule. I can see that there are events coming up, almost daily, sometimes multiple times per day. That would keep me engaged and make me want to jump inside the membership regularly.
• There are plenty of other resources to tap into. Although there is already so much to do without digging into the shows, shop, or otherwise, these extra features could make a lot of members happy.

What Can I Expect To Find Inside Drumeo?

No Drumeo review would be complete without a preview of what to expect. The sheer enormity and quality of Drumeo is what makes it the go-top, top online resource for anyone looking for drum lessons online.

In this section, we’ll look at the course content and what you can expect as a member of Drumeo.

What Is The Format Of The Content?

The primary mode of delivery for lesson content is video. Most videos are multi-camera videos that show the teacher and drummers from multiple angles. Videos may also include sheet music and other helpful tidbits (like a close-up on the feet, so you can see the patterns being played on the hi-hat or kick).

Each lesson is meticulously organized, with the navigation at the top, the lesson video, the title and subtitle of the video, a like and share button, a “downloads” button (for MP3s, PDF sheet music, etc.), an “add to list” button, as well as buttons for the previous and next lessons.

Below that is a comments section as well as links to related lessons.

The layout somewhat takes after YouTube, giving the user a sense of familiarity.

How Is The Content Delivered?

Once you’ve signed up for Drumeo, you immediately get access to all the content inside the membership.

Obviously, live streams happen on a schedule, so you won’t be able to see those until their assigned date, but even without lives, you’ve got well over 1,200 videos of content to dig into.

How Much Training Is Available?

Normally, this is where we would talk about all the courses included and even offer a brief description of each. Drumeo’s content archive, though, is just too big to cover in extensive detail. So, we what follows shouldn’t be considered comprehensive:

• Training Packs: Includes New Drummers Start Here, Electrify Your Drumming, Drumeo Festival 2020, Four Weeks To Better Drum Fills, Learn Songs Faster, Rock Drumming Masterclass, Drum Techniques Made Easy, Independence Made Easy, The Ultimate Guide To Recording Drums, with more training packs inside the Drum Shop.
• Method: Levels one through 10 include Getting Started On The Drums, Basic Theory & Ear Training, The Motions Of Drumming, The Moeller Method & Essential Grooves, Rhythmic Groupings & Independence, Odd Time & Improvisation, Foot Technique & Combination, Brushes, Texture & Articulation, Advanced Styles & Musical Decisions, and Go Anywhere On The Drums.
• Songs: 1,000+ song breakdowns in the categories of blues, CCM/worship, country, electronic, funk, hip-hop/rap, jazz, Latin, metal, odd time, pop/rock, and R&B/soul.
• Courses: Over 230 courses on beats, ear training, fills, gear, independence, musicality, rudiments, styles, technique, and theory.
• Quick Tips: Dozens of quick tips in the same categories as courses.
• Shows: Drumeo exclusive shows on drumming, including DIY Drum Experiments, The Rhythm Adventures of Captain Carson, The Drumeo Podcast, and more.
• Play Alongs: Over 300 play alongs in a variety of styles.
• Rudiments: All 40 drum rudiments in one convenient space.
• Live: And, of course, there are tons of Q&As, performances, lessons, and more with the coaches.

Some Actual Lesson Titles And What They Help You Accomplish

It’s always nice to know what you’re getting into, and in this section, we’ll look at several lesson titles inside the Drumeo courses and give you an overview of what these lessons can help you accomplish.

Simple Jazz Comping Ideas

This lesson comes from the Improving Your Jazz Flow course with Rob Brown, which includes six lessons.

In Simple Jazz Comping Ideas, Brown covers left hand comping ideas. As Brown explains, if you’re developing as a jazz drummer, sooner or later, you’ll find yourself asking, “what’s going on with the left hand?” What might seem random or “all over the place” is called comping, and it’s musically driven – not random.

Brown says it’s often as simple as filling in the gaps with subdivisions.

Slum Village – “Just Like A Test”

This lesson is included in The Soul Hop Grooves Of Daru Jones course with none other than Daru Jones.

The “Just Like A Test” groove is one of Jones’ favorite Slum Village grooves.

In this lesson, Jones demonstrates this funky, syncopated, sophisticated groove. You will also discover the rather specific way Jones plays the snare to get a certain sound out of it.

This is a great lesson and groove to dig into as an intermediate to advanced drummer.

Basic Rhythms & Stickings

This lesson comes from the Intermediate Drum Fills course with Mike Michalkow.

In this lesson, Michalkow explains sticking options, based around a sixteenth note pattern with a single stroke roll.

While keeping the same rhythm, you can change your sticking and phrasing, which allows you to develop a lot of options out of just one rhythmic pattern. Quite compelling!

Michalkow demonstrates several usable variations in this helpful lesson for intermediates.

Who Teaches The Course?

This question is not an easy one to answer, given that Drumeo has worked with a multitude of professional drummers and in-house staff to develop their premium content.

So, what follows should not be considered a comprehensive list of Drumeo teachers (we could be here all day), but rather a summary.

First, the coaches:

• Aric Improta: Rock, art, and touring.
• Domino Santantonio: Pop and performance.
• Dorothea Taylor: Drumline discipline.
• Jared Falk: Getting started and motivation.
• John Wooton: Rudiments and applications.
• Kaz Rodriguez: Musicality and composition.
• Larnell Lewis: Musicianship and groove.
• Matt McGuire: Live shows and performance.
• Michael Schack: Electronic drumming.
• Sarah Thawer: Exploring new styles.
• Todd Sucherman: Philosophy.

And there are countless other teachers who’ve contributed to the Drumeo platform including Kyle Radomsky, Ash Pearson, Brandon Towes, Rob Brown, Aaron Edgar, Glen Sobel, David Raouf, Daru Jones, Heather Thomas, Stephane Chamberland, Raghav Mehrorta, Mike Micalkow, Gregg Bissonette, Gil Sharone, Rashid Williams, Carson Gant, Steve Lyman, Keith Carlock, Dom Famularo, and many others.

Even the legendary Neil Peart of Rush fame has a three-hour course inside the shop. We've compared this to other online drumming courses, and their quality of drum teacher is by far the best.

Design & Usability In Drumeo Edge Review

In this section of our Drumeo review, we’ll look at Drumeo’s overall design and usability.

This is a key factor when it comes to your onsite experience.

Let’s dig into the details.

Design & Esthetics

Drumeo’s dashboard design is simplistic, and the color scheme is based around their trademark blue, black, and white, while incorporating some gray elements. The videos, of course, are in high definition and full color.

They’ve put a prominent search bar at the top, right in the middle. They’ve placed the navigation menu on the side, which you can reduce or expand in size using the hamburger button.

The condensed menu is quite simple and easy to use, with links to home, packs, forums, my list, method, coaches, and songs. Of course, as we’ve already covered all the menu items earlier, you know that this is not a complete list of what’s visible inside the expanded menu.

For the most part, the pages inside the membership do not feature a sophisticated design, and instead utilize header banners, simple grid layouts, and sequential, ordered lists to organize the content.

The design is professional, but basic and relatively minimal. Of course, this does give the high production value videos plenty of space to shine.

With some minor tweaks, we do feel the overall design could be more attractive. But we also understand that trying to organize the extensive content library on the site is no laughing matter.

For the most part, you’ll be focused on the content, and we feel the design doesn’t distract from the experience much. That said, it’s neither “design of the year” quality, nor is it overwhelming. It would seem function took precedence over form here, and we can hardly blame Drumeo in opting for this direction.

Navigation & Ease Of Use

It’s not hard to find your way around Drumeo. The main menu is on the left-hand side, and you can navigate deeper into courses and lessons using the main content area on the right side of the screen.

A search bar is always good to have with a site of this scope and size, and it’s prominently on display within the dashboard.

The main question or concern with a site of this size is how to organize all the content you’ve got, and while we do feel that Drumeo has done a good job, we do find that you could end up doing quite a bit of clicking around to find exactly what you’re looking for.

At no point should you find yourself lost on the site, though, and if you do, you can always use the main menu in the sidebar, or the search function at the top.

Once you get used to it, cruising around the site becomes like second nature, and it starts to feel comfortable.

In terms of fonts and colors, the Drumeo website is relatively easy on the eyes. They do use smaller fonts in some areas, but they’re all quite readable, even when bolded. We don’t see any design faux pas in this regard.

Gamification

Each lesson on Drumeo allows you to earn XP (we assume “experience points). The successful completion of courses also often come with bonus XP.

This gives users the sense that they are progressing as they’re completing lessons and courses, which can greatly increase motivation as you’re learning and growing.

Is Progress Saving Available?

Yes. It’s possible to mark lessons as complete, which makes it easy to know which you’ve already worked through.

Drumeo also reminds you which lesson you were on at the top of the dashboard, and uses other visual cues to help you find your place.

Drumeo Review, The Verdict

Quite simply, Drumeo lives up to its reputation. You name it, they’ve got it – their membership covers every style of playing imaginable, along with lessons on specific aspects of playing in different genres, techniques, time signatures, and more (e.g., Mastering Blast Beats, Exploring Reggae Grooves, How to Play Shuffles, etc.).

If you want to learn how to teach yourself drumming from home, Drumeo Edge is a huge help with this. Their song archive could always be bigger, but we expect it will continue to grow over time, and cover the most requested and demanded songs.

On your journey to becoming the kind of drummer you want to be, support, accountability, and motivation is critical. You can find all the help you need with coaches who offer personalized advice and tips, in the forums with Drumeo staff and other users, and even with the regular live events, which can inspire you to new levels of playing.

In terms of design and usability, Drumeo has opted for simplicity, and we think this is the right choice. We do see opportunities to improve presentation, and ways to streamline how they display content, but they do make up for it with a convenient search bar at the top of the membership dashboard.

Their membership is essentially $20 per month, and we know of plenty of memberships that don’t offer the same volume or quality of content for that amount. Of course, the reason Drumeo can do this is because they serve a larger audience than some of the specialized memberships out there, and let’s face it – value is in the eye of the beholder.

The point is that, for $20 per month, you get instant access to insane value, and you’re unlikely to be able to make your way through all the content any time soon. If you’re a beginner drummer, then you could easily spend a year or two just on the beginner lessons.

There is plenty for intermediate level players as well, and for advanced drummers, there’s always specialized playing techniques, odd times, and different styles of music to master.

Drumeo Edge is hands down the best drum membership online and we take our hats off to them. So that's it for your Drumeo review, I hope it was helpful.