Jim Dooley

My goal as a drum teacher is to foster a love of music in my students while providing the skills needed to pursue whatever drumming path they choose.

Learning how to read music, play rudiments, and understand the academic aspects of drumming can be a bit of a tedious undertaking for some students. Traditionally, drum students would often spend years learning rudiments using only a snare drum and a rubber pad before moving on to the a full drum set.

This approach can be boring and repetitive, which is why I teach traditional drumming skills by applying them to the entire drum set. This is a much more rewarding experience for my students. It keeps them interested and builds appreciation for techniques that require a great deal of determination.

I’m happy to communicate with parents about issues like practice habits and equipment needs. Drum sets have a lot of moving parts and sometimes it only takes a little tweaking to turn a frustrating practice session into a fun and rewarding experience. Call me any time, Really!

About Me

I have over 30 years’ experience with a variety of drumming styles including hard core, rock, funk, and world fusion. Odd timing signatures are a passion of mine – your child will learn more than just standard rock beats! Here is a list of some of the great drummers who have influenced and inspired me. I hope you, and your child, will check some of them out.

Billy Cobham
Trilok Gurtu
Anika Nilles
Matt Garstka
Marco Minnemann
Tim Alexander
Terry Bozzio

I began teaching drumming in my home studio to adults and children over seven years ago. I also maintain a website–https://jimdooley.net/Drum-Loops-and-Beats where I provide pre-recorded drum beats as a subscription-based service. My accompanying YouTube channel–https://www.youtube.com/user/JimCDooley–has over 26,000 subscribers, many of whom have incorporated my drumming into their own music. My album, Artifacts From The Space Age https://jimdooley.net/Artifacts-From-The-Space-Age , was published in 2004 under the moniker Planetary Citizen.