At this level, the goal is to allow your child to adapt to the learning process, structure, and environment through a routine based on the topics designed by our syllabus. One key topic that will revolve strongly around this stage is equipping your child with the necessary skillset and proper universal music terms and language for communicating with any music instructors they may encounter through their time in school in other enrichment classes. Proper and universal communication skills lead to less frustration and increased confidence through a better understanding of the materials provided, thus a higher learning efficiency.

This is also a critical stage of building a solid relationship with our instructors to develop trust and resilience as the topics get more challenging.

In this module, they will learn how to hold and hit with their sticks properly, the types of drums in a drum set, and the relationship and role a rhythm plays in music. This also sets the foundation for communication between them and the instructors. 

Drums are a great way to start your child off with reading notes, as the notations are relative to the positioning of the drums, and can be easily related. Compared to a piano music sheet, where the basic scale ranges from C to B (7 notes and positions on the score), drums focus on only 3 notes and positions, namely the bass, snare, and hi-hat.

We also have color-coded beginner modules and games that will help build confidence and reduce resistance to reading a music score.

They will also be learning terms and subdivisions like Quater Notes, Eighth Notes, and Sixteenth Notes, along with their applications in a score.

*Above is a sample of our easy to follow materials for children

We understand that children need more time to process and understand new things, even more so for coordination work they have never done before. Our instructors are trained to provide step-by-step instructions and work with the space and time your child needs to acquire these skill sets. The advantage of our one-to-one drum lessons is that the instructors can ramp up or down the difficulty based on your child’s progress and resistance. 

They will first focus on learning simple beats before choosing from our list of simple beginner songs to apply those beats. 

The natural reaction for most kids, and even adults when first sitting on a drumset, is to move around the drumset and hit everything they see quickly. 

Once they are able to play a simple beat, we will guide them to channel that energy in a more fruitful and controlled manner by adding different fill-ins between the beats, using crashes and ride cymbals, and “coloring” the songs that they are learning.   

A large part of learning a new craft is about repetition and routines. This module aims to set the expectations and guide your child in understanding how repetition allows them to get better while balancing the frustration they might find in the process, through a constant routine with a definite goal. 

Each exercise their instructor provides will have a definite and incremental goal your child aims toward. Through this, they will slowly understand how a proper learning process helps them achieve competency. This will also help build their confidence and trust in their instructors, as they know what to expect and what they can achieve when they follow proper learning processes. 

At this stage, your child will be comfortable in a routine with their instructors. This is where we can guide your child to learn to process more information and slowly increase the difficulties through song-based learning. Your child may also request for songs, and their instructors will assess whether the song that they have chosen is suitable for their current development and whether we can modify the song to fit their subsequent development pathway.

Your child will already understand reading, spaces between notes, and identifying and learning beats through a score. At this point, we will introduce full music sheets, with them learning the proper terms in a standard music score, like repeat signs, alternate ending signs, and jump signs. This will prepare them to read full music sheets in any instrument and, if they choose to, for examinations.

Here at DrumTannery, we partner with Trinity College London, a world-renowned music institution, to provide gradings for your child. These grades are internationally and locally recognized in schools in Singapore.

Click here to find out more

Once your child has competency for several beats and several songs, we will proceed to increase the difficulty in the beats and fill-ins in a progressive manner. They will also learn how to change between beats in a single song and use subtle fill-ins to improve the dynamics of their playing. 

They will also be exposed to different music styles, such as jazz, reggae, blues, country, and rock. This will also be the time when their vocabulary in beats, fill-ins, and, most importantly, songs will get enhanced. 

*Above is a sample of our easy to follow materials for children

We will also introduce some advanced concepts in this stage, integrated with songs to prepare them for the transition into our full-fledged materials. These will give them a basic understanding of the terms and start some essential work on the topics they can work on when they are ready. Some examples are linear patterns, odd-time signatures, and time feel manipulation (making the song seem faster or slower by shifting specific notes).