Skip to main content
MusicRadar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitars
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Guitar Amps
  • Drums
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • Radiohead theory
  • Steely Dan's drum machine
  • Deep Purple in the dungeon
  • Prince's drummers
  • 95k+ free music samples
Don't miss these
Millenium Drums Legendary Drumbook
Drums “An extremely well-thought-out and all-encompassing piece of drum education”: Millenium Drums Legendary Drumbook review
Phil Collins sitting at drums
Artists "Peter Gabriel said, as soon as he saw me sit down on a drum stool, he knew that I was the drummer"
Overhead shot of electronic drum set plugged into a laptop running a VST
Drum Lessons & Tutorials “At certain points in music history it became fashionable to place accents on certain beats”: How to score a drum part
Drummers When British rock drumming ruled the world
Lars Ulrich on stage, early 1990s
Drummers “He, to me, was a role model”: Which A list metal drummer could Mike Portnoy be talking about?
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 06: (L-R) Ed Sheeran and Chris Hemsworth attend The 2024 Met Gala Celebrating "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Drummers Watch Chris Hemsworth’s painful first drumming lesson
Drum Recording Techniques
Drums How the rules of drum recording were shaped over decades of trial and error
Electronic drum set pioneers: Neil Peart
Electronic Drums 11 trailblazing players who raised the bar for electronic and hybrid drumming
The Beatles Get Back
Drummers 11 great movies, documentaries and shows that drummers should check out
Danny Carey
Drummers 6 of the most inspirational drummers of all time
Drum recording
Music Production Tutorials 10 tips for recording perfect drums
Drums The easy guide to recording drums: kit tips, mic placement and setting up your DAW
Logic Drums
Music Production Tutorials How to think like a human drummer when building software beats
Sleep Token
Drums “We tried it as a laugh and now it’s our standard setup”: The secret sauce behind Sleep Token’s live drum sound
Chad Smith watches a busker playing RHCP
Artists “Who wants to tell him?” Busking drummer unknowingly performs Chili Peppers song in front of Chad Smith
  1. Artists
  2. Drummers

Mike Johnston on the future of drum education

News
By Chuck Parker published 10 May 2015

The online drum tutor and YouTube sensation's thoughts and philosophies on teaching drums

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Mike Johnston

Mike Johnston

Mike’s passion for drums and education started at an early age and he pursued the usual path of playing in bands, working and teaching at the local music store and taking private lessons. This led to some success in the rock world with a gold record, world tours and the opportunity to work with other artists. Although he was “making it,” something just didn’t feel right.

One of his tutors pointed out how passionate Mike was when talking about teaching and education and with that insight, he followed his intuition and transformed himself into drum teacher for the modern age, beginning by posting personal videos he made for his students on the then-fledgling internet site, YouTube.

Mike also has an old-school, personal approach and acknowledges the value of enhancing the new teaching mediums with a touch of tradition and personal one-on-one tutoring, something he strives for with his site, mikeslessons.com.

Here he shares his philosophy on teaching and his thoughts on the future of drum education.

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
Mike's teaching philosophy

Mike's teaching philosophy

“If it’s private lessons, I make sure that every student is their own adventure and I have my own plan for that person. When I would go to my lesson as a kid, I would hear something being played by whoever was before me. Then I’d go into the room and I would have to do the same thing. I thought, ‘That dude before me was 37 and I’m six. Why are we working on the same material?’

“I wanted to do the opposite. When I was doing more private lessons, I’d have an eight-year-old and then right after that, a 52-year-old. You have to adjust. You can’t teach the 52-year-old what you taught the eight-year-old. Everything has to be applicable. Every time I meet a student, the first thing I ask is, ‘If I was a drum genie and could grant your wish, what would it be?’ Yes, we have to learn paradiddles. But there’s no reason we can’t learn paradiddles along to Animals As Leaders instead of a metronome. I want you to feel like you know that I care about your future. If it doesn’t relate to your dreams, then I don’t want to teach it to you.

“I’ll never be mad at you, never yell at you, never even be upset with you, but, whatever effort you bring, I will equal that with my teaching. So if you don’t practise and you don’t care, it’s no big deal to me. I’m totally okay with it. We can just jam during your whole lesson. But, if you really care, then I’m going to go home and think about your future, your next lesson. I’m going to be obsessed with what’s next for you.”

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
Pioneering video drum tuition with mikeslessons.com

Pioneering video drum tuition with mikeslessons.com

“I’d love to take more credit than I can, but Steve Jobs was the one that did it, because really, the first Mike’s Lessons was a complete copy of iTunes. I was getting used to getting my music digitally through iTunes and thought, ‘If he [Jobs] can deliver songs for 99 cents, why can’t I deliver drum lessons for 99 cents?’

“Media is media whether it’s audio or video. That’s where I started. I thought, ‘I’m going to make iTunes for drummers.’ There was no concept of live streaming. I was making YouTube content, that had just started. I wasn’t making that for YouTube, I was making it for private students. When I’d leave town for a tour, I’d make a video and put it on YouTube and give them the link. My first YouTube videos were not for YouTube, they were for students! Then, they exploded. I was like, ‘Why would 60,000 people want to watch that?’ I just taught a paradiddle variation. That was a light bulb moment. Then, I thought, ‘If people do want this, then maybe I could sell it for 99 cents.’

“My first videos were so tiny they fit on the iPod Nano. It was like a thumbnail video. Nobody had the bandwidth to even download content. I saw what iTunes was doing and wanted to replicate that, and wanted to do it for drummers.”

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
Breaking it down

Breaking it down

“I watched my drum gods and I remember which ones were tangible and which ones were not. Because I’m not natural at the drums, the way I teach is the way that I have to learn, which is a very ‘break it down’ philosophy.

"I have to write it out a bunch of different ways to make my brain understand it. But, when that process is done, I own it. I can teach it to somebody. I can break it down for them if they’re not understanding it. I can play it slow, fast, I can swing it, I can play it straight. I try to make a big difference between, ‘Can I do something, or do I own it?’ Own it means, all styles, tempos, genres and volumes.”

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
Making it work

Making it work

“The real key is teaching topics that apply to everyone and making that lens a person. When I look in the camera, I don’t see a camera, I see a person sitting on the other end on their computer working really hard to get better. That’s who I’m talking to.

“I can’t teach stylistically specific things on YouTube. I can on mikeslessons.com because you’ve chosen to learn that subject. I think of something like the paradiddle. No matter what, you have to learn it. Now, you can play it between a stacker and a loud snare drum and make it a metal thing. You can swing it and make it a jazz thing. But, the paradiddle is non negotiable, you have to learn it. So, I try to think, if the paradiddle is vegetables, how do I turn it into dessert? How do I make people think, ‘Ooh, I would totally eat that!’ Now that you’ve seen the light at the end of the tunnel, let’s go back to our vegetables. If you just keep chewing on them, they may taste like chocolate cake.

“If you watch any of my YouTube videos, they always start with the end product. Our main two services on mikeslessons.com are prerecorded content and the live lessons. Those are live broadcasted Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I know the career I have is because of my YouTube fan-base eventually taking a chance on my paid service. I make no bones about it. I believe you have to pay for education to value education and I believe teachers have to charge for education to value their teaching.”

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
The most important thing learning drums…

The most important thing learning drums…

“I think the first cornerstone would be patience. I watch so many people quit because they didn’t understand how long term this instrument is. This instrument is literally golf. You see 60 to 70-year-old men playing golf and they’re horrible, and they play everyday. This is a long term thing. It’s about small, little victories.

"I think the biggest cornerstone would be to judge yourself against yourself, not against anyone else. People who judge themselves against me, the first thing I ask is, ‘What was your life like?’ They say, ‘I got a drumset when I was 16.’ Let’s stop there. I got a drumset when I was six. That’s different. Did your parents pay for lessons? ‘No.’ Well, mine did. They totally supported me. I had a drum room that we built in the garage so I could play at all hours of the night and not bother anybody. How can you compare yourself to me when we didn’t have the same life?

“I was so lucky. I’m not natural at this instrument, but I had every opportunity to become great, which I’m still getting. If you know specifically that you were at 93bpm on double paradiddles, don’t judge that against Virgil Donati. That’s going to be so disheartening. Judge yourself at 95 and 96. If you’re 1 percent better every single day, then in 100 days, you’ll be twice as good as you were. It’s not that hard, but it’s very hard when you pull up a video of Virgil, or Dave Weckl or Thomas Lang, and you’ve only been playing for four years, you think, ‘I’ll never be that good.’ Go back in time and see them when they’ve only been playing four years. Maybe that would be more relative.”

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
Information overload!

Information overload!

“The scariest thing right now is the overload of information. Even on mikeslessons.com we havea huge flaw; we don’t help you get better. We’re like an information supermarket. Come in, buy what you want. That’s bad. I want to fix that.

"I want to say, ‘Are you interested in rudiments? Then let me walk you through this plan. Yes, there’s 40 international rudiments that we’re going to work on. But, even in P.A.S. [Percussive Arts Society], they’re not in order correctly. They’re in order by groupings. You have your flam rudiments, your paradiddle rudiments. Well, I can’t play a pataflafla if I don’t already know how to play single strokes and flams. I want mikeslessons to take you through the proper course. I want to turn it into courses instead of just, ‘Go ahead and shop.’ We’re never going to take that away though, because some people really do know what they want.”

Right now, it’s more like an encyclopedia. Here they are alphabetically. We have meters that say advanced, intermediate and beginner, but still. Someone needs to be helped. I really want to do that. We go really far out of our way to make sure we’re not that ‘Sham-Wow’ late-night TV commercial. We never shove anything in your face. We want the world to know this exists. If you want it, come and get it. If not, no big deal.”

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
Take it to the next level!

Take it to the next level!

“The first thing [to do to take your drumming to the next level] would be a vision of what I call a ‘Desired Result’ technique. Do you even know your desired result? Because sometimes people really don’t.

"They’re like, ‘Yeah man, I’m trying to get faster hands.’ I would ask, ‘What for?’ If you were playing ballads with John Mayer, you wouldn’t need faster hands, so you should know what the desired result is. If you said, ‘I really like this band, and I physically can’t play the songs,’ that’s a great reason to have faster hands. Why are you trying to build this specific skill set? Then, the next thing is, is it a skill set? What are you trying to build? If it’s improvising, that can be done with your hands and knees sitting on a park bench. You don’t even need a kit for that. It’s your brain being able to get that language out of you naturally and just improvise.

“Who’s helping you get there? There has to be something inspirational to measure yourself against. [Instruction] could come from video lessons with me or somebody else. It could come from a book. When I watch Jojo Mayer play a specific groove, that becomes the measuring stick. I can keep going back to that groove. Do I have it? Did I get it? I think that’s really important. That’s where video-taping comes in. I video-tape myself every day for work, but I video-tape myself a lot that nobody ever gets to see because it’s for me. I have a reference point and tomorrow night, it will be better that what it was today.”

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
Why there's still a need for one-on-one

Why there's still a need for one-on-one

“I never talk numbers, but I know I could triple my cost. It’s only $20 a month. I could triple my cost and lose very few students. But, what would happen, I would make a bunch of money, but those students then wouldn’t have enough money leftover for private drum instruction.

"The reason my price is $20 a month is so that you can afford private drum instruction also. You can take my material to your teacher and say, ‘Hey, I’m working on this thing from Mike’s site, can you be in the room and stare at my limbs and listen to my dynamics? Even if you make a video for me, depending on your recording gear, maybe I’m not hearing your dynamics properly. If you’re using your phone and it’s clipping the whole time, I can’t tell much. Private drum instruction will always be needed. If you notice, mikeslessons is not a home for beginners. We don’t teach anyone how to play drums. Once you can play drums, we teach you how to improve.”

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
Anyone can learn to play drums

Anyone can learn to play drums

“I am the proof! I am the one-note-at-a-time guy. If you show me anything right now, I’ll tell you to slow it down and I’ll write it out, one note at a time. I definitely think that some people are natural at it. That’s totally different. I think anyone can learn. I’m the proof of one end of the spectrum. Then there’s the other end of the spectrum, the Thomas Langs and Virgil Donatis, where if you do have a natural knack for it, it can be taken to some god-like places.”

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
Fancy a drum lesson with Mike?

Fancy a drum lesson with Mike?

Mike Johnston presents an exclusive video drum lesson, just for you, in which he teaches you how to expand your freedom within drum grooves! You can find the lesson here!

And you can read the full interview with Mike in the May issue of Rhythm, which you can still get hold of by following this link!

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
Categories
Drums
Chuck Parker
Read more
Millenium Drums Legendary Drumbook
“An extremely well-thought-out and all-encompassing piece of drum education”: Millenium Drums Legendary Drumbook review
 
 
Phil Collins sitting at drums
"Peter Gabriel said, as soon as he saw me sit down on a drum stool, he knew that I was the drummer"
 
 
Overhead shot of electronic drum set plugged into a laptop running a VST
“At certain points in music history it became fashionable to place accents on certain beats”: How to score a drum part
 
 
When British rock drumming ruled the world
 
 
Lars Ulrich on stage, early 1990s
“He, to me, was a role model”: Which A list metal drummer could Mike Portnoy be talking about?
 
 
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 06: (L-R) Ed Sheeran and Chris Hemsworth attend The 2024 Met Gala Celebrating "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Watch Chris Hemsworth’s painful first drumming lesson
 
 
Latest in Drummers
Allen Blick with Baroness in 2010
"I treasure every moment we shared”: Baroness pay tribute to fallen bandmate Allen Blickle
 
 
Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit performs onstage during Leeds Festival at Bramham Park on August 24, 2025 in Leeds, Englan
"Please don't put it on the internet": Limp Bizkit tease new song with the help of a young social media drummer
 
 
Josh Freese performs onstage with The Vandals during day 1 of Warped Tour at Shoreline Waterfront on July 26, 2025
“It wasn’t music that I really resonated with”: Josh Freese lifts the lid on his exit from the Foo Fighters
 
 
Photo of Mike JOYCE and SMITHS and MORRISSEY and Andy ROURKE and Johnny MARR; L-R: Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce (drums), Morrissey, Johnny Marr (playing Gibson ES-335 guitar), performing live on The Tube
“This book truly conveys what it felt like to be a member of the Smiths”: Mike Joyce’s memoir to be published in November
 
 
Drum Recording Techniques
How the rules of drum recording were shaped over decades of trial and error
 
 
Neil Peart performing with Rush in 2012
“To those I inspired to start drumming, I apologise to your parents!”: A rare interview with Rush legend Neil Peart
 
 
Latest in News
Adrian Sherwood
Dub pioneer Adrian Sherwood on embracing AI and playing the studio like an instrument
 
 
Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richard of The Rolling Stones perform during the final night of the Hackney Diamonds '24 Tour at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena
“They’re all hyped up”: Marlon Richards says that the Stones have been recording a new album in London
 
 
Jacob Collier
Using his signature ‘DAEAD’ tuning, Jacob Collier recorded a 5-string acoustic guitar album in just four days
 
 
Deals of the week
MusicRadar deals of the week: Score a mind-blowing $1,000 off the stunning D'Angelico Excel SS, $500 off the gorgeous Heritage Standard H-535, and so much more
 
 
English band Radiohead performs live on stage at I-days Festival. June 17th, 2017
“An attempt to deliver tickets as fairly as possible”: Radiohead defend ticketing system
 
 
A robot band in 1958
Deezer report that it’s now receiving over 30,000 fully AI-generated tracks every day
 
 

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...