A small vocabulary first
You do not need a thousand patterns. You need a handful you can play without thinking, the way you use the same few hundred words every day without noticing.
Learn To Play Your Favourite Songs
Always know what, when, and how to practise — so you can play the music you love forever.
See how we can work togetherSound familiar?
You practise. You just don’t get better.
You sit down at the kit and play the same things you played last month. You have watched dozens of free lessons, and each one starts somewhere different, so nothing ever joins up.
You can play bits of a lot of songs and the whole of almost none. The problem was never effort or talent — it is that nobody has ever told you what to practise, in what order, and when to move on.
The LTSD approach
Learn drums the way you learned to speak.
Nobody learns a language by studying the dictionary. They learn a few words, use them every day, and build from there. Drums work the same way.
Daily repetition beats long sessions
Fifteen focused minutes most days will take you further than two hours at the weekend. Language is learned by frequency, and so is drumming.
Fluency before complexity
A simple beat you can hold under pressure is worth more than a hard one you can only manage alone and slowly. We make it fluent, then we make it harder.
The 28-day challenge
Play your first full song in 28 days.
A 28-day challenge for adults learning drums at home. One song, the five beats behind it, a daily 10-minute plan, and five rounds of feedback from me on your playing.
After buying we will send you practice emails weekly, sometimes daily, plus news about coaching. You can unsubscribe from any of them.
Starts Monday 5 October. 20 places. Includes the practice app and community for the 28 days.
Who's teaching
Ant James, 22 years teaching drums. The Learn To Speak Drum method treats drumming as a language, so you understand what you play rather than copying it.
What a day looks like
10 minutes at the kit and one short clip of you playing. One reply from me telling you the single thing to fix next.
What you'll have on day 28
One full song you can play start to finish, and the five beats that unlock hundreds more. Plus a clear next step, so day 29 is not a guess.
Not sure you’re ready?
Take the 2-minute practice score quiz and find out what to work on first.
Take the quizQuestions
Do I need a drum kit?
A kit is ideal, but an electronic kit or even a practice pad will get you a long way. Plenty of what we work on — timing, counting, the vocabulary itself — can be practised quietly. Tell me what you have on the call and the plan is built around it.
What level is this for?
Adult beginners, including people who have been playing a while but never made it past the same few beats. If you can hold sticks and play something that resembles a groove, you are in the right place. If you have never sat at a kit, that is fine too.
How does the video feedback work?
You film a short clip on your phone — no special setup — and send it over. I watch it and reply with a video showing what I can see and hear, and exactly what to change. You get to watch it as many times as you need, which beats trying to remember what was said in a live lesson.
Can I cancel the monthly plan?
Yes, any time, and you keep access until the end of the month you have paid for. There is no minimum term and no cancellation fee.
What happens after I book?
You will get an email straight away with a link to choose a time that suits you, plus a couple of questions about what you want to play. That means the call starts with your drumming rather than with admin.
Learn to play your favourite songs
Stop guessing what to practise. Know what to do today, why it matters, and what comes next — for as long as you want to keep playing.
The practice app
The practice app opens to the public later this year. Challenge members get it now — everyone else, join the waitlist.