Drums

Austin Keyes

Drums

Works with

All Ages

Shines with

Beginner to Intermediate

Neurodivergent Learners

What is your musical background?

My mom was a drummer. She always worked in music stores. When she got a job at Rainbow Guitars she brought her drum teacher there, and he made a great living. Then when she got sick and passed away when I was 13, he said hey kid, if you ever want to take lessons I’ve got you for life. And I showed up that next Wednesday, then every Wednesday after that for 13 years.

A week after my mom passed away, my friend said hey, we have this band, we could play our eighth grade graduation if we could get a song together. So we did. The next ten years, we practiced every minute we could. In High School I got into jazz band before I was supposed to, won the Louis Armstrong award.

Before the pandemic, I was playing live three to four nights a week for other artists. Sold out shows at the Rialto, opening for Tyga, Machine Gun Kelly. I haven't done much like that since, I’ve mainly been teaching. The hip hop scene didn’t come back the way it was.

How long have you been teaching? Why do you teach music?

I've taught for about six years. I taught two years out of my house before I came here. I’ve been teaching here for three years.

What drives me to teach? How uncomfortable growing up is. I turned to the drums, no one can mess with me right here. This is my complete power circle. No matter what was going on, I could get behind the drums for hours, and not think about it. You learn that life can be bad, and you learn that no one can stop you from getting good at something. No one can mess with me behind the drums. And I want these kids to have that. There are a lot of kids who might be uncomfortable about life, trying to find an identity. Drums gave me a sense of identity. I want to give back for that.

How would you describe your teaching style and methods?

I am straight up to the bell to bell. All my students learn how to read music, beginning day one. It’s a necessity. Learning that early on will put you leagues ahead. And I try to cram as much as much actual literature that I can get into their brain, because that's how I learned. I'd have 30 minutes that would blow my mind, then a week to process it.

For practice, I tell parents, make sure they practice tonight before dinner, for 10-15 minutes. At the least, practice within the first two days of a lesson. Any longer than that, it's brand new to them. They’ll just be reteaching themselves, instead of locking it in.

What are your students like? Who do you work best with?

I’ve had kids from three to 65, neurotypical to severely autistic. I prefer 12 and up, but I’ll teach anybody.

What do you want your students to take away from their time with you?

That music can be as fun as they want it to be. It's not a stuck-up thing. There are so many outlets, so many avenues you can take. There’s no one direction to do this. I thought about being a jazz drummer in the Air Force for a while just because that would have been the coolest thing ever. There are so many opportunities. That's the best real thing.

What is a favorite musical memory?

I would fall asleep every night to my mom playing drums. Hair permed out, headphones. Five two, adorable. One glass of red wine she would never drink. She’d take a sip out of it and just play along to Steely Dan, Elton John albums. Her musical tastes were incredible. She had two kids to raise, my dad was nowhere to be found, and she was like, you know what? I’m going to fall face into something. She started playing drums, and that became her regular obsession.

What can students and parents expect during the first few lessons?

They’ll walk out with music, and the kid will know how to read it. Because you can break down a beat so simple. I always start the same, on a staff on the whiteboard. It starts like a magic trick: I tell them, pick a color. They say blue, I’ll write out the bass notes in blue, then have them hit the kick drum. Pick another color. Red, that’s the floor tom, and I’ll write out those notes, have them play along. I just break it down, and when they leave, they’re like, “I’m kind of able to do this already! I didn’t even realize he was teaching me anything.”

The way my teacher explained things – you can spend six months and just trying to figure it out on your own. You can save six months with one 30-minute lesson, because somebody else took that six months and then wrote it down. Some people can teach themselves, I couldn’t. Learning drums is really complicated. Get someone who knows enough to make it simple. And sometimes it's not fun. Yeah, to get good at anything, it's not fun sometimes.