For the Teacher

Teacher Run Lessons
Although I do follow my inspirations and the needs of each student, my general formula with each 30 minute lesson is as follows:

1. If time allows, I have the student warm up prior to the lesson.
2. Either way, I briefly warm up with the student to enforce good technique and to continue to build chops.
3. I review the previously assigned material. In a sense, testing the student in a semi performance situation -- student performs for teacher.
   
   Using SRC I have the student play each exercise to a metronome on a pad and I check off, in pencil, each lesson. If I want the student to work on an exercise for the next lesson, I put a small box in front of it. After we go through the exercises on pad with a metronome, I'll have them perform one or two of them without the metronome and one or two on a real instrument (usually a snare drum, tom, or HH).
    
4. Introduce new material for the next lesson. How much new material I introduce depends on the student, their goals, and their abilities. I try to introduce a full lesson from the SRC series each time. For faster students, I'll introduce more material.
   
   Using SRC If time allows, I have the student play along to the audio files. In general, this is the only place I use the audio files in the lesson. The point of this is to get the student use to the idea of playing to the audio files and using them to improve their timing.

Teacher Note on First Lesson
Whether the student is an absolute beginner or an advanced performer, I introduce the SRC series and stress that these are workbooks that will be a part of the lessons. Furthermore, I stress that I will write on the pages and track his progress right within the pages of the books. Then, I try to make it through SRC lessons 1-3 during the first lesson.

For absolute beginners, I try to introduce all three lessons during their first lesson with me and review them in the second lesson. I don't always make it through all three lessons, but that is my goal. Then I progress straight through the lessons in book 1. The beginner student does not have a choice about this. I always take them through book 1 even if they want to play drum set or another percussion instrument. To keep their interest, I do introduce other material but only as much as needed to keep their interest. For example, for drum set players, I'll introduce drum set beats and fills as required. However, ideally I want drum set players to make it all the way through book1 PRIOR to starting anything on the drum set.

For advanced performers, I always make it through all three lessons AND I use the Kitchen Sink Solo in book 3 (page 59) to determine what I want to teach them from the SRC series. Then I discuss where to go from there which almost always includes the SRC series.

About The Chop Builders (Appendix B of each book)
Appendix B of each volume is a system for building chops that can provide a lifetime of variation and complexity. Recommend to your students that they pick one of the three included chop builders to warm up with prior to each practice or performance session. The warm up should take less than 10 minutes. For a chop building session, I recommend spending 5 to 10 minutes on each exercise.