Thanks Claire!

How would I find a trainer in my area (Dallas, TX)?

Most of the folks teaching Stick can do so online - Skype, Google, etc. I think many of them post here fairly regularly as well.

I started lessons with Greg pretty much as soon as I got my first Stick. I have an old shoulder injury and wanted to avoid getting into bad habits as far as posture / ergonomics.

If you’re set on in-person lessons, I don’t really know who’s in your area. Might be good to post here or on the FB groups to see if anyone is near you.

I've been taking drum lessons over FaceTime since last March, and I have to say that it's hard to find any downside to "virtual" one-on-one lessons. I am not going to hesitate to booking lessons with Greg, Steve or anyone that is doing remote teaching. It really works well. Hard to see what more would be gained by in-person lessons.

Note that my drum teacher and I haven't once discussed returning to in-person lessons since we've both been vaccinated. I may schedule something in-person I'm starting to wonder what it's like to play a real drum kit rather than the V-drums I'm playing now. My teacher has about three full kits for me to bang on!!

Well Greg it is (or will be) then. Thanks Claire!

I don't drive at the moment, Steve, so maybe I should look into remote lessons for drumming as well. I don't have a camera setup tho, and I'm not sure how much of me the teacher will need to see. I've read quite a bit online about how to set up the kit for yourself, but I'd still prefer to sit at a kit and have someone tell me that their kit is wrong for me because of X. And technique on drums, can that actually be coached over video lessons?

Heh, video lessons. This was a thing straight out of SciFi 2 years ago.

We've been doing it with our phones. I have a mount for mine that holds it in such a way that my teacher can see every drum/cymbal on the kit. We can't play together due to the latency, but that has never been an issue.

If you have a laptop with a web cam on it, that would work fine as well. If you run a desktop computer, or your laptop doesn't have a webcam, a USB webcam is dirt cheap (like less than $50).

As to the technique, the instructor can explain and show you everything you need to know. How to hold your sticks, how to sit, how to work from your wrists instead of your arms. A lot though is something you can't be coached on, but you figure out because it's pretty personal, and much will change over time - how close your kick/hi-hat pedals are to you, how high your snare sits, how close or far away from the snare you're positioned. I've only been playing a kit for less than a year (started lessons in January of '20), and have been continuously adjusting things as I learn and become more comfortable. The latest challenge is shifting to doing the kick heel-up. It becomes hard to do sixteenth-note double-kicks (something that is basic and required for just about everything) while keeping the heel on the floor.

I started with just a practice pad, added a snare stand, then a throne, then a kick pedal and a practice kick pad, added a hi-hat stand w/plastic cymbals, then after 8 months took the plunge and bought a V-Drum set (I selected a Roland TD17-KVX). Everything I bought up to that point other than the snare stand and practice kick pad were used with the V-drums (drum kits usually do not come with hi-hat stand, kick pedal or throne).

If you plan to buy anything to allow remote learning, check with Greg or Steve or whoever you plan to work with to get their recommendations if any.