Teacher, app or YouTube?

The honest answer after 5 years of MyGroove

We celebrate MyGroove's 5th anniversary in 6 weeks. And one topic has remained a constant in the discussion over all these years, with our thousands of hobby musicians and also among instrument teachers: How worthwhile are projects like MyGroove, Drumeo, SimplyPiano and Yousician? Or is it all obsolete, because you can already get everything from YouTube?

And shouldn't we rather put all of this back in the drawer and leave it solely to instrument teachers on site?

The answer is: all of these paths can lead to success. First, though, we need to clarify how we define "success" in this case.

Let's start with the people who want to learn an instrument. Their motivation is so varied that you can never assume a classic role model.

Currently I teach 5- to 7-year-old kids who practice during the week in the MyGroove app and get their personal lessons with me in 1:1 sessions via the new Musikum Salzburg Teacher Tool. For my students, this setup of app plus real live 1:1 lessons is ideal.

At the same time, I know people, mostly adults, who get along wonderfully with the MyGroove app, Drumeo or another digital project. These hobby drummers deliberately want to work on their drum skills in peace and without any obligations. They love the freedom and anonymity of not having to give a "musical account" of themselves to anyone.

But I also know hobby drummers who have fun on the drums exclusively with YouTube. Here, I would be cautious, though, as far as progress on the instrument itself is concerned. Because nothing really beats a methodically and didactically structured learning path.

For every hobby drummer, it simply makes sense to build up their skills on the instrument in a structured way. You can compare it well to learning a language. If you follow the expertise of experienced specialists who, with their decades of experience, trained at top European and American universities, have developed nearly perfect learning paths and exercises tailored to the students, both in analog, in-person lessons and with their expertise for MyGroove, the likelihood of achieving real and lasting progress is significantly higher.

When parents bring their children and teenagers to the point of wanting to learn an instrument, the joy and fun of making music itself take center stage. It is primarily about simply starting to drum with enthusiasm and excitement, accompanying a few simple first songs on the drum set, and not getting stuck on dogmatic content for too long, but enjoying the most beautiful serum in the world: making music.

A good teacher then makes sure from time to time that the important basic technical rules of playing are observed "on the side". This doesn't have to be forced, but a continuous reminder of a few important principles is worthwhile.

I often find that young drummers who come to us at the university lack the technical building blocks. So there is certainly room to convey a bit more playing technique in the classical sense, in a playful way, now and then in analog lessons.

Back to the motivations of our players: with adults, things are usually very different. Here we see two main groups. Group 1, represented for example by a TV presenter well known in Austria who is a MyGroove user. He tells me quite openly that he simply has no time right now for classical "learning", but wants to relax at the drums after work with his 3–4 favorite songs. He currently has no ambition to improve. He just wants to groove along a bit. That's it. Fair enough!

Group 2: the adult drummer with maximum ambition. He was socialized in the good old days of textbooks. He wants to do every exercise and make his progress step by step, exercise by exercise, in a structured way in the MyGroove School of Drums. He really wants to "work through" every one of the 9,000 exercises and always do everything right. I find this type very likable, and success is almost inevitable.

So let's take a classic inventory, with my own assessment:

Can you learn to play drums really well with YouTube alone? You can. What it takes: perfect intrinsic motivation, extraordinary luck in finding the right content, and angelic patience over years. Probability of success? 5–10%.

Can you become a great drummer with an app like MyGroove or Drumeo alone? Of course. At least with MyGroove, a perfectly tailored learning path is prepared. You learn from the ground up with superstar drummer Thomas Lang, get feedback, can freely choose from countless tools and then look very closely at how Thomas Lang demonstrates it perfectly. You automatically always watch the best. That alone quickly raises the probability of success to 50–70%.

Can you become a very good drummer with an analog drum teacher? Absolutely. If you meet a well-trained, motivated and hardworking drum teacher and you are also really motivated to move forward, it will work. Probability of success? 80%.

The top option: you learn with a drum teacher week after week in 1:1 lessons, as currently offered by Musikum Salzburg in the MyGroove Teacher Tool, at the same time use Thomas Lang's app content from the School of Drums, and between sessions practice the exercises assigned by the teacher and perfectly tailored to you in the app itself. If you are then also a little motivated yourself, I promise 100% success. It will simply work!

As with anything you want to do well and invest your time and a bit of money in, learning an instrument is a question of ingredients: diligence, motivation, a bit of discipline, a motivating drum tool, a cool teacher and lots of joy in doing it. When all of that comes together, it can only be a really awesome time with music.