Groove scribe app1/31/2024 I found a website with video lessons on every program in the world, so I learned how to code, html, java script, action script and so on. The next step was who’s gonna make the website, how do you deliver content like that? There were no templates for that. So the first thing I did was four years of YouTube lessons building trust, building followers with a goal of getting to 100,000 subscribers buying into a message of positivity and clear explanations – and then you’re hoping that maybe 10% of them are willing to follow you to a paid website that will offer something more than the “tips & tricks” style of lessons that I was making for YouTube. I’ve seen people trying to start out similar businesses – which they should because they are great drummers and explainers – but there is no following to purchase the content. One thing that people really underestimate is that you need a following that’s demanding the content you offer. How do you even go about starting something like this? Sounds like a huge project. I thought we’re spending so much money on drum DVDs but sometimes I only need one thing from the DVD – why can’t I just buy the chapter that I need?! So I made an iTunes for drummers. I then took inspiration from iTunes which just came out at that time. It felt so weird that random people would watch a drum lesson, but when it reached 1 million views I thought there definitely is a need for this. When I came back from tour the videos should have had two views from the students I made them for, but they had 60,000 views. They had to buffer all night long to watch three seconds. At that time most people didn’t even have the bandwidth to stream the videos. So if I went away on tour I could tell my students ‘Listen, I’m not here for your lesson but I made a video for you, it’s on this thing called ’. Back then YouTube was brand new and I looked at it as a server that would just hold my videos for me but I didn’t think anybody would actually see it. The idea for the website came while you were on tour recording lessons for your students back home, right? It was just rap, scream, rap, scream… but yeah, it was definitely very heavy music drum wise for sure. I think it was called Nu Metal, I call it ‘Rage Against The Korntones’. I was so young and so naive, it was a great lesson. It was funny, I remember playing him the demos I played on and he went: “Are you listening to the guitar player at all?” I went: “Nope.” – “How about the bass player?” – “He’s getting in my way too.” He made a point saying: “You should listen to your band and craft your drum parts around that.” In my head I was trying to impress drummers with this, but he was thinking I should try to sell a few albums. The album that Steve helped on was our second album. The record industry was very different, there were big record deals back then. That was with Hollywood Records which was owned by Disney, so there were all the financial resources in the world. We got a major label record deal when I was 21. Was that with ‘Simon Says’? That was your first dive into the professional side of things, right? He came in, listened to what I was doing on the album, took all the silliness out of it and said: “Just do this.” It straightened up the whole album, it really helped! I rented out a rehearsal room and set up two kits for us. He knew Steve and hired him to do some private lessons with me. I was getting ready to record my first major label album and the producer felt that I needed some help with my groove and feel. Yes, for a very short time, he definitely wasn’t one of my private teachers. I was like: “Oh, I gotta go back and play drums, I just wanna play clarinet, it’s so cool!”. That wasn’t a choice, I was really upset. I started playing bass drum in the school band and my parents were really supportive and got me a drum kit. I kept passing out while we worked on our whole notes because of all the blowing, so my teacher moved me to drums – and that was it. For some weird reason when I was five I thought the clarinet was the coolest instrument on the planet. I started in my school music programme playing clarinet. Let’s talk about the time before your website. I caught up with Mike at his Masterclass in London to talk about his early days of drumming, his website and many other things. His website ‘’ has not only made him one of the top educators of our time but also revolutionised drum education forever – and he has big plans to increase his lead even further. The drum community surrounding his online lessons, consisting of drummers from all ages and levels of ability, extends over the whole globe and is growing bigger every day.īut even if you’re not a regular subscriber, every drummer has seen at least a handful of Mike’s video lessons. Mike Johnston is probably one of the most recognisable names on the drum circuit today.
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