Todd Isler is a drummer, percussionist, and teacher who’s been active in the New York City jazz and world music spheres for more than 20 years. He’s released two albums, “Two Step: Duets and Beyond” and “Soul Drums,” and is also the author of “You Can Ta Ka Di Mi This,” which teaches the South Indian syllable system of rhythm. When he’s not teaching, Todd plays with Mike Gordon of Phish, International Orange, and TriBeCaStan. Todd is also a world traveler, having studied in and incorporated into his play and teaching the techniques of African, Brazilian, and Indian percussion, among others.
Voice and drums are the original instruments. Unfortunately, as anyone knows who tries to sing outside of the shower or drum outside of a studio, not everyone is a fan. It’s pretty hard to get good at an instrument without practicing though, so something’s got to give. In that vein, we’ve come up with four solutions to the problem of drumming in the city (or anywhere neighbors might not enjoy feeling the rhythm as much as you do).
Thanks so much to everyone who made it out last night and those who joined in on the #LFLaunchParty action on Twitter and Instagram. We had a great time welcoming so many interesting guests to our offices, and would like to send a special thanks out to our talented teachers who managed to give dozens of new students a taste of what a real Lessonface online music lesson with them would be like.
We're ready for the Lessonface Launch Party tonight at our Brooklyn headquarters! There will be live drum, guitar, voice, and ukulele online music lesson demos throughout the night. If you're interested, check out the party page for more details.
In order to answer the question of “How much practice is enough?” we've broken it down into three categories of musicians: professionals, aspiring pros, and casual musicians/beginners.
Kevin Lopez, an LA-based percussionist, has an eclectic range on the drum kit, seamlessly transitioning from Latin rhythms to punk rock, depending on his mood and the musicianship of his bandmates. He’s an expert in teaching grooves, improvisation, reading, and more, and has recorded two albums with the Mark Cross Band, with which he just finished a nationwide tour. Kevin also teaches lessons on Pro Tools operation, mixing, and various audio engineering topics. We caught up with Kevin to start the new year off right with this week’s “Five Questions.”
