Philadelphia Area Drum Teachers

Tracey Myers

Tracey Myers is a 25 year old drum instructor located in the Northeast Philadelphia / Cheltenham Township area. She is recently married and working as a part time nanny to 3 great kids.

She took lessons for several years in her late teens, at Cintioli Music Center before joining a country / alternative band, playing covers at local open mics. Her band broke up in 2015 when it's singer, Amanda Howell Oliveira started recording for a solo career.

Tracey started teaching drums in 2016 and has been teaching weekly and bi-weekly students ever since. Her lessons consist of drum notation, rudiments, tuning, song covers, and music theory. A lesson will be divided into learning exercises and beats and also some fun jam sessions or covers, based around the student's genre interests. She enjoys teaching rock, marching band, and country beats, as well as jazz, hip hop, r&b, or whatever type the student may be interested in.

Benjamin Kutner-Duff

Benjamin Kutner-Duff started his musical adventure in the Philadelphia at age 11.  His passion for performance and improvisation lead him quickly to the study of Rock music and Jazz harmony.  He discovered his passion for teaching soon thereafter and began teaching music to the neighborhood children in his teens as a way of making some pocket change.  While teaching in high school, Benjamin started his first band, playing the improvisational rock music he admired for so many years.

Benjamin took his love of the craft to Boston, where he studied at the Berklee College of Music.  Honing his skills, he graduated in three all too short years to return to Philadelphia and take his love of music to the next level by adding the drum set to his repertoire of instruments.  Benjamin started playing as a drummer full time in his band, Swwik. There is nothing Benjamin loves more than to see the growth and progress of his students and the musical community into which he invests himself. 

John Caserta

John grew up in North Jersey and currently attends The University of The Arts for Music Performance with a Music Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology minor. He has been playing drums his entire life and has been a part of countless bands/ensembles. He loves teaching music and finds that he learns a lot about himself as a musician when sharing ideas. John's main philosophy is that everybody can learn something from somebody else and he encourages students to think boldly about their ideas and abilities, and stand by what works for them/their interests. For his entire life, John has been studying various types of music such as rock, funk, jazz, latin, and blues. He also has experience playing in studios and is knowledgeable about sound quality/consistency. 

John taught lessons for about 5 years until he moved to Philadelphia for school. In addition to the traditional drum kit, John plays a variety of pitched and un-pitched percussion instruments including the marimba, timpani, congas, djembe and bongos, for which he can also provide instruction.

Currently living in the Center City area, John is available for lessons anywhere in the Philadelphia region.

Max Young

Since Max obtained the ability to move his fingers he has not stopped tapping. From snare drum to drumkit, to African djembe, Japanese taiko and any world percussion in between, Max has immersed himself in the world of rhythm and percussion on a consistent basis for over 20 years. Starting out as a rock drummer, Max's sound evolved when he discovered the genres of jazz and funk which opened up a world of music -- and subsequently drumming -- simply unattainable in one single genre. This expansion of taste brought Max into a touring original group that released several albums and played over 100 shows. 

So why stop touring? Between work and travel opportunities, Max wanted to see more of the world and during this time, discovered a place called the Rhythm Hut in Australia. Moving there for almost two years, Max spent the last major portion of his life teaching hand drums in both individual and group settings as well as ran drum circles at events all up and down the coast. It was here Max rediscovered his passion for teaching and decided to change career paths once coming home. Now, Max lives and breathes all things drum and guarantees he can teach anyone at any skill level how to tap into their inner rhythm!
 

Jessie Wexler

Growing up in suburban Philadelphia, Jessie performed in over 200 performances prior to starting college. Throughout his academic career Jessie participated in many music programs. In this time, Jessie developed a skill for performance at a young age while studying various composers. Jessie composes and performs various styles of music from rock, jazz, film scores, Middle Eastern and world music.

At The University of the Arts, Jessie holds a Bachelor's with honors in music composition. He has studied with some of the cities most talented composers and artists In college. Jessie focused on music production through classes and personal music projects collaborating and composing music for animators, film makers, dancers and music business students.

Jessie has performed with and produced for original bands in the Philadelphia area such as Seoul Delhi, Juice Wax and Breathing, collectively performing hundreds of shows and creating a fan-base in the Philadelphia area. Jessie's passion for music continued into education with a dedication to teach students to learn their instruments and to play what they want confidently. 

David Pearl

David Pearl is an old soul with fresh ideas. He is a nurturing, compassionate, patient teacher and a mentor dedicated to challenging his students to grow independently to become better musicians and take pride in their hard work and dedication. 

David has played and studied piano and drums for nearly thirty years and has been teaching for over fifteen years. He has performed with a variety of musicians and bands throughout his career. 

David teaches in homes, studios, community based outreach organizations as well as behavioral health facilities and other institutions. Engendering and instilling focused discipline and a fun loving attitude towards practice and performing is important to him.

David's teaching methodology is catered to each unique student based on age, level of musicianship, specific interests and learning style/personality. Lessons are designed to enhance students' learning process and progress in order to help develop over all self confidence. The lessons are created to help develop skills in reading notation, developing the proper technique, interactive improvisation and overall ability to play music in any performance setting with other musicians in a creative collective. David's overall teaching philosophy is designed to guide students to appreciate the joy of playing music.

Erik Scattareggia

Erik Scattareggia is a professional drummer and teacher in Philadelphia. Growing up in the area he was exposed to many different styles of drumming such Jazz, rock, pop, metal. Erik studied for several years with a great teacher named Pete Cruickshank at a local music store where Erik would go on to teach after graduating from college with a B.A. in music. 

Since graduating from college, Erik has maintained a steady roster of drum students as well as performing regularly in Philadelphia and beyond. He currently works in recording studios and is the leader of a 12 piece corporate band. 

Erik's teaching style focuses on the individual student's needs and goals while focusing on creating a solid foundation that includes proper technique, note reading and musicianship. 

Rob Wickline

Rob Wickline is a composer, producer and rhythm section instrument guru. He started with piano when young and in high school found guitar. After becoming thoroughly hooked, Rob decided he would dedicate all of his energy into preparing to go to school to study jazz guitar. After a semester of guitar study at The University of the Arts felt he was in a place where he could manage his own guitar education with the aid of just private lessons and was growing more interested in composition and decided to make the switch.

Throughout college Rob honed his skills in a variety of different environments of composition: Electronic music was the first addictive fascination but jazz composition for various ensembles, arranging video game music, progressive rock for large ensembles, film scoring, contemporary classical and many more started taking hold. It was also in this time that Rob took the opportunity to play in the many different ensembles available to perform in at UArts. 

While exploring these many different avenues of musical creation Rob was also slowly learning the ropes in the recording arts. He developed a love and admiration for the recording arts be it engineering, mixing, mastering or collaborating with artists on songs and arrangements. Nowadays, Rob continues to wear these many hats. Some days he is a producer, some days a mixing engineer, artist, arranger, church guitarist, wedding musician, educator, bandmate and sometimes composing classical music when spare time permits - and the list goes on!