International Drum Month: PMC’S Celebrity Drum Lessons Offer Drummers Inspiration to Develop Skills

The Percussion Marketing Council kicked off a new International Drum Month promotion in May offering drummers a chance to win an online “Lesson with a Master” with internationally recognized celebrity drummers Gorden Campbell, Rick Latham, Rich Redmond, and David Stanoch. In light of the many Covid-19 restrictions across the country this spring, this year’s reimagined International Drum Month promotion worked perfectly with the new social distancing guidelines.

“We wanted to create an educational opportunity for drummers to learn from and experience a private online lesson with some of the industry’s most respected players. People are becoming more familiar with online teaching technology used for live lessons. Even with a simple video chat, the audio quality is good enough, and you can hear what someone is playing on an instrument. It’s not too different to a face-to-face lesson,” PMC Co-Executive Director David Jewell explains.

The giveaway attracted close to 500 entries from player of all levels, genders and ages from across the county via PlayDrums.com, the PMC’s official website. Each randomly selected winner had a private one-hour video-conference lesson with one of the four artists. Winners include: Marcus Cain, Bolivar, MO; Johnny Shankel, Rancho Cucamonga, CA; Jack Johnson, Eau Claire, WI; Nathan Bales, Springport, IN; Daniel Jimenez, Milbank, SD; John Helm, Gardena, CA; and Stephanie Krichena, Oklahoma City, OK.

“We were extremely fortunate to have these teaching artists step forward to help us draw attention to the 25th anniversary of the Percussion Marketing Council and participate in this very special 2020 International Drum Month campaign,” states Jennifer Paisley, PMC Co-Executive Director.

Drumming is a great activity to relieve anxiety and stress. As part of the PMC’s continuing year-long 25th Anniversary celebration, the PMC will help connect drummers with quality music retailers that offer both in-store or online drum lessons. Each month, a randomly selected winner will receive 12 FREE “Get Your Sticks Together” drum lessons at their chosen local drum shop or music store – paid for by the PMC. The total value for the student lessons is $360 for the 12 half-hour private drum lessons. All percussion retailers are encouraged to participate and become part of the PMC-sponsored free drum lesson promotion and to receive national attention on the PlayDrums.com website. Retailers providing the winners’ drum lessons will be honored at the annual PMC Members Meeting in 2021. Percussion retailers can sign up at playdrums.com/sticks.retailers

Drawing even further attention to the PMC’s 25th anniversary and International Drum Month, a special selection of commemorative-edition snare drums, cymbals, hand-drums, electronic pad, and instruction book collections have been donated by select PMC members. Entries continue to grow with more than 2,000 website visitors already registered to win one of these Commemorative Anniversary prizes. Consumers can find entry forms and details for the International Drum Month contests on the www.PlayDrums.com website. Selection of monthly winners will continue through all of 2020.