teacher profile

Personal Statement/Background

Tom recently moved to Los Angeles from Chicago upon completing his education receiving a bachelor in Jazz studies at Columbia College and a master in Jazz Performance at N.I.U., studying with drummers such as Frank Donaldson, Dana Hall, Tom Hipskind and Rodrigo Villanueva. Born in Sparta, Greece allowed Tom to experience, appreciate and love diverse musical styles, playing in bands since he was 15 years old. His passion for teaching comes from his personal joy of playing, inspiring and ... developing new generations of talent. Tom is a patient and fun teacher who balances the excitement of the instrument with the discipline of learning.

Our focus will be on musicality, improvisation; creativity, groove and style development. Once your goal and musical level is established I will customize a lesson plan to help you achieve your success. My teaching technique is designed around actual playing, you will learn to develop a creative practice routine because the importance of practice is reflected in the way you play. We’ll be playing with a click track and using various play- along materials. At first we will build a good ... technique focusing on rudiments and snare exercises and you’ll learn a basic beat which we’ll develop over time. Beginners, after 3 months you will be able to play drum beats and drum rolls under a specific form. You will be playing a song with the cd, play-along material, or jamming with me on the keyboard.

Books: Stick Control for the Snare Drummer Alfred's Drum Method OR The Ludwig Drum Method

Books for Advanced Students: Syncopation-Ted Reed, Future Sounds-David Garibaldi, The New Breed- Gary Chester, Afro Cuban Coordination for Drumset; Brazilian Coordination for Drumset, -Maria Martinez

Education

Education:

Master of Music, MM Specialization: Jazz Studies Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Illinois

Bachelor of Arts, BA Specialization: Jazz Studies Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois

Counterpoint Music Diploma Ellinion Conservatory, Sparta, Greece

Classical Harmony of Music Diploma G.Fakanas Conservatory, Athens, Greece

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Piraeus Institute of Technology, Athens, Greece