Drum Lessons with Sam Esecson

I’ve been taking drum lessons with Sam Esecson for well over a year now — and while he works mostly with younger students, Sam is a great teacher for adults as well. In particular, he helped me move from getting down the basics on my own to being comfortable playing in several different live band and group situations.
I’d recommend him not only for kids and novice adult students, but also for more experienced drummers looking to improve their hand technique, their musical feel (especially in jazz and latin), and their dynamics and finesse. His studio is large so it never feels cramped and set up so it’s not super-​loud during a lesson, which is a bonus!

Our son has taken lessons from Sam for about a year and a half. He started when he was 8 years old and this was his first instrument and introduction to playing music. Sam has been great! He’s patient and always encouraging and has really developed his confidence and skills. We love how he invites his students and their families to come and watch him play live with his band. Such a great experience for a kid to be part of live music and see his teacher on stage.
Highly recommend!

I was looking for a new drum teacher for my daughter (8) and myself. Our prior two teachers, though good drummers, just didn’t quite feel like a perfect fit for what I wanted for both my daughter and myself. I took to Unilocal to try and find a new teacher and found Sam’s Unilocal page. He had a couple of great reviews, obvious live playing experience and thought we’d give him a try. His studio is clean and nicely set up. It’s close to my house which is a bonus. As far as teaching, he is very patient and positive, talented and good with kids. We both have ample homework and open communication to talk about any questions that arise. Another review mentioned learning standard beats right away and I’d have to agree with the confidence building part of that. It’s really cool to be able to go home from a lesson being a beginner drummer and start playing more than just one basic Rock beat. Anyhow, so far we’ve had about 5 or 6 lessons now and I honestly couldn’t be happier with my choice of teachers.

My son is brand new to percussion and he has so loved being taught by Sam — and I am amazed by how much I love listening to the 2 of them play. He is obviously a talented percussionist (check out the Paperboys!) but is a patient, kind and appropriately challenging teacher as well. We look forward to our weekly lessons —

Sam’s teaching has helped me go from just struggling to keep a beat to incorporating new techniques and styles into my playing in only a couple months. He’s a versatile drummer and great about teaching me what I want to learn while keeping focus on the finer, technical aspects, and keeping it interesting. Lessons are always fun and comfortable and his teaching studio set up is great. Highly recommended teacher.