In the Field: XTRAX STEMS 2 for Drum Lessons

May 13, 2019ADX Technology, Blog

Drummer Jeff Holden has played with the legendary Milwaukee hard rock band Bender, spent 5 years touring with the pop rock trio Mandown and has most recently been recording and gigging with Redbelt, an alt rock band featuring members of Mandown. In 2011, he was nominated for the Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) drummer of the year award.

He also teaches drum lessons to kids from ages 5-18 at Rock Central, a non profit music school in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with a mission to ensure that all kids with a passion for music are able to play, regardless of income.

Jeff was recently introduced to XTRAX STEMS 2 by a friend, and decided to try it out for drum track isolation. He reached out to let us know that he was blown away by the results and has been finding creative ways to use it in his drum lessons ever since.

His favorite way to use XTRAX STEMS for teaching drums, for any age or ability, is to mute the drums in a song and challenge the student to figure out what they would do if they were the drummer in the band. This is a great way to coax students into finding their own style and creative approach within different music genres.

Jeff felt like he got particularly good results working this way with a talented high school student in jazz band. He took a Count Basie song and pulled out the drums, and then his student figured out how to play along and create his own drum riffs.

For some of his younger students he has found that XTRAX STEMS is great for ear development. He will play a full song and ask them to describe what the drums are playing. What is the kick drum doing? What’s the snare doing? Then, after they have made their guess, Jeff will pull up the drum track alone and they can evaluate how well they analyzed the drum components.

We were excited to see how XTRAX STEMS has been so useful to helping these students learn how to play the drums, and learn how to find their own rhythmic style.

Rock Central
Address: 750 Veterans Pkwy, Lake Geneva, WI 53147
Phone: (262) 745-1663

About the Products Mentioned in the Blog

XTRAX STEMS 2

One Song In. Three Stems Out.

Separate any song into Vocals, Drums, and remaining Music.