At MDS, we have electives that are specially designed to meet drummers' specific needs. These courses are targetted to educate our students who are seeking a specific technique or an area of development in drumming.

These courses are targetted for students who have some basic drumming experience and are interested in a particular aspect in drumming. Students choose the Elective Programme because of a limited time frame (e.g holidays, waiting to be enlisted, waiting for results). Students who are looking for a longer term education, should consider the Semester Programme.

Here are the different elective courses at MDS:

Teach Me To Read is a foundation course for drummers who had started drumming with no formal supervision or coaching. This often results in wrong techniques, sound, and fundamentals. Many drummers who play by ear reach a certain stage where they have to go back to learn reading music in order to move forward. Thus it is more important to build a solid foundation of rhythm and groove than to have fast chops and inconsistent ideas.

At MDS, we are interested in helping our students rediscover their first love in drumming the right way. This course will provide students with a proper foundation in drumming focusing on sticking, reading drum notations, hand techniques, posture, listening, timing ...etc

Sometimes, it’s good to unlearn. Think retrospectively, throw out your preconceived notions, forget about dependencies and ignore your constraints. Learn to read music the right way.

EVEN-ing Workout is an intensive course for drummers seeking only one objective; to play faster through accuracy. Even though speed is not the single measurement of a good drummer, it is important to be able to play at a comfortable speed. At MDS, we believe that by using proper practising technique exercises, we are able to assist drummers at all levels to improve sticking speed, accuracy and endurance.

A drummer can only play as fast as his or her slowest hand or foot. By educating our students with a disciplined and optimized practice routine, we help them balance their hand and feet speed, achieving faster results within a short period. This course is not suitable for new drummers as proper techniques (e.g double-strokes) and experiences are required.

Breakin' Beats aims to give our students as much exposure to the different styles of drumming. All drummers strive day to day to find new and unique drum beats to challenge and carry themselves to a new level of drumming. At MDS, we bring our students on a journey of beats from beginner drum beats all the way to advanced drum beats.

Our desire is to inspire each student with new patterns, grooves, odd-time signatures, music styles, genres, and experimental drumming. Each session is a new idea and inspiration and we hope to help our students take these breaking beats to their solos and drumming styles.

Fundamental Fills is one of our school’s most popular courses. A drum fill is a technique which is beyond technical but inspirational and spontaneous. At MDS, we educate our drummers to play effective and interesting “killer” drum fills without much technicality.

We approach this course by breaking down and introducing new concepts about drum fills that will help our students to unleash their creativity and ideas within that crucial moment. This is a compulsory module that we have in our trimester courses, but we are offering this course especially for students seeking a breakthrough in their drum fills.

Secret Wisdom is a course designed to educate church and gospel drummers with musical excellence in today’s Christian contemporary music. We are the first music school to offer such a course in Singapore. At MDS, we equip our students with sufficient skill and discernment to become a servant drummer in any worship community.

By defining the role of a Christian drummer, this drum course provides our students with new insights towards Christian praise and worship songs. Besides learning dynamics, independence and groove, we cover important aspects of Christianity like reflection, spontaneity and focus.

All of our educators have experience in praise & worship ministry as that is a major criteria in our school hiring process. We would love to share with you our experiences in today's worship.

This course focuses on teaching drums for worship targetting students who are free during their holidays or a given period. Students seeking a long term education should do the Semester Programme with the same focus but in more detail.

Find out more about our Semester programmes >