When I was a kid I remember seeing my mom up late at night pouring over assignments that she was marking for high school level business education courses she taught. I thought to myself “Man…I’m never going to become a teacher! It doesn’t look like a lot of fun!” I may not have to mark a lot of papers and assignments (although I really wouldn’t mind it) but I actually love teaching!

I started teaching soon after I started to play the drums (about 38 years ago). There was a boy who lived down the street from me who heard me practicing and wanted to play. His mom paid me a small amount of money weekly to teach him! I can’t remember how much it was, but it was cool to get paid for being able to help someone learn the art form. It wasn’t until I started to teach at the McGill Conservatory that I took teaching seriously. I was hired by the McGill Conservatory to teach kids drums in their homes. That was a a real lifesaver for me as I had just graduated from McGill and had recently gotten married to my wife Julie. Click here to learn more about her and I. I really didn’t know a great deal about drum set playing as I mainly studied classical percussion at McGill but I knew enough to teach the students I had, plus it’s a great way to solidify what I did know.

Ten years later I moved to a house in Leonardo, New Jersey after having lived in New York City for 8 years. Julie and I had our son Kai and decided that we would commute to Manhattan rather than try to raise him in any of the New York boroughs. It was there that I started to teach again at a really nice little place in Red Bank called Monmouth Music. At first it was mostly a way to make some extra income between gigs but then I soon began to enjoy it. I guess the teaching gene that I inherited from my mom started to have an influence on me. I taught there for the remainder of my time in the U.S..

When my daughter Echo was born and some truly horrific people decided to fly planes into the Work Trade Center we decided to move back to Canada to give our children what we thought would be a more balanced and sensible upbringing. We moved to Oshawa, Ontario where I started to teach much more regularly and “Aubrey Dayle Drum Studios” was born. I’ve been teaching regularly in Oshawa since 2004 and it’s been extremely rewarding. I have been able to bring the experience I gained while working out of New York City to the community. As a result, some of my students have become professional musicians and music teachers, or gone on to secondary education majoring in music. I am extremely pleased that I have been able to bring music into so many lives while gaining extremely valuable friendships.

I am still very actively performing here in Canada as well as abroad, however I absolutely love my teaching studio. I find it extremely rewarding and I get to examine the inner workings of drum set performance, as well as music, at all levels on a regular basis. Like my mom….I do love teaching!