DRUMMER CAFE

I don't know if New York City has the City Pages musician classifieds or not? But I know I have heard of them in many other cities besides Minneapolis. It's worth a shot. I know for a fact they're on-line. I've used that musician paper many times to find a band. I also know their adds are cheap compared to other musician papers.   

Welcome to the Big City!  

There are plenty of members here who are real deal instructors who can give you a little more pragmatic advice, but as a drummer here in town I always find myself perusing the bulletin boards at the music stores and rehearsal studios around town.  (Sound City, Sweatshop, Funkadelic, The Studio, Smash, and The Music Building on 8th off the top of my head).  Most have bulletin boards and it would be a great way to reach your target audience.  Don't forget the outer boroughs. Most folks who play in Manhattan can't afford to live there!

It's all about marketing yourself--Product, Place, Price and Promotion.

You've already got my enthusiastic endorsement should anyone ask.  Best of luck and I'll be keeping an eye out for ya!

... and thanks to everyone for the great advice so far.  I'll check out the web links and put up flyers at those rehearsal studios.

personally, I think the way to go is to reach parents, as that's the biggest market--parents with young kids. I'd go to the schools--you'd be surprised: even if they have music programs, they can't or don't cater to everyone, and often welcome an outsider's service. I'd also go directly to residences. ask the doorman or super to post your flyer. 9 times out of 10 they'll do it. yes, even in nyc. go to all the places parents with kids go--pizzerias, delis, libraries, even playgrounds, and put your flyer there. put your flyer up often and in abundance, and preferably include cards in your ads, coz everyone always loses the little tear-off thingies.

there's a dude in nyc-- I think he goes under 'fred the flyer guy' or something like that--who'll post your flyers all over creation for a relatively small fee. he has an in with most of the doorman/apartment buildings in the city. you can google him. last physical ad of his I saw was posted in the organic market on the corner of 26th & 7th, and it has his contact info. ever see that 'dan smith will teach you guitar' flyer? I am convinced fred is behind this, coz I can't see where one person would have the time to post that many ads.

music stores can be your friend, too, so long as they don't offer lessons. ask someone in the drum dept. to pass referrals onto you.

I am not convinced of the value of online referral services. they're too passive, most don't do a good job of getting the word out [thinking people will magically find them on the internet], and many just don't have the volume of work to sustain their 'staff.' I think it's better to go to the mountain, and shout really loudly at it. ya gotta break through the clutter. [that said, I know a few folks who registered with musicstaff.com

lastly--if you double on another instrument, advertise that as well. piano is still the most -requested instrument, with guitar a close second. so it helps if you can do that, because there are still a lot of barriers to drumming in nyc.

good luck with the whole shabang!

yah, it's not about teaching AT the school, but rather taking on their overflow, or providing secondary private tutelage to their students. a lot of the schools just can't accomodate the musical needs/wants of their students. that's where you come in. same deal with music stores and even other drummers--it's getting the referral biz; the students they can't accomodate.

another good place is churches. many of them want to offer some type of music instruction. the good thing with them is they usually have the physical space where you can do your thing--maybe even with several students. so post flyers there.

which brings me to--community colleges. I always bug-out when I see how many 'learn beginner piano...drums...guitar' courses there are at these places. you sign on 10 or 20 students at $200 bux or more a pop and teach for 4-6 weeks for an hour or less. it's a good deal, ya know? granted, it could get a little messy with 20 drummers in a room, but you could always streamline it. again, you don't have to deal with the overhead coz they've got it.

it's very hard to get a steady flow of drum students, so I think it makes sense to look for those volume opps. and I totally agree with skinbeater's suggestion to go to the outer boroughs. if you're focused, you can scoop up 5-10 students in one area and book them more or less on the same days.

not to sound totally crass, but there is something to the 'low effort, high reward' ethos. or rather, 'work smart, not hard.' which isn't to say you don't put some love into what you're doing, but you're just more deliberate in how you go about doing it.

and of course--be a great and inspiring teacher!!