January 2027
Upright frame drum and lapstyle frame drum, Year 1, live every week with Yshai.
Get the January details →Each group meets live on Zoom once a week for 90 minutes with Yshai. Every lesson is recorded and waiting in your portal within hours, with the notation sheets, and once a week you can send a video of your playing for personal feedback. Complete beginners and experienced players start side by side.
$155 a month · billed monthly · cancel anytime
Upright Frame Drum
The upright frame drum is the round frame drum played in a vertical position, held in front of the body and played with both hands.
The first year builds your technique and your rhythmic language side by side, through traditional rhythms and original compositions written for this method.
Lapstyle Frame Drum · New this year
A second way in.
Until now, the lapstyle frame drum group started only in September. For the first time, a new Year 1 group begins in January, for everyone who missed the September start or wasn’t ready yet. Same method, same price.
The frame drum rests across the lap and is played with both hands. From the first strokes, technique and musical language grow together, through traditional rhythms and original compositions written for this method.
Tuition discounts
If the full tuition is too expensive where you live, or your situation makes it hard, you can ask for a discount. Write to yafterman@gmail.com with a few words before enrolling. Every request is answered personally.
Inside the portal
Your recordings, the notation and the practice tools all live in the student portal.
My Lessons
Every lesson, with the video, the notation and the lesson notes together.
Practice Room
A metronome and a library of rhythms to play along with between lessons.
Masterclass library
Guest masterclasses with masters from across the percussion world, open to group students at a member price.
Events
Open mics and events, each one a click away from your calendar.
Students
“I started learning to play the frame drum as part of Yshai's online class 4 months ago, arriving with no past experience in percussions. Yshai's very systematic and clear approach has enabled me to develop confidence and thoroughly enjoy these months. All lessons are recorded, as well as short videos, music sheets, and clear instructions for weekly practices. I would strongly recommend for anyone to start.”Yoni Yeruham · Frame Drum (beginner)
“I'm studying with Yshai on the upright style. What I love about his way of teaching is the incremental way. You learn something every week and you're challenged. So it really feels like you're learning and getting better. You also learn to create your own rhythms, and suddenly you can do things you couldn't before.”Claudia Bolleurs · Netherlands · Upright Frame Drum
“I am a student of Yshai's Lapstyle Frame Drum class since fall 2025. Being a professional drumset player with experience in both Tombak and Frame drum I wasn't sure if an All-Levels class would be suitable for me. But it turned out I was practicing and being challenged starting from the first lesson. Yshai is an exceptional teacher whose holistic approach covers everything from technique, musicality, mindset, composition and spirit.”Jörg Mikula · Austria · Lapstyle Frame Drum
“I have been taking online Upright Frame Drum classes with Yshai for six months and I highly recommend him as a teacher. His organizational skills and methodical teaching style have made the practice easy to follow and quite rewarding. I am very pleased with the progress I have made in such a short time and am looking forward to what the next six months brings.”Lorraine Grix · USA · Upright Frame Drum
The Afterman Method
Most percussion programs teach you phrases to copy. Here, you learn to understand the rhythmic language itself, so you can compose, improvise, and make the music genuinely your own.
The work is rhythmic orientation: learning to feel at home in any time signature and any groove.
The work is phrasing: the unique syntax each drum has in time.
If Time addresses when a sound arrives, and Language what sound arrives, Expression addresses how it arrives, and through whom.
Your teacher
Yshai is a performer, composer and recording artist. He has toured extensively, played hundreds of concerts and given masterclasses across the globe.
For eight years, from 2016 to 2024, he was Head of the Percussion Department at Maqamat, the School of Eastern Music. He teaches both January groups himself, live on Zoom every week.
“Teaching has become another expression of my art. I treat it with the same commitment and wholeheartedness as I treat my music. The evolution of my students is important to me and I feel responsible for each one of them.”
Leave your name and email and choose a group. You will hear from us as soon as enrolment opens, before anyone else.
Upright frame drum on Sundays from 3 January. Lapstyle frame drum on Thursdays from 7 January. Leave your email and you will hear first when enrolment opens.
Get the January details →