Professional drummer Von Baron has been entertaining music lovers and teaching students in Hawaii for 16 years.

Now, as he shutters his successful studio and prepares for a move to Japan, Baron is looking to keep teaching his 40 students and reach new students with a series of online drumming lessons.

Available at both a group subscription rate and individually at drumming4life.com, the lessons cover basics such as how to handle the drumsticks, beat the bass drum and read percussion notation. The course includes video as well as printed instructional materials.

“I love to teach, which is the foundation for everything I do,” he said. “Drums have this really powerful effect on people. It really helps them improve their self-confidence.”

It’s safe to say he has a passion for percussion.

Baron has produced about 50 videos so far, each featuring his cheerful encouragement and detailed instruction. Common drum patterns, like the flam, in which a quick, light beat leads into a single loud beat, or the drag, in which two quick, light beats lead into a single loud beat, are explained and demonstrated.

“I don’t like a lot of rules, so I only have two rules for drumming,” Baron said. “The first is ‘Don’t hurt yourself or anybody else,’ and ‘Make the music sound great,’ which I think is also a lesson in life.”

His lessons include advice on wearing proper ear protection, using the correct drumstick to produce the desired sound and playing without wearing yourself out — a lesson he himself had to learn. Baron, a native of Kansas City, Mo., started drumming at age 15, fairly late for a musician — “It takes great courage for a parent to allow their kid to take drums,” he said with a laugh — but took to it so quickly that he was able to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music.

He’d studied at Berklee for only two years when he developed tendinitis in his arms and was told his music career was over. Massage therapy healed the problem, and careful study of an older method called the Moeller technique restored his career and kept it going.

“I’d had great teachers, but one of the things they’d always overlooked was technique,” he said. “That’s why there’s rule No. 1, ‘Don’t hurt yourself or anybody else.’”

He moved to Honolulu in 2000 and has played with top musicians like Bruce Hamada, Jimmy Funai, Noel Okimoto and others. Baron also has produced three albums, featuring New Age to film-score music.

Baron, 44, is relocating to Japan and will be appearing sporadically in Hawaii, but has big plans for his online course.

He says the courses are geared toward high school students and above. Ultimately, his intention is to take students from beginner through to advanced player.

“There are specific techniques, grooves, hand patterns and things like that that we use a lot in everything,” he said. “I call it the shortcuts to drumming, because I teach exactly what you need to know to play anything, not just to play rock music or play pop music. It’s really geared toward giving you a full palette of knowledge and ability. … I want students to be really, really prepared to do whatever they want to do.”

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Baron’s drum lessons can be accessed at drumming4life.com. A monthly subscription is $8.95; individual lessons can also be rented for $1.49, with some videos offered for free.