Leaving one instructor and going on to find another one is not the end of the world. Sometimes you progress to a point where your instructor and yourself reach a plateau of sorts. If your drum teacher is not recognizing that you've progressed, and the lessons are no longer beneficial to you, it's nothing against your teacher, you just need to move on and find somebody else. If you're still looking to learn some things, finding another instructor is THE BEST thing you can do. But if you're just plain tired of lessons and work, and you want to learn some things on your own, then that's cool too. I must stress, however, that learning things from a drum teacher is THE BEST method, and shouldn't be overlooked. If you have some mistakes in your technique/playing, and there's no instructor there to correct them, and you continue to practice and play that way, you'll end up practicing your mistakes. Trust me. It's always harder to undo a few years of practicing mistakes by trying to correct them and use proper technique after the fact. You shouldn't be pinned down to just one teacher. The more teachers you learn from, the better rounded musician you become. It's all up to you man. I've been playing for around 6 years, no formal training. And believe me, I regret not getting into lessons earlier. I want lessons now, I just don't have the money. Anyway, go find yourself another teacher. You won't regret it.