How to read musical signposts – CODA and Segno

Segno (The Sign)

Coda (CODA)

Dal Segno (D.S.) Go to the sign

Da Capo (D.C.) Go back to the beginning

D.S. al Coda Go to the sign, then follow ‘To Coda’ marking

D.C. al Coda Go to the beginning, then follow ‘To Coda’ marking

D.S. al fine Go to the sign, then play to the end

D.C. al fine Go to the beginning, then play to the end

Da Coda (TO CODA) Go to the CODA

Related: How to read musical signposts – Repeats

Open Hi Hat Grooves Practice Piece with Fills

This is an open hi hat groove practice exercise with short drum fills every 4 bars to keep it interesting to play.

There are a few ways to play the open hi hat. You can open it quite wide and hit on the top or the edge, or open it a couple of cm wide for somewhere in the middle, or open it a little bit to get a nice sizzle. The screw underneath the bottom hi hat cymbal can generate more of the sizzle sound when it is screwed tighter, creating an angle on the bottom cymbal.

Related: For some easier open hi hat exercises, try these: Off Beat Open Hi Hat Grooves

10 Maths Drum Fills – Number Combinations adding up to 16

Each line is 1 drum fill, consisting of 16 x 16th notes. What we are doing with this sheet is diving that total number of 16 into various number combinations for different drums. Whilst all music could be related to maths, this exercise is a blatant use of numbers to make up the drum fills. You may hear of styles like ‘Math Rock’, where sometimes all the instruments explore this technique of coming up with and exploring rhythms, time signatures and phrases from a mathmatical stance, in a deliberate and focused way.

For example, an easy drum fill around the kit would be 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16. That’s the drum fill that most drummers are taught first. 4 snares, 4 high toms, 4 medium toms and 4 floor toms.

Play every exercise with a continuous Right Left Right Left sticking (this is the opposite if you are left handed).

(Premium) – 90 intermediate drum beats: Bass Drum Independance with 16th Notes – PDF ebook

Buy Now →

At just 8 pages, this mini ebook gets stuck in to 90 different combinations of 16th note bass drum patterns in 2/4 bars. They are to be practiced individually in loops before moving onto the next groove. These are excellent for developing your kick drum technique and for building up an internal bank of bass drum rhythms that will tend to come out in improvisation and songwriting.

Contains 90 Unique Repeating Drum Beats, which work many 16th note combinations of bass drum patterns. The hi hat and snare stay simple and the same for every drum beat, so this is very much a focus on building up your bass drum technique, and overall kick drum skills.

This ebook is aimed for drums at Grade 4 level and above. Increasing the speed will provide challenges for even grade 8 drummers.

Understanding Notes and Rests in Music Notation – Reference Sheet

This is a reference sheet for students of all ages and abilities at whatever stage they are at with their instrument. It’s a handy printable sheet, which could be displayed on a wall at home or in a classroom.

Learn and revise the names of all of the note values and rests and what they look like.

Free PDF Download for this sheet →

 

This sheet is a very useful reference sheet for anyone that wants to read music. As you come across things in your own sheet music and exercises, you can turn to this sheet to check what things mean.

This sheet will help students of most intruments that read music because it is not specific to drums. The sheet includes images or rests and notes, and their modern or classic names, and also the value of the notes or rests.

This can be useful as a reference sheet for students to keep on your computer, phone or tablet, or you can also print it out and stick it on the wall or keep it somewhere handy.

5 Sight Reading Example Tests for Rockschool Grade 3 Drums – Unofficial Practice Tests

These 5 practice tests are to help with practicing for grade 3 sight reading on drums. This is aimed at the 2006-12 syllabus, so when this is out of date, you should if the grade 3 sight reading is still snare drum based and in the same sort of format. Update: The 2012-18 syllabus has the same format.

For each test, play the metronome for 4 clicks so you know how fast you will be going. Prepare each exercise in 70bpm, 80bpm and also 90bpm, but you can randomly pick one of those for each exercise you do. Give yourself up to 90 seconds to practice, as it says in the exam book, and then try to play it with the metronome.

Example Test 1

Example Test 2

Example Test 3

Example Test 4

Example Test 5

Creative Exercises for Paradiddile-diddle in sextuplet sixteenth notes

Here are some creative examples of how you can expand on the ‘Paradiddile-diddle in sextuplet sixteenth notes’ exercise 1 from Grade 7 technical exercises.

There are accents (>) underneath each line of rhythms to watch out for. There are also ghost notes (brackets around the notes), which means to play quiet taps. The diamond shape on the ride cymbal line is the Ride Bell. Play this with the shoulder of the stick to the left hand side of the bell (opposite for left handers).

Related: Drum Solo Exercises Using Six Stroke Roll With RLLRRL Sticking

Improvisation Test examples and ideas for Rockschool Grade 1 Drums exam

Students should improvise in the exam (don’t memorise this sheet). This sheet is for if you are stuck for ideas on how to improvise, then these should help you to learn the type of things to do. Imagine the sheet above with only the first bar of each line shown as written, and the other 3 bars of each line left blank. That is what it will look like in the exam, and you will have to make up the rest. The 4th bar must be a drum fill. It’s not too bad though, because it’s only 1 line, not a whole page like this. Drum teachers are welcome to print these excercises out and teach them to your pupils in drum lessons.