accents – Page 3 – Learn Drums For Free

Accent Practice Exercise for Snare Drum

This exercise was created to support the learning of playing paradiddles with accents along with a metronome at 70bpm in the Grade 2 Rockschool technical exercises 2012-18 syllabus. I have also suggested to try practicing the sheet between 60 and 120bpm, with or without a metronome. 75-120bpm would be pushing the ability level up to at least Grade 3-4.

It can be hard to play paradiddles with a metronome at first, and if you haven’t worked with a click much before it’s also hard for 16th notes and 8th notes. This exercises works on playing 16th notes with a right, left, right, left sticking to get used to this. Then when you take away the left hand, you are left with right hand 8th notes, which is why they are the foundation of this exercise (first and 3rd line).

On the second line, the R L R L sticking on the 16ths prepares the drummer for the transition to 16ths from 8th notes before going from 8ths to paradiddle 16th notes in line 4. Then with the repeat the first 2 lines are there to settle in to the transitions again. By the end of the exercise the paradiddles exercise should become much easier. The actual grade 2 drums rockschool technical exercise is line 4 played twice.

(Premium) – Grade 3-4 Drum Book with 17 Drum Lesson Sheets

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People that might find this book useful

– Drum teachers can print the book or single sheets for their students.
– Drummers can teach themselves following on from a strong basic foundation in reading and playing

Contents Highlights

Subdivisions, Counting Methods, Drum Fills, Skip Beats, 16th Note Hi Hat Accents, Double Kick Drum.

Full Contents

4 – Subdivision drum solo / warm up exercise
5 – 16th note counting exercises
6 – Snare drum piece with counting exercise
7 – Short fills to start a song or sections of music
8 – Bass drum skip beats
9 – Snare drum skip beats
10 – 10 rock drum beats with 16th note bass drum combinations
11 – Snare and bass drum skip beat practice beats – with open hi hats
12 – Snare and floor tom piece with sextuplets
13 – Grooves and fills piece in 6/8
14 – 10 drum fills with 6 stroke rolls
15 – 6 drum beats and drum fills exercises
16 – 10 snare drum accent exercises
17 – Part 1 – 9 drum grooves with 16th note hi hat accents
18 – Part 2 – 9 drum grooves with 16th note hi hat accents
19 – 8 beginners double kick drum beats
20 – Intermediate double kick drum beats

About the book

This ebook is a Grade 4 level compilation of 8 years of preparation work for teaching drums. It consists of drum lesson sheets that I have prepared and revised many times to be the best they can be for teaching with. To create the book I selected only the best sheets from my selection of drum sheet music lesson handouts. I printed them all out on my office floor and arranged them into a coherent order.

I have included only the sheets, rather than add lots of teaching text. This is partly to limit the amount of pages printing, and also to give teachers using the books freedom to put their own take on the lesson sheets. This will probably make it harder for self taught players, so to anyone getting stuck reading the book I would recommend building up their reading and counting knowledge online. The 16th note counting exercises on page 5 and 6 should help, and can be used when playing skip beats to help with reading and playing them.

Reading skills are really important if you are teaching yourself with this book. Further to counting 16ths like on page 5 and 6 to snare drum rhythms, you can also use them in drum beats. It’s really helpful when you learn how to do it. To give an example of counting 16ths in beats; on Page 8, Bass Drum Skip Beats, on the first bar you could count “1 & 2 & a 3 & 4 &” to help with the timing. The second bar would be counted “1 & 2 e & a 3 & 4 &”. The kick drum skips are therefore on the ‘a’ after beat 2 on the first bar, and on the second bar the skip beat kicks are on both the ‘e’ and ‘a’ after beat 2. This probably sounds complicated if you’ve never done this before. It’s how many teachers explain note placements, and it’s still how I count new beats that need working out or extra practice.

Final Thoughts

This ebook covers many of the Grade 4 elements, but it’s by no means all-encompassing. There are other ebooks that I have made for Grade 3-4 and I’m sure there will be more. This book is a leap on from “Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book”, but there will be a Grade 3-4 beats and fills ebook soon. This book can also be used either side of these ebooks I have already created in the Grade 3-4 level: “10 Pages Of Accent Exercises With 16th Notes” and “90 Intermediate Drum Beats Focusing On The Bass Drum”.

Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons

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Drum Solo 1 – Performance Piece

This sheet is the first drum solo in my drum solos ebook 10 Drum Solo Performance Pieces Grade 1-3.

The sheet music is fairly easy to play for Grade 1-2 drummers. Make sure to follow the stickings (reverse if you are left handed), note the repeats and make sure to work out correctly which drums to hit on the last line.

Here is an audio example of the drum solo:

<a href="http://tlmusiclessons.bandcamp.com/album/10-drum-solo-performance-pieces-grade-1-3">10 drum solo performance pieces grade 1-3 by TL Music Lessons</a>

Funk Grooves – Grade 5

You’ll need to be able to read the sheet music to play these funk drum grooves.

These funky beats are versatile and can be played in various scenarios or even different styles of music.

Use these funk drum beats for some new inspiration or ideas for adding flare to basic funk beats.

The first beat adds accents on the hi hat to add some dynamic depth.
The second beat adds in open hi hats – the hi hat should be played with the right hand only (or left if you’re a lefty).
The third beat has quiet drags on the snare, slightly open hi hats and accents, and ghost note skip beats.
The fourth beat has just skip beats and open hi hats.
The fifth beat uses two hands for the hi hats, and the ones with the slashes through are doubled up using the double stroke technique.
The sixth and final beat has a similar style to the third beat.

(Premium) – 10 Snare Drum Pieces – Book 1 – Levels 1-3 (PDF ebooks)

Introduction

After a year of teaching a local youth group of drummers aged between 8 and 12, ranging from beginners to intermediate players, this collection of 10 snare drum pieces was created as an archive of this body of work.

The MYM Snare Drumline Group is an adaption of Snare Line / Drumline groups, tribal drumming, military drumming, Drum Corps, and film score music.

There are many areas left to explore for the drum group. This first book focusses on building a foundation of simple and short snare drum pieces to help give the group confidence and develop a strong sense of rhythm, timing and pulse. There is also a very small amount of dynamic use, repeats, and drum rudiments.

Demonstration of Pieces 6, 2 and 3 from the book

Here is a video of the girls in the group performing pieces (in order) 6, 2, and 3 from this snare drum book, which is an entry for the 2017 competition ‘Hit Like A Girl‘. The girl on your left is performing the level 2 pieces and the other 3 are playing from the level 3 book. At the time of video, 1 of the level 3 girls is studying grade 2 rockschool and the other two playing level 3 are studying grade 3 rockschool drums.

Level 1 Book

The Level 1 book is designed for complete beginners, or ‘basic beginners’ level. This level could also be played by players of other instruments that are new to drums.

Level 2 Book

Level 2 is designed for grade 1-2 level. The rhythms are more complex, but there are no buzz rolls or drags.

Level 3 Book

Created for grade 2-3 level drummers. It encorporates buzz rolls, drags, flams, and harder rhythms.

These books are primarily intended for groups of drummers or differing abilities. Teachers may print entire books for the students, or pick and choose pieces to suit them. Teachers or students may also use these sheets or books for single snare drum playing. Teachers may purchase this book online and print out unlimited copies for their students.

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FREE PREVIEW OF THIS EBOOK: Group Snare Drum Piece with 3 difficulty levels (Piece 2, Book 1)
FREE PREVIEW OF THIS EBOOK: Group snare drum piece with 3 difficulty levels (Piece 5, Book 1)

Recommended reading for use with this ebook:
→ Accent Techniques – Down, Tap, Up, Full Strokes
→ Reading Buzz Rolls And Double Stroke Markings

8 Technique Exercises for Accents and Ghost Notes

These snare drum or practice pad exercises are similar to drum rudiments. The drum exercises work on possible sticking and dynamic eventualities that you may encounter in drum beats and grooves, drum fills, and snare drum sheet music. The exercises also could be used as a warm up, especially from playing snare drum sheet music.

While beginners will be able to play these exercises at their level, advanced players should be aware of using Up Strokes, Tap Strokes, Down Strokes, and Full Strokes so that there is a greater continuity of volume and attack.

10 Bar Snare Drum Piece with Dynamics – Beginners Grade 1-2

There is a free PDF download with this post, which you may use to print out the sheet music.

Instructions

The first line contains a mixture of 16th notes, 8th notes, and quarter notes, and the dynamic is p, which means quiet.

On the second line, there is a long crescendo, which means to gradually get louder. The rhythms are the same in both bars, so focus is definitely on playing the crescendo correctly.

On the third line, the dynamics increase to mf, which means medium-loud. On the second bar, there are rim hits on the snare drum, which is achieved by hitting the rim of the snare drum with the drum stick. This is not to be confused with a cross stick snare drum, which would be hard to play in relation to the rest of the bar.

On the fourth line, there is a mini crescendo from quiet to medium loud, which is then repeated exactly the same. The second bar with the divide symbol means to ‘repeat the previous bar’.

On the last line, the dynamics carry on as medium loud. There are accents (the arrows above the notes), played on the snare rim. This means to play the rim as before, but hit them a bit harder than normal.

16 bar Snare Drum Exercise – with dynamics – Grade 1-2

This is a short snare drum piece lasting 16 bars consisting of grade 1 and grade 2 level snare drum rhythms.

The snare drum sheet music focuses on using plenty of dynamics, which are for volume changes in the music.

The dynamics include:

p (piano = soft/quiet)
mf (mezzo forte = medium loud)
f (forte = loud)
< a wide version of this shape is a ‘crescendo’ (gradually getting louder)
> these arrows above the notes are accents, which indicate that you play loud on this note only.

16 bar snare drum piece – Grade 1-2 Snare Drum Exercise – Snare Drum Sheet Music

This free 16 bar snare drum piece is for grade 1-2 drums.

In the rhythm, there is a mixture of quarter notes, 8th notes, 16th notes, 8th note rests and quarter note rests.

For the dynamics, it could be played any volume, but i would recommend mp to mf, leaving plenty of room for the accents to stand out, which are featured in the last 8 bars.

When learning, take it a bar or a line at a time to get it right, but eventually play the whole piece in one go.

For the speed, aim to get up to about 95bpm or higher, but start off at about 60bpm.

8 rock or funk drum beats with 16th Note Accents for grade 5 and up

These 8 drum beats will test your ability to add accented notes to the two handed hi hat pattern, whilst also negotiating tricky bass drum rhythms and open hi hat combinations.

Start off slowly and build it up when you are comfortable with the grooves at low speed. Improve your timing and measure your progress with a metronome. You should start as low as 40 or 50 bpm, but probably easier without a click, or double it up to an 8th note click, because the slow click will be tricky to play to.