Tag: beats and fills exercises

6 Rock Exercises with Drum Beats and Fills

These 6 Rock Exercises are selected from the pdf ebook ‘40 Beats and fills Exercises – Book 3‘.

I have selected these 6 exercises because they give a good insight to the book as well as being a really useful resource on it’s own. Perhaps a drum teacher would print this off for their pupils to work on, or a drummer might want to focus on rock drumming and use this on it’s own for several sessions.

The difficulty levels range from about grade 3 to grade 6, which I would say is advanced beginner to intermediate.

Below is a copy of the other two pages. You can also get the PDF file from here: https://payhip.com/b/JESGw

Sheet 2 – Drum Warm Up Exercises for Beginners

Free PDF Download

Download the PDF for ‘Sheet 2 – Drum Warm Up Exercises for Beginners’.

This beginners drum warm-up exercise includes easy drum beats with quarter note ride cymbals. The quarter note ride cymbal drum beats start off sparsely, like they are not complete drum beats, and then build into more of a basic beat with a kick-snare-kick-snare rhythm. The drum warm up then finishes with a fully formed drum fill, which tries to stay easy at the same time as being mildly challenging and musically interesting.

← Sheet 1

Sheet 3 →

Sheet 1 – Drum Warm Up Exercises for Beginners

Free PDF Download

Download the PDF for ‘Sheet 1 – Drum Warm Up Exercises for Beginners’.

This 10 bar warm up sheet is for beginner drummers to learn and practice with at the start of a drum lesson or at the start of a practice routine. Once the sheet has been roughly learned, the drummer should try to play all of the way through the sheet in one go. No repeats are neccesary unless you want to.

Sheet 2 →

4 Blues Drum Beats and Fills Exercises – Sheet 6 – 40 Beats and Fills Book 2

PDF Ebook Buy Now →

Next Page: Sheet 7 →

Here is Exercise Sheet 6 from 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2.

All of the 4 beats and fills exercises are in 6/8 time signature and the emphasis is naturally on beat 1 and 4. In the drum beats, the first beat of the bar usually has a bass drum and beat 4 of the bar usually has a strong snare drum. 6/8 means that there are 6 8th notes per bar.

This is how the emphasis on 1 and 4 looks like if you see them in bold:

1 2 3 4 5 6

On exercise 4, you can see dotted quarter notes (dotted crotchets) in the drum fill on bar 4. The dotted quarter notes each last for one and a half beats, which is the equivalent of half a bar each in this 6/8 time signature. If you think about trying to count these without prior knowledge of playing in 6/8 time, it can throw you off a bit, but if you think about the pulse of the bar (2 pulses per bar, on beats 1 and 4) then they really only feel like they are 1 beat each, along with the pulse.

Video Demonstration for Sheet 6


Watch on YouTube

← Go back to Sheet 5
Go forward to Sheet 7 →
Buy the full PDF ebook →

Musical Theatre Drum Beats and fills – Sheet 5 – 40 Beats and Fills Book 2

PDF Ebook Buy Now →

Next Page: Sheet 6 →

Here is Exercise Sheet 5 from 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2.

Musical Theatre drumming generally has elements of swing, jazz, big band, blues, pop and rock. Unlike jazz music – which also has the swung hi hats – there is often a prominant snare on beats 2 and 4. Sometimes the time signature changes to 3/4, 2/4 and 6/8. Much of theatre style drumming is played with swing and therefore we use many fills with triplets, because they fit in with the swing rhythm easily.

The drum beats on Exercise 3 are similar to those grand finale type songs where they are a slow to medium speed. For this, perhaps you can imagine the cliché stage show of linked arms and kicking out of the legs together in time with the music (the snare on beats 2 and 4).

Video Demonstration for Sheet 5


Watch on YouTube

In Depth Drag Technique Video Demonstration

We also look in depth on the drag technique in the video during the Exercise 3 drum fill. The video shows the correct technique for performing the bounced drag, including how to hold the stick and how to control the bounces by using varying amounts of pressure to acheive the desired bounce frequency and length.

You can download the pdf for this page by buying the book or downloading the free preview on the product page.

There are more free pages like this one, use the the navigation below to view them.

← Go back to Sheet 4
Go forward to Sheet 6 →
Buy the full PDF ebook →

Drum beats and drum fills in different time signatures – Sheet 4 – 40 Beats and Fills Book 2

PDF Ebook Buy Now →

Next Page: Sheet 5 →

Here is Exercise Sheet 4 from 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2.

The drum beats and drum fills are played in different time signatures (3/4, 5/4 and 2/4), as well as changing to and from the usual 4/4 bar length.

Time Signature Changes: “Do not panic – they’re quite easy”, as I say in the video!

The time signatures are not too hard And sometimes you don’t even need to worry about counting them. There are situations where you might need to count them and they might be harder depending on what is contained in the bars, but thes have been written for newcomers to time signatures in mind, so there are no real suprises – it’s meant to be a straightforward introduction.

On exercise 3, I have taken away the stepped hi hat so it’s 3 way coordination. The stepped hi hat is included on exercise 3 with the 5/4 bar, so there’s an added challenge there.

Video Demonstration

You can download the pdf for this page by buying the book or downloading the free preview on the product page.

There are more free pages like this one, use the the navigation below to view them.

← Go back to Sheet 3
Go forward to Sheet 5 →
Buy the full PDF ebook →

Drum Beats and Drum Fills in 6/8 time signature – Sheet 3 Inside the book

PDF Ebook Buy Now →

Next Page: Sheet 4 →

Here is Exercise Sheet 3 from 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2.

The drum beats and drum fills are all in a 6/8 time signature. We will be putting emphasis on the beats 1 and 4 of the bar, which is standard for 6/8 drum beats. The counting should be 1 2 3 4 5 6 for 8th notes, and for 16th notes, you could count 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 +. This is unlike 4/4, where the 1 2 3 4 is counting the quarter notes, rather than the 8th notes.

We are playing in a blues style in this sheet, although you could also hear these beats in other styles such as Pop, Jazz and Musical Theatre.

Video Demonstration

As you can see in the video, some of the exercises are quite fun when played quickly. Do start slowly and correctly though, because those fills could sound messy if they are not played with accuracy.

You can download the pdf for this page by buying the book or downloading the free preview on the product page.

There are more free pages like this one, use the the navigation below to view them.

← Go back to Sheet 2
Go forward to Sheet 4 →
Buy the full PDF ebook →

Sheet 2 – Inside the book: 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2

PDF Ebook Buy Now →

Next Page: Sheet 3 →

Here is page 7 inside the book (40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2). This sheet includes 4 drum beat and drum fill exercises with stepped hi hats on all 4 beats of the bar. The right hand is playing the ride cymbal and the left foot is playing the stepped hi hat (reverse if left handed).

Video Demonstration

As I say in the video, remember to always read a little bit ahead or glance to see what’s coming up when you are playing so you don’t get caught out by the drum fills. Reading and playing music is similar to driving a car. You need to drive the bit of the road that you are on (i.e. the current bar), but you also need to look ahead to see if there are any hazards (e.g. accents, drags, ghost notes, drum fills, complicated drum beats), drastic changes in the road such as a sharp corner (e.g. section changes), signs for a complicated junction (e.g. 1st and second time repeats), or for road diversions (e.g. D.S. al Coda).

You can download the pdf for this page by buying the book or downloading the free preview on the product page.

There are more free pages like this one, use the the navigation below to view them.

← Go back to Sheet 1
Go forward to Sheet 3 →
Buy the full PDF ebook →

Sheet 1 – Inside the book: 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2

PDF Ebook Buy Now →
Next Page: Sheet 2 →
 

Here is part 3 of inside the book: 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2. We have 4 exercises, consisiting of drum beats and drum fills, with 4 way coordination. The stepped hi hat plays on every exercise, so we are using both feet and both hands.

This is the first exercise sheet of the book, after the warm up, and it includes the first 4 of the 40 beats and fills exercises. This sheet feels like an extention of the warm up sheet for the first 3 exercises, and they could be used as such, and then by exercise 4 it feels like the start of the type of exercise you may also hear in a song somewhere. This is because the difficulty level needed not to start too high, so it is a slight progression from the warm up page.

Video Demonstration

Here is a video demonstration for Sheet 1 – 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2:

You can download the pdf for this page by buying the book or downloading the free preview on the product page.

There are more free pages like this one, use the the navigation below to view them.

← Go back to the warm up page
Go forward to Sheet 2 →
Buy the full PDF ebook →