beats and fills exercises – Page 3

Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Rock Pop Soul Funk – PDF ebook

all 3 ebook versions included in the download:

Number of Pages in standard ebook: 48
Number of Pages in fast track book: 28
Number of Pages in super fast track book: 17

About the fast track books: 28 page PDF Fast Track Version is with section 1 and section 3 removed. Ideal for moving students quickly through topics. The removed sections 1 and 3 are really only easier versions of sections 2 and 4, so you won’t be missing anything vital. The super fast track is good if the student will pick up the content quickly and won’t need to do lots of exercises before moving on to something else. It’s to avoid it getting boring for the student. As a teacher, I was also getting bored with the longer books because the content gets a bit samey, so I often use the fast track versions with my students. However, some players may be glad of the extra exercises, and with the full 48 page book, at least you can pick and choose which pages to work on yourself, so feel free to cut pages wherever you like. Just make sure to include some of the 6/8 and 3/4 exercises, and also some of the ones with open hi hats.

Double sided printing is advised.

48 Pages
Focusing on Drum Beats and Drum Fills
Grade 1-2 Level
For Students and Teachers
Print unlimited copies for yourself or for students

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Here is a list of the 5 free sheets from this ebook, released as a series of posts:

Introduction

Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1: Rock, Pop, Soul, Funk

This is my second ‘Beats & Fills’ drum book, following on from ‘Beats And Fills Drum Book – Basic Beginners’, which was released just over 6 months before this one. Some players will actually be able to move straight onto this book from the first one, whilst others may need some more easier ‘basic beginners’ work first. I will probably create more basic beginners books, but for now I am moving on so that there are books available for higher grades. Interestingly, the first book was 24 page and this new book is 48 pages, so I have managed to double the length without trying. Make sure to print this double sided.

This book has 5 structured sections (see contents), which in my head follows a pattern. With each section, the exercises get longer and more advanced. There is a chronological progression through the sections and within each section there are elements of both grades. For this reason, you may want to skip some pages in each section if they get too hard and come back to them later.

In the first two sections, we start out with 1 bar beats and then onto 2 bar beats. In sections 3-5 we introduce drum fills, starting with 1 beat fills, then 2 beat fills and finally progressing onto whole bar fills after 3 bars of a beat. By the end of the book, you should be well drilled in the basics of drumming and ready to start learning some songs on the drums.

Hope you enjoy the book and find it useful for either learning yourself or for teaching others with.

Once purchased, you may print out copies for yourself or for your students if you are a teacher.

Full Contents

Page 4-14 Section 1: 1 bar drum beats

1 bar drum beats in 4/4
1 bar drum beats in 3/4
1 bar drum beats in 6/8
1 bar drum beats in 4/4 on ride with left foot hi hat
1 bar drum beats in 6/8 on ride with left foot hi hat
1 bar drum beats in 4/4 with open hi hats
1 bar drum beats in 3/4 with open hi hats
1 bar drum beats in 6/8 with open hi hats
1 bar drum beats in 4/4 with quarter note hi hats
1 bar drum beats in 3/4 with quarter note hi hats
1 bar drum beats in 4/4 with quarter note ride and left foot hi hat

Page 15-23 Section 2: 2 bar drum beats

2 bars of drum beats in 4/4
2 bars of drum beats in 3/4
2 bars of drum beats in 6/8
2 bars of drum beats in 4/4 with open hi hats
2 bars of drum beats in 3/4 with open hi hats
2 bars of drum beats in 6/8 with open hi hats
2 bars of drum beats in 4/4 with quarter note hi hats
2 bars of drum beats in 3/4 with quarter note hi hats

Page 24-32 Section 3: 4 bars of drum beats with 1 beat drum fills on the 4th bar

4 bars of drum beats in 4/4 + 1 beat fills on 4th bar
4 bars of drum beats in 3/4 + 1 beat fills on 4th bar
4 bars of drum beats in 6/8 + 1 beat fills on 4th bar
4 bars of drum beats in 4/4 with open hi hats + 1 beat fills on 4th bar
4 bars of drum beats in 3/4 with open hi hats + 1 beat fills on 4th bar
4 bars of drum beats in 6/8 with open hi hats + 1 beat fills on 4th bar
4 bars of drum beats in 4/4 with quarter note hi hats + 1 beat fills on 4th bar
4 bars of drum beats in 3/4 with quarter note hi hats + 1 beat fills on 4th bar

Page 33-39 Section 4: 4 bars of drum beats with 2 beat drum fills on the 4th bar

4 bars of drum beats in 4/4 + 2 beat fills on 4th bar
4 bars of drum beats in 4/4 with open hi hats + 2 beat fills on 4th bar
4 bars of drum beats in 4/4 with quarter note hi hats + 2 beat fills on 4th bar

Page 40-48 Section 5: 3 bars of drum beats followed by a 1 bar drum fill

3 bars of drum beats in 4/4 + 1 bar fills
3 bars of drum beats in 3/4 + 1 bar fills
3 bars of drum beats in 6/8 + 1 bar fills
3 bars of drum beats in 4/4 with open hi hats + 1 bar fills
3 bars of drum beats in 3/4 with open hi hats + 1 bar fills
3 bars of drum beats in 6/8 with open hi hats + 1 bar fills
3 bars of drum beats in 4/4 with quarter note hi hats + 1 bar fills
3 bars of drum beats in 3/4 with quarter note hi hats + 1 bar fills

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Sheet 2 – Drum Exercises for Beginners – Grade 1

Welcome to the second in the series of ‘Drum Exercises for Beginners – Grade 1’.

You may like to listen to the audio to help understand the sheet music.

There are short repeated exercises in the following categories, which are ideal for practicing on your own, or for using by drum teachers as part of a lesson plan.

Coordination Exercise
Drum Beat
Drum Fill
Drum Beat + Drum Fill (Combined Exercise)
Rudiments Exercise (rudiments that have been developed)
Snare Drum Sheet music
Technique Exercise

← Exercise Sheet 1

Sheet 1 – Drum Exercises for Beginners – Grade 1

Welcome to the first in the series of ‘Drum Exercises for Beginners – Grade 1’.

There are short repeated exercises in the following categories, which are ideal for practicing on your own, or for using by drum teachers as part of a lesson plan.

You may like to listen to the audio to help understand the sheet music.

Coordination Exercise
Drum Beat
Drum Fill
Drum Beat + Drum Fill (Combined Exercise)
Rudiments Exercise (rudiments that have been developed)
Snare Drum Sheet music
Technique Exercise

Exercise Sheet 2 →

(Premium) – Beats and Fills Drum Book – Basic Beginners – PDF Ebook

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Number of Pages: 24

For a free preview, click the Buy Now button and then click the ‘Preview’ link at the top left of the product image.

This beats and fills drum book has been created for beginner drum students to follow from complete beginner up to grade 1 level. This book could either be used by self taught drummers, or it could be used during drum lessons, and practiced by the student in between lessons. Teachers may purchase this book online and print out unlimited copies for their students.

The book is aimed at students of any age, including adults. The minimum age is about 7 years old. This book is for complete beginners that have a little knowledge of reading drum music. The book can be worked on very soon after starting to learn drums. Younger players (age 5+) may struggle to read this book, and would need to be shown the beats and fills and/or start learning to read music in different ways, such as with hand sketched drum beats with clear visual icons for each drum voice (e.g. a pictures or sketches of bass drum, snare and hi hat).

There are 3 main sections: drum beats, drum fills, and various combination exercises of drum beats + drum fills. We focus on establishing a core and fundamental understanding and ability to play basic beginners drum beats and drum fills. Some prior knowledge of reading music will be required if you are working through this book on your own without a teacher.

Drum Beats

The drum beats in this book are all aimed at complete beginners with a little bit of knowledge of how to read drum music or they can be taught to read it while working through the book with a teacher.

Drum Fills

The drum fills in this book range from easy ‘around the kit’ fills with quarter notes and 8th notes, to more advanced movements, leading up to grade 1 level.

Drum Beats & Drum Fills

The drum beats and drum fills section brings together the things you have learned in the first two sections of the book. This section is designed to give a more realistic drumming experience, because most songs are not based on just beats or just fills. Master these and you will be well on your way to start playing along with songs.

I hope you find these useful.

Looking for something more challenging?

Try this similar book, next level up, which is for Grade 1-2:

Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1 – Rock Pop Soul Funk – PDF ebook

10 Drum Beats With 1 Bar Drum Fills Using Quarter 8ths And 16th Notes

These exercises are great for putting together drum beats and drum fills, like they would appear in a song. Well, in a song the fills would happen less often than this, but the beats have been shorten so as to practice both fairly equally.

The drum fills are ideal for those quite new to playing drum fills. Some subdivision knowledge of quarter notes, 8th noets and 16th notes is useful.

The drum beats may be hard for complete beginners, so some experience of playing them first is recommended before mixing them with the fills, which are a bit easier than the drum beats.

10 Beginners 1 Bar Drum Beats With 1 Bar Drum Fills

These exercises are great for putting together drum beats and drum fills, like they might appear in a song, although usually there are more drum beats than fills in a song. These exercises have a 1 bar drum beat and 1 bar of a fill, so that each type is practiced equally.

The drum fills are ideal for those playing drum fills for the first time. The drum beats are quite hard for complete beginners, so some experience of playing them first is recommended before mixing them with the fills, which are a bit easier than the drum beats.

One thing that could be a stumbling block to playing the drum fills, is reading the drum notation and knowing which lines of the staves the toms are on. Here is a useful reference sheet for this: Reading Drum Notation.

10 beginners drum beats with 2 beat drum fills exercises

The structure for these drum exercises is: One and a half bar of a drum beat, then half a bar drum fill – and repeat.

These drum exercises are for practicing drum beats and fills, similar to what you would do in a song environment, by playing the drum fills before and after drum beats.

The exercises have been limited to 2 bars, with a single repeat, so that the drum beats and drum fills are practiced fairly equally, rather than playing the drum beat for longer like in a song. Therefore the skill of playing the beat for longer and counting bars like 7 and a half, or 15 and a half before playing the fill is not being exercised here, but should be practiced another time.

This sheet could be used by beginner students up to grade 1 or grade and even grade 3 students could find these useful and challenging by playing them very quickly.

For a variation on the drum beats, you could swap the hi hats for a ride cymbal, or even a floor tom. You could also add in open hi hats (or ride bells) for quick drum beat variations.

1 Beat Snare Drum Fills with drum beats exercises

Sometimes in drum sheet music you will see parts of the music that aren’t written. There may be a space in he music, with an instruction such as ‘develop’, ‘ad lib’, ‘cont. sim’ or ‘fill’. In these examples, there are spaces marked out for drum fills to be played for the duration of 1 beat at the end of the bar.

There are 4 different drum fills to choose from for each exercise. You could pick any fill and mix and match with any exercise.

By learning and playing through these exercises, you will build up an understanding of the type of fills you could add in as short little breaks in the drum beats to add interest to your drumming. 1 beat fills could be used at the end of a section, or during a section of music for a bit of variation in the groove.

Developing rock grooves with quarter note hi hats – Grade 2-3

I wrote this sheet initially to give students an idea of the type of things they could do to start off developing the drum beat for the guitar solo in a Grade 3 Rockschool song called Overrated (2012-18 syllabus). This sheet is also good for learning to develop the bass drum around a standard quarter note hi hat rock ostinato.

Start off by learning each bar separately before attempting a full run through. The hands will be playing the same beat in every bar apart from a crash half way through, and a drum fill in the last bar.

Every hi hat is to be played fairly open – enough to get that nice sizzley or slushy sound on the hi hats. You could play them more closed but with a slightly open feel, so they sound more crunchy – this would give a more hard rock sound.

These drum grooves would work well with classic rock and modern rock styles, and would fit with other styles in some situations, like for a slow metal groove or breakdown section, or played in a lively way in soul music, or in pop music (closed hi hats would also work well for pop).

6 Essential Drum Exercises – Essential Beginners – Sheet 1 – Drum Workout

These 6 essential drum exercises have been designed to be played by drummers that have already covered these things, possibly separately in their lessons. They are to be played as quick exercises, to build up confidence. Players should feel good about playing these because they will sound good, and they will not have too much trouble playing them.

If this sheet looks too hard, perhaps start out with some beginners drum beats and beginners drum fills that look a bit easier. It shouldn’t take long to get up to playing these exercises though, and could be played by a drummer that’s only been drumming for a month or few. The main thing is that the drummer should find the reading easy, so make sure whoever is learning this is comfortable with reading drum music.

In this sheet, we will put together some basic drum beats with some easy drum fills, and make them sound good.

Related (Premium): You can find more exercise sheets like this in the premium drum ebook Beats and Fills Drum Book – Basic Beginners