Tag: drum beat exercises

4 bars of drum beats in 4 with open hi hats + 1 beat fills on 4th bar

Much like in the first two sections, there are 16 different exercises with drum beats in 4/4. This time, the phrase is over 4 bars and there is a short drum fill on the 4th bar before repeating. You’ll need to be able to sight read these because they will be difficult to memorise. Feel free to try and memorise them if you have time, as this will also be good practice.

 

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

These 5 sheet are from the following premium ebook:
Related (Premium): Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1 – Rock Pop Soul Funk

2 bar drum beats in 4 with open hi hats

Much like in section 1, there are 16 different exercises with drum beats in 4/4, each with open hi hats placed within the beats, but this time it’s double the length. You’ll need to read these or really work hard to memorise them to play without reading.

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

These 5 sheet are from the following premium ebook:
Related (Premium): Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1 – Rock Pop Soul Funk

1 bar drum beats in 4 with open hi hats

There are 16 different drum beats in 4/4, each with open hi hats placed within the beats. The open hi hats are marked with a circle around the X note head. These drum beats have been written for beginners between grade 1 and grade 2.

In this series of 5 free PDF drum sheets, we will be covering content from section 1 to 5 of the full ebook, focusing on the topic of drum beats with open hi hats in 4/4 timing.

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

These 5 sheet are from the following premium ebook:
Related (Premium): Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1 – Rock Pop Soul Funk

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

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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

Free Preview

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.

  1. Coordination Exercise
  2. Drum Beat
  3. Drum Fill
  4. Drum Beat + Drum Fill (Combined Exercise)
  5. Rudiments Exercise (rudiments that have been developed)
  6. Snare Drum Sheet music
  7. 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.

  1. Coordination Exercise
  2. Drum Beat
  3. Drum Fill
  4. Drum Beat + Drum Fill (Combined Exercise)
  5. Rudiments Exercise (rudiments that have been developed)
  6. Snare Drum Sheet music
  7. Technique Exercise

Exercise Sheet 2 →

Beginners snare skip beats

Here we have 7 basic pop/rock drum beats with an added ‘skip beat’ snare hit, which slots in between the 8th note hi hats. It’s in the same place on each drum beat. It’s on the ‘a’ of counting “2 + a“.

The counting would then be 1 + 2 + a 3 + 4 +. Some drummers don’t count that way. It’s useful to start doing that and it makes sense after a little while. You count the 8th notes as 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +, and for 16ths you count 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a. You pronounce the e as a capital E and the a as the sound of the small letter a, which sounds like a short ‘ah’.

The skill level for these exercises is about grade 2-3, or higher if played fast.

The beats could be used in a range of styles including pop, rock and funk.

Related: Snare Drum Skip Beats

7 Jazz Drum Patterns with 3 and 4 way co-ordination sheets

These jazz drum patterns are for at least grade 3 level. The 3 way co-ordination exercises could also be tried slowly by Grade 1-2.

Drummers that are new to jazz could start with these even if they are a pro in other genres. These patterns will be hard if you are new to less regimented styles like Jazz and Latin drumming (i.e. you are more used to pop/rock).

That is the background I come from with drums – pop, rock, funk, metal. Then I was introduced to Jazz. After my Rockschool Grades (we skipped Jazz in my lessons), after my early teenage years of practicing and learning and exploring new and old music. At drum college I was introduced to Jazz when I was 16 or 17. Since this I have always had a place in my heart for Jazz. It is probably where I really started to get an understanding for melody and how it related with my primary passion of drums. The drums in Jazz compliment the melody a lot! The thing I was always taught with Jazz was to either ‘learn the melody’, or to ‘play off the improvised melody’. Over 10 years later and my interests have been drawn even more to creating melodies on other instruments, and I learn more and more how the instruments compliment each other.

So, onto the drum patterns. The patterns are all triplet based and all have a ride cymbal on the 1 2 3 4 beats. The rest of the triplet beats are played by different bass drum and snare drum combinations. These type of movements are fundamental to Jazz drumming. The left foot hi hat is also fundamental. I have also included a 4 way co-ordination sheet for when the 3 way co-ordination patterns begin to get easy. The patterns are all linear apart from the left foot and and right hand on beats 2 and 4 on the 4 way co-ordination patterns, which means that there is only one drum voice playing at once. This helps to get used to playing in triplets, and for focusing on the snare and bass drum patterns. In more advanced Jazz, these types of snare and bass drum patterns will poly rhythm with different right hand ostinati, making things a lot harder.

 

Sheet 1: 3 way coordination

Sheet 2: 4 way coordination

Related: 8 Starter Jazz Drum Beats with 3 way co-ordination

7 Linear drum beats for beginners – and the Mieze·Katze drum beat

Linear drum beats, a term that I was introduced to at drum college, are made up of single drum hits only. No drums or cymbals are hit simultaneously. This leads to interesting sounding beats that can be quite hard to play after a little deviation from basic linear patterns.

Basic patterns like “Bass, Hi Hat, Snare, Hi Hat” are linear beats and this one in particular is very popular and easy. In germany, this linear rhythm is known as “Mieze Katze” or “Mie·ze·kat·ze”, which translates as “Kitty Kat”. This is something I saw on a show called ‘The moaning of life’ (see video below).

 

 

There are many many combinations you could try for linear beats, and they are a great way to use some of your rudiments, like paradiddle based rudiments. Introduce accents on certain notes to really spice things up. Have a go at these 7 linear drum beats, and then get experimenting with making up your own!

(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