A blog to help with learning and teaching Drums. Written by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Books.
Jazz music can be very difficult. Even these starter beats for Jazz drumming are a challenge, and beginners will probably need a teacher’s help to play these.
The left foot is usually used in Jazz. To keep things simple we are just doing 3 way co-ordination in these 8 Jazz drum beats.
Related: 7 Jazz Drum Patterns with 3 and 4 way co-ordination sheets
Related: Learn to play the basic foundation Jazz drum groove
Related: 10 Jazz Ride Patterns
Free PDF Download of Grade 1 Rock Beats (includes this sheet)
In this lesson we will run through 10 popular rock drum beats. I will show you how to do variations on each beat, which will extend the contents of the sheet a lot, and give you ideas for practicing. I will also show you how they sound at slow, medium and fast speeds with a metronome. This is my first drum kit video and I am pleased to have included 2 camera angles, to show the feet. However, I was using my old phone to do this and it ran out of storage towards the end of the video, so it cuts off. Hopefully I can sort that out for future videos.
Beat 1 00:26 Beat 2 05:25 Beat 3 07:11 Quarter Note Hi Hats / Ride / Floor Tom Right Hand Pattern: 8:28 Beat 4 09:56 Beat 5 10:53 Beat 6 11:44 Metronome Tips 12:00 Beat 7 12:50 Beat 8 13:36 Hi Hat Stick Height Tips 15:01 Individual Drum Volumes / Self Mixing 15:44 Beat 9 18:30 Beat 10 20:23
Here are 10 different rock drum beats, with notation and audio. These are for any beginners that have learned a basic drum beat, or maybe a few basic beats already and want to learn some more.
Basic drum beats should be repeated for ages to be most effective in truely learning the beats. It isn’t as useful to just read and play them. The most fun way to practice these is to jam them woth another instrument or a backing track. If you are a teacher that can play bass, guitar or piano, try this with your students if you haven’t already. Pupils can tire of repeating a drum beat on it’s own for several minutes (which is needed) but when playing along with another instrument it is fun and enjoyable to play for a while without stopping. Variation on the accompanying instrument can really add to the experience. Students can also do this on their own by putting on a song and just practicing one drum beat along with it, or finding another musician to jam grooves and drum beats with.
First Drum Book – Easy Reading Beats & Fills
Beats and Fills Drum Book – Basic Beginners
40 Beats and Fills Exercises – Ebook.
Anyone who has some knowledge and experience playing essential beginners drum beats can give this a go. Moderate to fast speed and playing accuracy should be mastered first.
The left foot should quickly close the hi hat to make a sound similar to when you play a normal clised hi hat with the stick.
Start by playing the ride, bass and the stepped hi hat all together.
Then play the ride, snare and stepped hi hat all together.
The next two beats are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).
Start by playing the ride, bass and the stepped hi hat all together.
Next just a ride on it’s own.
Then play the ride, snare and stepped hi hat all together.
Next just a ride on it’s own.
The next two beats worth are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).
Start by playing the ride, bass and the stepped hi hat all together.
Then play the ride, snare, bass drum, and stepped hi hat all together.
The next two beats are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).
Start by playing the ride, bass and the stepped hi hat all together.
Next just a ride on it’s own.
Then play the ride, snare, bass and stepped hi hat all together.
Next just a ride on it’s own.
The next two beats worth are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).
Try not to get confused with the rests in this one, just ignore them.
Start with a bass drum and closed hi hat together.
Then play the ride on it’s own.
Play the snare and closed hi hat together.
Then play the ride on it’s own.
The next two beats worth are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).
Start with a bass drum and closed hi hat together.
Then play the ride on it’s own.
Play the snare, bass and closed hi hat together.
Then play the ride on it’s own.
The next two beats worth are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).
Related: 10 rock and pop drum beats with quarter note stepped hi hats – 4 way co ordination
Related: Drums Warm Up Exercise with 4 way co-ordination
This exercise sheet features most of the drum beats from page 3 of the Grade 1 Rock Beats ebook, by adding a quarter note stepped hi hat ostinato.
Anyone who has some knowledge and experience playing basic drum beats can give this a go. Moderate to fast speed and playing accuracy should be mastered before entering Grade 5 level.
Left foot hi hat ability is often overlooked or ignored by many pop and rock drummers. Don’t be one of them! I was and I spent ages as an adult going back and learning and practicing with the left foot. Even though I played double kick, my left foot hi hat technique was still weak in beats, in paticular for syncapated funk beats and latin styles.
Get stuck onto these exercises and give your left foot a much needed boost!
A variety of 6 different musical styles in the form of drum beats.
Objective: To develop an awereness of different styles of music and to be able to play the basic drum beats.
With this sheet, although there are no repeats, you should repeat each line multiple times and get into the rhythm and groove. Aim for evenly spaced notes at a slow speed. Repeat slowly for a while and get into the beat. Then you can try speeding it up a little bit, and then a bit more and gradually more until it’s fast. Then onto the next beat.
Related: Reading Drum Notation
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.
Related: 10 Drum Beats With 1 Bar Drum Fills Using Quarter 8ths And 16th Notes
Related: 1 Beat Snare Drum Fills with drum beats exercises
Related (Premium): Beats and Fills Drum Book – Basic Beginners
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.
Related: 10 beginners drum beats with 2 beat drum fills exercises
Objective: To develop a vocabulary of various bass drum and snare variations that are usable when playing in the 6/8 time signature.
Variations: The right hand could be moved to the floor tom or ride, and accents / ride bell / open hi hats could be added
The first drum beat is the standard beat to play for many when playing in 6/8 and is a good place to start. The bass drum is on the first beat of the bar, and the snare drum is on the 4th quaver beat of the bar – these are the beats where the emphasis is in 6/8. You tend to count it with emphasis like 1 2 3 4 5 6.
The hi hats are playing on all 6 quaver beats of the bar, which is the same on all of these drum beats.
Beat 3, 4, 5 and 6 all give a strong indication of a ‘swing’, or ‘shuffle’ feel to the beats. This is easy to do in 6/8 because it can easily feel like you are playing triplets, with a perceived time signature of 2/4 or 4/4. This is why the 6/8 time signature is sometimes used in blues and jazz music. It is also a popular time signature in musicals, especially in slower pieces where the crotchet beat would be too slow if notated with triplets. The same goes for blues, where instead of having a very slow “1 trip let 2 trip let” feel, the slow 1 2 3 4 5 6 is sometimes preferred, especially if staying in that feel for the whole song. Going back to musicals, and also for classical songs or any groups with a conductor, a 6/8 time signature is more efficient and clear for a conductor to beat, than a slow piece in 2/4 or 3/4.
Related (Premium): Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1 – Rock Pop Soul Funk – PDF ebook
Related: Practice sheet for learning to play drum beats in 6/8 time
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).
Here are 5 beginners drum beats in the styles of Dance Music / Pop, Reggae, Hip Hop, Blues, and Metal / Hard Rock.
There are also audio examples to help you with the rhythms.
