drum beat exercises – Page 6 – Learn Drums For Free

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

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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

8 Starter Jazz Drum Beats with 3 way co-ordination

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.

10 Basic Rock Drum Beats

Free PDF Download of Grade 1 Rock Beats (includes this sheet)

Video Lesson

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

About the lesson sheet

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.

Drum Books with Basic Rock Beats

First Drum Book – Easy Reading Beats & Fills
Beats and Fills Drum Book – Basic Beginners
40 Beats and Fills Exercises – Ebook.

4 way co ordination pop drum beats with quarter note stepped hi hat – Step by step guide

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 stepped hi hat

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.

Beat 1

Step 1

Start by playing the ride, bass and the stepped hi hat all together.

Step 2

Then play the ride, snare and stepped hi hat all together.

Step 3

The next two beats are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).

Beat 2

Step 1

Start by playing the ride, bass and the stepped hi hat all together.

Step 2

Next just a ride on it’s own.

Step 3

Then play the ride, snare and stepped hi hat all together.

Step 4

Next just a ride on it’s own.

Step 5

The next two beats worth are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).

Beat 3

Step 1

Start by playing the ride, bass and the stepped hi hat all together.

Step 2

Then play the ride, snare, bass drum, and stepped hi hat all together.

Step 3

The next two beats are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).

Beat 4

Step 1

Start by playing the ride, bass and the stepped hi hat all together.

Step 2

Next just a ride on it’s own.

Step 3

Then play the ride, snare, bass and stepped hi hat all together.

Step 4

Next just a ride on it’s own.

Step 5

The next two beats worth are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).

Beat 5

Try not to get confused with the rests in this one, just ignore them.

Step 1

Start with a bass drum and closed hi hat together.

Step 2

Then play the ride on it’s own.

Step 3

Play the snare and closed hi hat together.

Step 4

Then play the ride on it’s own.

Step 5

The next two beats worth are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).

Beat 6

Step 1

Start with a bass drum and closed hi hat together.

Step 2

Then play the ride on it’s own.

Step 3

Play the snare, bass and closed hi hat together.

Step 4

Then play the ride on it’s own.

Step 5

The next two beats worth are the same as the first two. Then the bar repeats (for as long as you like).

10 rock and pop drum beats with quarter note stepped hi hats – 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!

6 Beginners Drum Beats in Pop, Rock, Funk, Jazz, Reggae and Blues styles

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

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.

10 Drum Beats in a 6/8 Time Signature

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

About the drum beats in 6/8

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.

About the 6/8 time signature

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.