A blog to help with learning and teaching Drums. Written by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Books.
These hip hop / funk drum beats and drum fills are around the Grade 4-6 level, but can also be useful for anyone above that level too. There is a pdf ebook available with more of these sheets and the video covers the whole book.
Free PDF Download: Sign up to TL Music Books – Drums Mailing List to download the PDF of ’25 Hi Hat Patterns with drum beat examples’.
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5
This page continues from the last one, combining 8th notes and 16t notes to create hi hat patterns.
These hi hat patterns and drum beat examples are for styles such as rock, pop, funk, soul, all in a 4/4 time signature.
These patterns can be used with basic drum beats or more complicated ones.
The Moeller technique works well on patterns 5, 6, 9, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25.
You could also add 8th note or 16th note swing to all of the patterns.
> = Accents (play louder). You can play the accents on the top of the hi hat for a clean sound.
You could play the accents on the hi hat edge with 45 degree stick angle, for a heavier sound.
Circle around the hi hat means open hi hat.
Free PDF Download: Sign up to TL Music Books – Drums Mailing List to download the PDF of ’25 Hi Hat Patterns with drum beat examples’.
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5
This page and the next page concentrates on combinations of 8th notes and 16t notes to create hi hat patterns.
These hi hat patterns and drum beat examples are for styles such as rock, pop, funk, soul, all in a 4/4 time signature.
These patterns can be used with basic drum beats or more complicated ones.
The Moeller technique works well on patterns 5, 6, 9, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25.
You could also add 8th note or 16th note swing to all of the patterns.
> = Accents (play louder). You can play the accents on the top of the hi hat for a clean sound.
You could play the accents on the hi hat edge with 45 degree stick angle, for a heavier sound.
Circle around the hi hat means open hi hat.
Free PDF Download: Sign up to TL Music Books – Drums Mailing List to download the PDF of ’25 Hi Hat Patterns with drum beat examples’.
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5
This page focusses on accents on the hi hats whilst playing 16th notes with 2 hands. Adding double strokes to some or all of the non accents would be one way to extend this sheet further, as would adding open hi hats and appling different drum beats such as the beats in this book: 90 intermediate drum beats focusing on the bass drum – PDF ebook. You can also find more 16th note exercises with accents here: Accent Exercises with 16th notes – PDF ebook
These hi hat patterns and drum beat examples are for styles such as rock, pop, funk, soul, all in a 4/4 time signature.
These patterns can be used with basic drum beats or more complicated ones.
The Moeller technique works well on patterns 5, 6, 9, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25.
You could also add 8th note or 16th note swing to all of the patterns.
> = Accents (play louder). You can play the accents on the top of the hi hat for a clean sound.
You could play the accents on the hi hat edge with 45 degree stick angle, for a heavier sound.
Circle around the hi hat means open hi hat.
Free PDF Download: Sign up to TL Music Books – Drums Mailing List to download the PDF of ’25 Hi Hat Patterns with drum beat examples’.
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5
These hi hat patterns and drum beat examples are for styles such as rock, pop, funk, soul, all in a 4/4 time signature.
These patterns can be used with basic drum beats or more complicated ones.
The Moeller technique works well on patterns 5, 6, 9, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25.
You could also add 8th note or 16th note swing to all of the patterns.
> = Accents (play louder). You can play the accents on the top of the hi hat for a clean sound.
You could play the accents on the hi hat edge with 45 degree stick angle, for a heavier sound.
Circle around the hi hat means open hi hat.
Free PDF Download: Sign up to TL Music Books – Drums Mailing List to download the PDF of ’25 Hi Hat Patterns with drum beat examples’.
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5
These hi hat patterns and drum beat examples are for styles such as rock, pop, funk, soul, all in a 4/4 time signature.
These patterns can be used with basic drum beats or more complicated ones.
The Moeller technique works well on patterns 5, 6, 9, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25.
You could also add 8th note or 16th note swing to all of the patterns.
> = Accents (play louder). You can play the accents on the top of the hi hat for a clean sound.
You could play the accents on the hi hat edge with 45 degree stick angle, for a heavier sound.
Circle around the hi hat means open hi hat.
★ 16 Drum Beats for use in drum lessons or for self taught drummers.
★ Printable PDF
★ Try the Hi Hats slightly open for a heavy sound.
★ You could play the Hi Hats closed but change some of them to open Hi Hats
★ You could change the Hi Hats into Ride Cymbals, Floor Toms or Crash Cymbals
★ You could also combine beats into one exercises, such as exercise 1-2 or exercise 1-4 all in one go.
★ Try playing through all 16 exercises once each in one go without stopping or making any mistakes!
Here is Exercise Sheet 7 from 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2.
This sheet only has 2 exercises because we have doubled the length to 8 bars. The structure is 7 bars of drum beats, with a 1 bar fill on bar 8, and then repeat. We are also adding in a short drum fill at the end of bar 4. Short drum fills in music help to break up repetative beats and sections and add a bit of interest to the music.
Exercise 1 is all on the hi hat and has plenty of open hi hats here and there to watch out for. Exercise 2 starts on the ride cymbal with stepped hi hats on all 4 beats of the bar, and then switches to the hi hats on bars 5-7 for some practice of switching your lead hand between the hi hat and ride.
← Go back to Sheet 6
Go forward to Sheet 8 →
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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.
← Go back to Sheet 5
Go forward to Sheet 7 →
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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).
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.
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