drum 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

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

Buy Now →

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.

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.

8 Intermediate Metal Double Bass Drum Beats

These double bass drum grooves can be played by advanced beginners, intermediate players, and above. Double kick beginners should try this very slowly to start with.

These grooves can be played in professional songs, they are mostly generic metal grooves and widely used by metal drummers.

These 8 metal drum grooves are all played with a quarter note hi hat ostinato, which is notated to be played with open hi hats. These should be played slightly open rather than fully open, to achieve that slushy hi hat sound heard in the majority of hard rock and metal songs. Many metal drummers keep the hi hats permanently in this position by setting up the height of the top hi hat cymbal to be only just a slither higher than the bottom one. This enables the drummer to have both feet free to bring the thunder on the bass drum pedals, whilst still being able to play a mixture of open and closed hi hats when needed.

FOOT PATTERN: R L R L [x4
FOOT PATTERN: R L R L – L R L [x2]
FOOT PATTERN: R L R – [x4]
FOOT PATTERN: R L R – – L R [x2]
FOOT PATTERN: – L R L [x4]
FOOT PATTERN: – L R – [x4]
FOOT PATTERN: – L – L [x4]
FOOT PATTERN: R L – L – L – L [x2]

The drum sheet music can be used as seperate exercises (1 per line), or as a complete exercise.

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!

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.

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 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.