A blog to help with learning and teaching Drums. Written by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Books.
Purchase the PDF on SheetMusicPlus
The drumming on this song uses a strong 16th note hi hat rhythm throughout the song, with variations on the beat here and there and some short drum fills. The ability level is Grade 4-5.
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Don’t You Want Me – Drum Sheet Music By The Human League. Individual Part. 2 pages. Published by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons (H0.1053145-SC000003295). |
This book contains drum beats and drum fills in the styles of Hip Hop, Rap, Grime and Funk, Soul and Rock/Pop. The book has some grade 3-4 level exercises and also some harder ones, ranging from Grade 5 to Grade 8. The book would be an ideal add on for anyone studying Grades 5-8, as many of the skills are needed at this level. To achieve grade 8, the exercises would need to be played precisely, with correct dynamics, speed and fluidity.
You can use this video as a guide for when you are practicing the book but get stuck on a particular exercise – just look up the timestamp link below. Like I say later in the video, the book is not designed to be played in one go and you should focus on 1 or 2 sheets per session and really drill down those grooves and get the fills correct and precise. Precision is key with all of these exercises, no matter what speed you play them at.
The structure of the book is based on one of my favourite books “40 Beats and Fills Exercises (Grade 1-2)”. There are 40 exercises over 11 sheets, and I have also included 2 bonus sheets with basic skip beats with 8th note hi hats and 16th note hi hats, which adds an extra 20 exercises, but I’m not counting those in the title.
I created the book so that my students could study skip beats at grades 3-4 level and also for my students working on Grades 5, 6 and 8 (I usually skip grade 7) to work on alongside their grades.
I hope you enjoy working on this book or teaching with this book. Stick the metronome on and get into the groove. Repeat for less or more than 4 times for each exercise, it’s up to you. To extend the exercises, try playing the beats on the ride cymbal and adding in left foot hi hat ostinati.
Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons
6 Rock & Blues Play Along Backing Tracks (with full sheet music)
★ Over 30 PDF Files of Sheet Music ★ Over 60 MP3 Tracks ★ 6 Guitar Pro Files ★
This download will be greatly enhanced by having a copy of Guitar Pro installed on your device.
Listen to the 6 tracks here:
Grade 3 Lead Guitar & Barre Chords
Grade 1 Guitar
Grade 1-2 Ukulele
Grade 3 Bass Guitar
Grade 1-2 Drums
Lyrics for the Verses
Grade 3 Lead Guitar & Barre Chords
Grade 1-2 Guitar
Grade 1-2 Ukulele
Grade 3 Bass Guitar
Grade 1-2 Drums
Grade 3-6 Lead Guitar
Grade 2 Guitar
Grade 3 Guitar (Barre Chords)
Grade 2 Ukulele
Grade 4 Bass Guitar
Grade 1-3 Drums
Grade 6 Lead Guitar
Grade 2-3 Guitar
Grade 2-3 Ukulele
Grade 3 Bass Guitar
Grade 3-4 Drums
Grade 3-5 Lead Guitar
Grade 2 Guitar 1
Grade 2 Guitar 2
Grade 2 Ukulele
Grade 3-5 Bass Guitar
Grade 3-4 Drums
Grade 2 Easy Drums
Grade 5 Lead Guitar
Grade 2 Guitar
Grade 3 Guitar
Grade 2 Ukulele
Grade 5 Bass Guitar
Grade 6 Drums
Grade 2-3 Easy Drums
Written and self published in 2020 by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons.
When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020 due to Covid-19, I quickly moved many of my lessons onto Skype/Zoom online lessons. I decided to make some of my own songs for my students to play so that they had backing tracks to play along with when they had learned and practiced the songs. I wanted to make sure they were possible for them to play, whilst also being a challenge to learn them. By the end of June, I had written these 6 songs and they felt like they worked together as a set of pieces to share with the world.
My students are all at different levels. Many of my beginners pupils of primary school age have been having lessons for at least a year or several years, so I wrote the lowest ability parts at Grade 1-2, and sometimes elements of Grade 3. I also have some grade 4-6 pupils on Guitar, Drums and Bass, so I wanted to make parts for them too. With all those parts together, there is something for almost everyone in here – just not for complete beginners because they need to work on the basics before learning these pieces.
People that might find this book useful
About the PDF Sheet Music
These are the overall ranges of grades that the instruments cover in this selection of 6 songs. There are separate PDF files for each instrument part.
Grade 3-6 Lead Guitar
Grade 1-2 Guitar
Grade 3 Guitar Barre Chords
Grade 1-3 Ukulele
Grade 3-5 Bass Guitar
Grade 3-6 Drums
Grade 1-3 Easy Drums
There are at least 3 different speeds of backing tracks available for each song. With performances in mind (such as for school GCSE submissions, school performances, or Eisteddfod entries), I have also included mp3s for each song without Lead Guitar, without Drums and without Bass Guitar. There are also one or two extras in there, such as ‘Just the Ukulele Part’ for some songs where I felt they would be especially helpful. If you need backing tracks that aren’t in the download pack, I strongly suggest investing in a copy of Guitar Pro, because you can do so much with these files. You can make the pieces be any speed you want, you can edit the parts, you can change the sounds of the instruments, and you can make your own mp3s and pdf files with it. You can also turn on the metronome and loop sections.
During the last few months, I have noticed that my students that carried on with online lessons have seemed to progress more than usual. I’m not sure if it’s the extra time at home with less going on, or if it’s these songs with backing tracks. I’d like to think it’s a mixture of all of those things, and probably more. I can say for sure that these pieces have gone down well with all of my students and that the range of techniques and rhythms included in the songs have been beneficial for them. It’s also been a nice outlet for me – it’s been like songwriting again (I’ve had a substantial break from it), and even though I was purposely trying not to write things that were out of reach for my students to learn, I was also enjoying the creative flow, and at times really went for it. I got really into the lead parts and was quite creatively free with those mostly, and on the drum parts I added my own style and flair into them, especially on the last piece with adding in fast double strokes on the hi hats and fills.
I hope you enjoy learning / teaching with these pieces.
Theo Lawrence
www.payhip.com/tlmusiclessonsdrums
Here is a list of dynamic markings you might encounter in drum sheet music. This list will be updated as more dynamic markings are thought of, and will start out as a basic list of fundamental dynamics notation.
Get The Free Download (Audio & Sheet Music) from Bandcamp →
Also available for Guitar, Bass, and Ukulele
Full drum sheet music for 9 computer music songs transcribed from the MIDI drum loops used on the album ‘Computer Games Music’ by TL Music Lessons.
Also includes drum loops MIDI and Audio pack.
The drum sheet music has a wide range of ability levels from complete beginner (Canon in C), right up to grade 8 with some complicated syncopation at high speeds. All of the drum loops were created specifically for these songs, by me, a drummer! Hence, I tried to make the majority of the beats playable by a real drummer. I was able to transcribe and transpose most of the beats without altering them, but there were some that would need extra hands, such as the hand claps and clave polyrhythms, so these have been left out or modified where I thought appropriate.
I think this book would be usefuly for anyone wanting to enjoy playing drums along to music whilst reading drum sheet music at the same time. Whilst I can transcribe known songs, this was fun for me to do and release to you, without having to worry about copyright issues.
These could potentially be used as performance pieces in schools, or maybe even exams as a free choice piece if you ask an exam board. Feel completely free to use the audio as a backing track by downloading it from itunes or bandcamp etc and usin it to play along with.
Music makers and music producers can feel free to use the drum loops audio and midi as they wish. You may freely use them in your own compositions. School pupils may also use the drum loops pack as they wish for school projects or coursework – just ask your teacher if this is ok and within any guidelines.
Last year I made an album of 10 songs to teach with, and created 6 ebooks for the instrument parts. This year, I made an album of 11 songs called ‘Computer Game Music’.
This year I exported the MIDI files from 8 of those songs, plus 3 new ones, and began adding synths to the MIDI in my music production software Abelton Live 9 to create music that I think would sound good in computer games. I found it quite easy, quick and enjoyable to do when I initially messed about with one of the songs for fun. I then decided to start the project, which only took about a month of spare time to create the new album of songs. I also added drums and bass guitar to the tracks to finish them off.
The drums were created by me in Abelton using the MIDI piano roll and a drum rack. I really enjoyed this! I then transcribed the drum loops into actual drum sheet music for people to learn to play along with the music if they wanted to.
The drum sheet music has a wide range of ability levels from complete beginner (Canon in C), right up to grade 8 with some complicated syncopation at high speeds. All of the drum loops were created specifically for these songs. I tried to make the majority of the beats playable by a real drummer. I was able to transcribe and transpose most of the beats without altering them, but there were some that would need extra hands, such as the hand claps and clave polyrhythms, so these have been left out or modified where I thought appropriate.
Music makers and music producers can feel free to use the drum loops audio and midi as they wish. You may freely use them in your own compositions. School pupils may also use the drum loops pack as they wish for school projects or coursework, if this is within the guidelines of the work.
I hope that the songs can be used by a range of abilities. I would say most or all ability levels would find challenges throughout the album, depending on which instrument you look at. They are all quite challenging in places.
I hope that the songs can be used by more advanced players. Initially the previous album of music was created for grades 1-3 (guitar and ukulele only), but now for this new one, I would say most or all ability levels would find challenges throughout the album, depending on which instrument you look at. They are all quite challenging in places.
I also hope that the songs can be used as backing tracks for performances, for example in schools, and possibly as part of marked school performances or maybe even as free choice pieces in grade exams.
I also hope that my students will enjoy listening to the album after getting to know the songs in their different style.
Whilst the songs have not been created for any particular computer game, I will try to get some of the music featured in actual games. I think they would work well with platform and retro type games.
10 Drum Solo Performance Pieces Grade 1-3
2. Contents
3. Introduction
4. Grade 1 Drum Solo 1
5. Grade 1 Drum Solo 2
6. Grade 1 Drum Solo 3
7. Grade 2 Drum Solo 1
8. Grade 2 Drum Solo 2
9. Grade 2 Drum Solo 3
10. Grade 3 Drum Solo 1
11. Grade 3 Drum Solo 2
12. Grade 3 Drum Solo 3
13. Grade 3 Drum Solo 4
This 1st Edition ebook was published in 2017 by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons.
Front Cover Artwork Template by RogueSkins. Modified by Theo Lawrence.
Front cover illustration by Rich Orr.
The 10 pieces are performance pieces for drums, with no backing. They have elements of actual drum solos that you would perhaps find at grade 1-3, but they are extended to be about 1 minute each, so there is more of a mixture of grooves and beats too so that they can be performed without backing instruments and still be interesting.
The book is split into 3 pieces for each grade, with an extra one for the grade 3 level.
At the moment I teach a lot of primary school students. All of my school teaching is primary, and then I have some older students in the evenings. Some of the primary school students have completed the other books I have written so far at this level, and are ready for a new challenge, so I have prepared this for them. It will be ideal for some of them to perform at their school concerts, as it would for others around the world that download this.
This book will definitely provide new challenges to those that have only followed the first few drum books, because there is much more focus on drum fills. The other books were about 70% beats and 30% fills. This one is about 70% fills and non regular groove playing bits.
I really hope this ebook gives young players and novice older players the confidence to perform drum solos. I hope it gives them ideas for making their own solos too. Being good at any instrument is all about the confidence in knowing you can do something. I also hope that the focus on drum fills and drum solos in this ebook will help drummers in their Rockschool exams (other exam boards are available!), when they need to ‘develop’ or ‘cont. sim.’ or ‘drum solo’. I’ve seen drummers shut down at the sight of these things, and it’s vital to break through that. Good luck!
– Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons
This sheet is the first drum solo in my drum solos ebook 10 Drum Solo Performance Pieces Grade 1-3.
The sheet music is fairly easy to play for Grade 1-2 drummers. Make sure to follow the stickings (reverse if you are left handed), note the repeats and make sure to work out correctly which drums to hit on the last line.
Here is an audio example of the drum solo:
![Don’t You Want Me – The Human League – Drum Sheet Music [premium]](https://learndrumsforfree.com/2019/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/humanleague-img.png)
![6 Rock & Blues Play Along Backing Tracks [Premium]](https://learndrumsforfree.com/2019/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/COVER.png)
![Computer Games Music – PDF Ebook – Drum Sheet Music [includes Drum Loops Pack]](https://learndrumsforfree.com/2019/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Ebook-Computer-Games-Music-Drum-Sheet-Music-1.png)
