A blog to help with learning and teaching Drums. Written by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Books.
I saw Gabrielle Aplin live at The Ritz in Manchester on her debut album tour in 2013, so although I don’t watch many music videos, this was on my radar and the images of all the drummers lured me in. Gabrielle Aplin has released this music video ahead of her second album, which includes a room full of drummers playing light up drum along with the upbeat song. Drummers unite and watch this brilliant music video!
Also, here is the behind the scenes video:
Photo Credit: Owen Byrne
Beginners often play the hi hat too loud, and sometimes this is down to where they are hitting on the hi hat cymbals rather than how hard they are hitting. As a result, their playing sounds messy, and their sticks wear more quickly. If this is happening to you, it may be time to address your technique for playing the hi hats.
Regular hi hat sounds should be played using the tip of the stick on the top of the hi hat, half way between the edge and the bell, and range of dynamics can be played here. The left foot should press down quite a bit so that the sound is clean and tight. However, too much pressing down with the foot will give the sound a weird ringing noise, which doesn’t sound good, as well as being tiring pressing down with the left foot for long periods of time.
The area closer to the bell has a higher frequency tone, which is good for a brighter sound. This area is good for styles like soul funk, particularly for adding in open hi hats.
The edge of the hi hat should be reserved for accents or for more frequent use in heavy genres like hard rock and metal. Even in those styles though, variation between the top and edge are effective.
The edge of the hi hat should be played with the thick part of the drum stick, which is called the shoulder. This is the best part of the hi hat to get an open slushy sound – this is used most of the time in metal music and fairly often in rock too.
For most other styles, single open hi hats that close after are best played with the tip of the stick on the top of the hi hat. This gives a crisp clean sound. You will find that these compliment a drum groove nicely, and that playing an open hi hat on the edge is good for times when you want it to stand out more – for example if a band is playing some stabbed rhythms.
To get a nice sizzley jazz open hi hat sound, try hooking on a light chain on the top of the cymbal.
Finally, you need a good set of cymbals! For a good studio recording or live playing, an expensive set of cymbals will always be better. You can still sound good though by following the advice above, as long as you have a set of fairly heavy weighted cymbals, unlike the water thin style cymbals that come with some cheap beginners kits.
I will leave you with this thought: a well played set of cheap hi hats will always sound better than badly played top of the range hi hats.
The ride cymbal can be pretty loud, so always try to lower your stick so that your strokes are fairly close to the ride cymbal – this should help keep the volume from getting out of control and also give you dynamic room at add accents on the ride or the bell when needed. Make sure to hit the ride half way between the edge and the bell with the tip of the stick – NOT the shoulder (keep that arm up!). Play the bell with the shoulder of the stick, or if you want a light bell sound, with the tip of the stick. You can crash the ride too when required. To get a nice sizzley jazz sound, try hooking on a light chain on the top of the cymbal (as pictured in the featured image).
Always “Crash” using the shoulder of the drum stick, on the edge of the cymbal at about a 45 degree angle. Hitting it to the left or right of the middle will help prevent cymbal cracking. Strike with a glancing blow whilst also following through with your stick. Continue the motion left or right depending on where you are going to next. For example, if the cymbal is on the left hand side of the drum kit and you want to get to the ride cymbal next, hit the cymbal at the right of the middle and glance off to the right – you’ll arrive at the ride cymbal much quicker.
You can also play a crash cymbal like a ride cymbal, with the tip of the stick. For example, in Jazz this can provide opportunity for variation when there are a lot of ride based drum beats.
Play these like you would play a crash cymbal.
Like a huge bell from a ride cymbal, these really cut through any mix and are usually played with the tip of the stick or sometimes with the shoulder of the stick. Some players have them positioned upside down. There is no right or wrong way.
These snare drum or practice pad exercises are similar to drum rudiments. The drum exercises work on possible sticking and dynamic eventualities that you may encounter in drum beats and grooves, drum fills, and snare drum sheet music. The exercises also could be used as a warm up, especially from playing snare drum sheet music.
While beginners will be able to play these exercises at their level, advanced players should be aware of using Up Strokes, Tap Strokes, Down Strokes, and Full Strokes so that there is a greater continuity of volume and attack.
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.
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.
The drum sheet music can be used as seperate exercises (1 per line), or as a complete exercise.
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!
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.
Related: 10 beginners drum beats with 2 beat drum fills exercises
Related (Premium): Beats and Fills Drum Book – Basic Beginners
Download the free PDF file to get unlimited access to printing your own blank drum sheet music. You can use this to hand write your own drum beats, drum fills, or for writing out the drums for a song. Teachers can use these to write out drum music for their students. Composers and arrangers can print these off in order to hand write a quick drum score.
There are no annoying watermarks or footer text – it’s just plain blank drum sheet music staves with no writing.
Please don’t distribute the PDF file on any other website or via email – please just link to this page if you want to share it.
Related: Blank Guitar, Ukulele and Bass Sheet Music For Hand Writing Guitar Tab or Chord Charts – Free PDF
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
