(Premium) – Grade 3-4 Drum Book with 17 Drum Lesson Sheets

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People that might find this book useful

– Drum teachers can print the book or single sheets for their students.
– Drummers can teach themselves following on from a strong basic foundation in reading and playing

Contents Highlights

Subdivisions, Counting Methods, Drum Fills, Skip Beats, 16th Note Hi Hat Accents, Double Kick Drum.

Full Contents

4 – Subdivision drum solo / warm up exercise
5 – 16th note counting exercises
6 – Snare drum piece with counting exercise
7 – Short fills to start a song or sections of music
8 – Bass drum skip beats
9 – Snare drum skip beats
10 – 10 rock drum beats with 16th note bass drum combinations
11 – Snare and bass drum skip beat practice beats – with open hi hats
12 – Snare and floor tom piece with sextuplets
13 – Grooves and fills piece in 6/8
14 – 10 drum fills with 6 stroke rolls
15 – 6 drum beats and drum fills exercises
16 – 10 snare drum accent exercises
17 – Part 1 – 9 drum grooves with 16th note hi hat accents
18 – Part 2 – 9 drum grooves with 16th note hi hat accents
19 – 8 beginners double kick drum beats
20 – Intermediate double kick drum beats

About the book

This ebook is a Grade 4 level compilation of 8 years of preparation work for teaching drums. It consists of drum lesson sheets that I have prepared and revised many times to be the best they can be for teaching with. To create the book I selected only the best sheets from my selection of drum sheet music lesson handouts. I printed them all out on my office floor and arranged them into a coherent order.

I have included only the sheets, rather than add lots of teaching text. This is partly to limit the amount of pages printing, and also to give teachers using the books freedom to put their own take on the lesson sheets. This will probably make it harder for self taught players, so to anyone getting stuck reading the book I would recommend building up their reading and counting knowledge online. The 16th note counting exercises on page 5 and 6 should help, and can be used when playing skip beats to help with reading and playing them.

Reading skills are really important if you are teaching yourself with this book. Further to counting 16ths like on page 5 and 6 to snare drum rhythms, you can also use them in drum beats. It’s really helpful when you learn how to do it. To give an example of counting 16ths in beats; on Page 8, Bass Drum Skip Beats, on the first bar you could count “1 & 2 & a 3 & 4 &” to help with the timing. The second bar would be counted “1 & 2 e & a 3 & 4 &”. The kick drum skips are therefore on the ‘a’ after beat 2 on the first bar, and on the second bar the skip beat kicks are on both the ‘e’ and ‘a’ after beat 2. This probably sounds complicated if you’ve never done this before. It’s how many teachers explain note placements, and it’s still how I count new beats that need working out or extra practice.

Final Thoughts

This ebook covers many of the Grade 4 elements, but it’s by no means all-encompassing. There are other ebooks that I have made for Grade 3-4 and I’m sure there will be more. This book is a leap on from “Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book”, but there will be a Grade 3-4 beats and fills ebook soon. This book can also be used either side of these ebooks I have already created in the Grade 3-4 level: “10 Pages Of Accent Exercises With 16th Notes” and “90 Intermediate Drum Beats Focusing On The Bass Drum”.

Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons

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Snare Drum and Floor Tom Piece with Sextuplets, Single Stroke Four’s and Paradiddle-diddle’s

This piece was written for a youth drumming group but it was too difficult for them as they were not quite ready in ability. I’m sure there will be plenty of people out there that will find this a good and achievable challenge.

The drum piece will require a snare drum and floor tom, so you can play it on a regular kit, but you may need to move them closer together.

Use this piece to practice your subdivisions and rudiments, to include Sextuplets, Single Stroke Four’s and Paradiddle-diddle’s.

The left foot hi hats (X below the bottom line) are actually floor tom rims, and the X on the snare drum line is snare rim.

Drum Solo 1 – Performance Piece

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:

10 Latin American Drum Grooves – Guest Post by Paulo Goncalves – Do Re Mi Studios

Welcome to the first ever guest post on learndrumsforfree.com!

The author of this post is Paulo Goncalves from Do Re Mi Studios in Australia. It is also his first ever guest post. The idea came about following this article that linked to learndrumsforfree at the end: ‘Five Drum Grooves Every Drummer Must Know’.

The guest post offers a lesson on Latin American drumming, which I don’t usually post about so I hope this will be useful and interesting to my readers.

Please also find attached a free PDF version of the post, which you may print out.

THE CHA-CHA

Originally from Cuba, the Cha-Cha typically features the beat on the hi-hat with the left hand playing on the snare drum. In addition, the right hand plays on the small tom-tom on the fourth beat.

Groove 1

In Latin American grooves, it is common to play the ‘rim’ of the snare drum instead of the skin. One way to notate a rim shot on a music score is shown below:

Play groove 2 using the rim shot technique on the snare drum.

Groove 2

Latin American grooves often also use the hi-hat closing with the left foot. This is indicated in a music score as shown below:

Play grooves 3 and 4 with the hi-hat closing with the left foot on each beat of the bar. The right hand plays the ride cymbal throughout the rhythm.

Groove 3

Groove 4

THE MAMBO

In a typical mambo groove, the ride cymbal pattern is broken up around the tom-toms and snare drum. The hi-hat closes on the second and fourth beats.

Groove 5

Groove 6

ROCK AND ROLL MAMBO

In grooves 7 and 8, the hi-hat also closes on the second and fourth beats. The cymbal pattern is played on the ride cymbal with the right hand.

Groove 7

Groove 8

THE SAMBA

Originally from Brazil, Samba grooves are played fairly fast. In the groove below, play the tom-tom notes with the right hand.

Groove 9

THE BOSSA NOVA

Like the Samba, the Bossa Nova is also originally from Brazil. Bossa Nova grooves feature the snare and bass drum playing syncopated rhythms.

Groove 10

Written by Paulo Goncalves. For more of his articles check out http://www.doremistudios.com.au/blog/

Funk Grooves – Grade 5

You’ll need to be able to read the sheet music to play these funk drum grooves.

These funky beats are versatile and can be played in various scenarios or even different styles of music.

Use these funk drum beats for some new inspiration or ideas for adding flare to basic funk beats.

  1. The first beat adds accents on the hi hat to add some dynamic depth.
  2. The second beat adds in open hi hats – the hi hat should be played with the right hand only (or left if you’re a lefty).
  3. The third beat has quiet drags on the snare, slightly open hi hats and accents, and ghost note skip beats.
  4. The fourth beat has just skip beats and open hi hats.
  5. The fifth beat uses two hands for the hi hats, and the ones with the slashes through are doubled up using the double stroke technique.
  6. The sixth and final beat has a similar style to the third beat.

5 beginners classic rock drum beats with counting method

These 5 rock drum beats with quarter note hi hats were written to support my students learning the drum beats on Page 13 of Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1 – Rock Pop Soul Funk – PDF Ebook, or as a standalone exercise sheet prior to starting the book.

Each of the drum beats has a quarter note hi hat pattern, so often there are kick drums out on their own with no other drum voice played (normally played with a hi hat). This can be tricky for beginners, so that’s why counting is a good idea.

Use the audio examples to hear what they are meant to sound like, and try your best to replicate how evenly spaced all of the drum beats are. Make sure to use the counting guide written above each drum beat until you start to get it – then try without counting.

3 bars of drum beats in 4 with open hi hats + 1 bar fills

The drum fills now last for a whole bar, so we are now only playing 3 bars of drum beats. This prepares the student for another real world example of a different length of fill within a drum beat phrase.

You’ll need to be able to sight read these because they will be difficult to memorise. Feel free to try and memorise them if you have time, as this will also be good practice.

Here is a list of the 5 free sheets, released as a series of posts:


These 5 sheet are from the following premium ebook:
Related (Premium): Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1 – Rock Pop Soul Funk

4 bars of drum beats in 4 with open hi hats + 2 beat fills on 4th bar

This section is only a slight a variation on the previous. The drum fills now last for two beats, which means the 4th bar only has half a bar of the drum beat. This prepares the student for another real world example of a different length of fill within a drum beat phrase.

You’ll need to be able to sight read these because they will be difficult to memorise. Feel free to try and memorise them if you have time, as this will also be good practice.

Here is a list of the 5 free sheets, released as a series of posts:


These 5 sheet are from the following premium ebook:
Related (Premium): Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1 – Rock Pop Soul Funk

4 bars of drum beats in 4 with open hi hats + 1 beat fills on 4th bar

Much like in the first two sections, there are 16 different exercises with drum beats in 4/4. This time, the phrase is over 4 bars and there is a short drum fill on the 4th bar before repeating. You’ll need to be able to sight read these because they will be difficult to memorise. Feel free to try and memorise them if you have time, as this will also be good practice.

 

Here is a list of the 5 free sheets, released as a series of posts:


These 5 sheet are from the following premium ebook:
Related (Premium): Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1 – Rock Pop Soul Funk

2 bar drum beats in 4 with open hi hats

Much like in section 1, there are 16 different exercises with drum beats in 4/4, each with open hi hats placed within the beats, but this time it’s double the length. You’ll need to read these or really work hard to memorise them to play without reading.

Here is a list of the 5 free sheets, released as a series of posts:


These 5 sheet are from the following premium ebook:
Related (Premium): Grades 1-2 Beats & Fills Drum Book – Unit 1 – Rock Pop Soul Funk