Sheet 3 – Beginners Drum Warm Up Exercises

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Beginners Drum Warm Up Exercises

The difficulty on this sheet goes slightly higher with adding 8th notes to the drum beats and the drum fills are a little more advanced too, especially the rhythm of the crash and bass drum hits at the end. A drum teacher can help with this. Once you hear the rhythm it shouldn’t be too hard. You can hear the same rhythm of the ending crash cymbals (in the penultimate bar of this sheet) at the start of a famous song called We Found Love by Rhianna. Whenever I see this rhythm in any music, I always think of this song! I’m sure the rhythm has stronger roots elsewhere, perhaps in Latin American carnival type music, but that’s just what sticks in my mind.

To further disect the final line of fills, you also will need to play a triplet at the end of the first bar whilst counting ‘4 trip let’ and on the second bar there is a flam on beat 2 followed by a floor tom on beat 2 +.

Going back to the start, it’s also important to observe the driving accents on the beat, which should be played on the floor tom, and not really the bass drum. This also goes for the second line. Lines 3 and 4 could also be played with these driving accents on the ride cymbal if you would like to.

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Drum Lesson Warm Up – 6th Jan 2026

Drum lesson warm up for advanced beginners and early intermediate levels.

Since posting this, I have focussed on creating an ebook with similar content, so the title has changed a little bit and it’s now the 2nd exercise sheet of the book. You can use the image on here and print it if needed, or you can also purchase PDF of Sheet 2 – Drum Warm Up Exercises for Advanced Beginners to Early Intermediate.

This Drum lesson warm up for advanced beginners and early intermediate levels is a summary of some of the exercises I worked on today with my students. This will probably be of use to any drummers wanting some original exercises to work on as part of a drum lesson or to self learn.

There are two exercises with sextuplets, accents and the use of a paradiddle-diddle (RLRRLL).

There are exercises based on one drum beat with examples of how you can develop it.

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Drum Beats and Drum Fills in 6/8 time signature – Sheet 3 Inside the book

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Here is Exercise Sheet 3 from 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2.

The drum beats and drum fills are all in a 6/8 time signature. We will be putting emphasis on the beats 1 and 4 of the bar, which is standard for 6/8 drum beats. The counting should be 1 2 3 4 5 6 for 8th notes, and for 16th notes, you could count 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 +. This is unlike 4/4, where the 1 2 3 4 is counting the quarter notes, rather than the 8th notes.

We are playing in a blues style in this sheet, although you could also hear these beats in other styles such as Pop, Jazz and Musical Theatre.

Video Demonstration

As you can see in the video, some of the exercises are quite fun when played quickly. Do start slowly and correctly though, because those fills could sound messy if they are not played with accuracy.

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Sheet 2 – Inside the book: 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2

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Here is page 7 inside the book (40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2). This sheet includes 4 drum beat and drum fill exercises with stepped hi hats on all 4 beats of the bar. The right hand is playing the ride cymbal and the left foot is playing the stepped hi hat (reverse if left handed).

Video Demonstration

As I say in the video, remember to always read a little bit ahead or glance to see what’s coming up when you are playing so you don’t get caught out by the drum fills. Reading and playing music is similar to driving a car. You need to drive the bit of the road that you are on (i.e. the current bar), but you also need to look ahead to see if there are any hazards (e.g. accents, drags, ghost notes, drum fills, complicated drum beats), drastic changes in the road such as a sharp corner (e.g. section changes), signs for a complicated junction (e.g. 1st and second time repeats), or for road diversions (e.g. D.S. al Coda).

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Sheet 1 – Inside the book: 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2

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Here is part 3 of inside the book: 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2. We have 4 exercises, consisiting of drum beats and drum fills, with 4 way coordination. The stepped hi hat plays on every exercise, so we are using both feet and both hands.

This is the first exercise sheet of the book, after the warm up, and it includes the first 4 of the 40 beats and fills exercises. This sheet feels like an extention of the warm up sheet for the first 3 exercises, and they could be used as such, and then by exercise 4 it feels like the start of the type of exercise you may also hear in a song somewhere. This is because the difficulty level needed not to start too high, so it is a slight progression from the warm up page.

Video Demonstration

Here is a video demonstration for Sheet 1 – 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2:

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Warm Up – Inside the book: 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2

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Here is part 2 of inside the book: 40 Beats and Fills Exercises Book 2.

This sheet is a warm up sheet for the drum kit, which includes 4 way coordination. The stepped hi hat and bass drum provide the parts for the feet, to play along with the hand patterns consisting of quarter notes, eigth notes and sixteenth notes.

This warm up sheet could be used at the start of a practice session before going straight into the exercises in the book, as it prepares you for the kind of things to come in the 40 beats and fills exercises. It could also be used as a seperate warm up exercise for something else. By the end of the sheet, you should feel warmed up and ready to get stuck into whatever you would like to work on next. Follow the tuition video below for how to play this sheet.

Video Demonstration

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