Monday, November 21, 2011

How to Play Drums - Basic Drum Patterns

By Joe Maldonado


Aspiring drummers need to have a perfect start of their drum education because the early lessons form the basis of their future drumming. The first few tips to know how to play the drums require only 2 sticks and a practice pad. You need to know the basic drum patterns in order to start your practice.

The foremost step is to learn playing drums by counting. This is very important part of the drumming and without counting you are useless as a drummer. Count or time signatures in most of the basic rock drumming beats are 4/4. In simple words there are 4 counts before each beat repeats. You need to follow counting with your stronger hand. You can count by hitting the hi-hat on every count. Now, add bass drum on the 1st count and snare drum on the 3rd count. Once you learn this basic drum pattern in different tempos, you will realize that all the drumming beats are built around this.

The second step is to practice drumstick control and drum rudiments. Drum rudiments help to build independence and speed around the drum kit. You need to start off with single stroke roll and double stroke roll. These are two of the most common rudiments. Timing is of extreme importance in drumming. You need to feel the beat, the time and the groove. You need to create the mood, add accents and fills for any song.

There are a few other basic drum patterns that in order to learn how to play the drums. The first one is 8th note rock drum beat. In this beat, you have to play eight 8th notes on the closed hi-hat. Count out loud and then start to play hi-hats along with your count. Try to play notes at a consistent pace with the same force.

You need to add snare drum and bass drum with this beat. You need to first keep playing the hi-hat strokes in the same way as before and then add the snare drum on 2nd and 4th count. Both the instruments should be stroked with perfect timing to generate a smooth feel. Now, you need to add the bass drum on 1st and 3rd count. Leave the snare drums alone for a while. Keep playing the hi-hat strokes and add bass drum hits. Again, perfect timing is required.

Now, you need to play hi-hat strokes, bass drum and snare drum together. An amalgamation these beats will help you to create the 8th note rock beat. While stroking the hi-hat, add in snare drum on 2nd and 4th while bass drum on beat 1st and 3rd. Again, timing is needed to be practiced.

A pattern which is played around the drum set which is used for setting a song's new section is known as a drum fill. The drum fill that you are about to learn is 16th note based. This 16th note based drum fill is a pattern which plays notes on "e's" and "ah's" of a measure. Your stronger hand that was previously striking the hi-hat plays the fill on the beats 1, 2, 3, 4 and "&'s" while the other hand plays the notes on "e's" and "ah's". The hi-hat hand still plays the same notes but on different instruments. These were a few basic patterns in order to learn how to play the drums.




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