How to Play a Basic Drum Beat

How to Play a Basic Drum Beat
Alright, so now we're ready to start playing. One of the hardest things I've found when teaching people how to play the drums, is putting all three of the basic elements together for the first time. Which would be the kick, the snare and then finally adding the hi-hat. And many people can do you know the hi-hat and the snare, or the snare and the kick, or vice versa. But the hardest part I find is putting all three together. So that's what we're going to do right now. So the easiest way to do this is to count. Counting is the best way to do it. You can do it in your head, you know it's easier to keep beat. So we're going to start with the hi-hat. Because this is how you keep your time, with the hi-hat. So we're just going to count to fours. So you're just going to count. One, two, three, four. Two, two, three, four. Three, two, three, four. Four, two, three, four. Now, so you're going to count your basic four for the hi-hat. Now your kick's going to come in on one and three. So it will be like one, two, three, four. Two, two, three, four. Three, two, three, four and so on. And so that's going to sound like this. I'll just demonstrate that really quick. So it's one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Okay, so that's on one and three. Now you're snare's going to fit right in between there. It's going to be on two and four. So that's going to look something like this when you put it all together. So it's one, two, ready, go. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. So that's the basic beat. And from there, you can really take it anywhere. The first thing we'll do is a variable. We'll change things up on the hi-hat a little bit. Once you get that basic beat. We'll start with that basic beat that we just learned, and really if you haven't mastered the basic beat, I wouldn't go much further than this. Because that's the basis of you know, pretty much everything else you're going to be doing on the kit. So once again, you can use a metronome, just go ahead and get it to a tempo you're really comfortable with. You can even do it slower than what I just started, which I would recommend. If you're just starting, start as slow as you need to because the key is to learn it as solidly as possible. Learn it so you can do this with distractions. That's even actually a technique that when I started playing, I would have somebody come in and distract me somehow. And if I could just keep that beat still, then I knew that I could play it no matter what. And that's the point you really want to get to. So once you get to that point, you can start changing up a little bit. Like we're changing up on the hi-hat. So we'll just start with a regular beat, and then we'll see some variations on the hi-hat. One, two, three, four. Just regular. And then we'll change it up. SO that slowed down would look something like this. All it is, is a. One, two, one, two, three, four. So slowed down, it would look something like this. That's a variation on the hi-hat. And of course there's so many different things you could do. As you also noticed, I used my left foot, and I opened the trap, which makes a sound like what you just heard. Just, and that can be incorporated into any beat. And it adds a really cool, really cool noise. It can be like a slice you know, or you could leave it open for really heavy rock beat. So when that, when next, that's just one variation on the hi-hat. Of course you can just fool around with that for, I mean just forever if you keep learning. So now we'll do a little variation on the snare. And that of course is just a basic roll. Something that is a really good thing to have in your tool kit. Which is basically, it comes back to holding the sticks very, very loose. And it's really hard to achieve a roll when you have stiff wrists, stiff arms. Because that's very, very, very rigid and tough to do. So we're going to hold them loose and let them just kind of hit the drum and add a little bit of support. So it's. And so once again, it goes back to holding the sticks loosely, but also adding a little bit of downward pressure to get that roll. And so all I did was just rolled one stick. Just. And that's how you achieve that. So finally, we saw a variation on the hi-hat, a variation on the snare. And now we'll just do a little variation with the kick drum just to give you an idea of something you can start on. And of course just take it in your own direction. So here's a little variation on the kick drum. So that's just basic kick drum pattern. Something you can just play with all your own. Add more beats, take more away. And so finally, we're going to get to all the rest of these toms. Just to learn a basic feel, something you can do that's very easy. Just go all the way around the drums, and that will take you to the ride cymbal, which you can use to keep time exactly like the hi-hat. So we'll just start with our regular beat and once again, just use whatever speed you want. You can go faster, I suggest going slower, once again to learn as solidly as possible. So let's go ahead, and I'm going to start with our regular beat. And I'm just going to go all the way around the drums, nice and slow and in time. So then we'll get, we'll end up here on the ride.