Popular Rock Drumming Grooves To Spice Up Your Drumming
Once you have had a chance to go through the learn to play drums and how to play drums articles on this website, you can move on to the eighth note drum beats covered in this drum lesson. They are popular rock drumming grooves that you can use when playing a wide variety of drumming gigs.
This first pattern is similar to the original rock beat covered in the learn to play drums lesson. The big difference is that the hi-hats are played as eighth notes. This means, you have to count the eighth note out loud as the foundation of the beat (one, and, two, and, three, and, four, and). Play all of these counts on the hi-hats, and then add in the bass drum on one and three, and the snare drum on two and four.
This second beat mixing things up by adding extra bass drum and snare drum shots on the "and" counts. Be sure you continue to count out loud as you play this one. It will be tricky to get used to playing the added shots on the "and" counts.
The first half of this next beat is really busy. The hi-hats are synced up with another limb for the first five eighth note counts, so really slow it down if you are having trouble keeping it steady. The last thing you want to do is sacrafice steady timing and control for speed. Start by mastering the beat, and speed will come with time.
This last groove takes the bass drum off the three-count for the first time. It is only played on the one count and the "and" of three, so be careful to play it exactly as written. There is also an added snare drum shot on the and of four. Take it slowly, and you shouldn't have too much trouble with it.
Ready to learn how to play drum fills? Check out the drum lesson on rock drumming fills to get started. Be sure to bookmark the drumlessons.com website so you can come back and take in all of the valuable drum lesson content.