Nowadays, heavy-metal drumming is mostly associated with very powerful and fast runs of double bass patterns. However, this is not always the case. Double bass drumming in heavy-metal is used quite often to complement guitar riffs, which gives birth to sporadic bursts of broken patterns. It’s important to practice stock broken double bass drum patterns like the ones Sean Lang wrote for this free heavy-metal drum lesson. It will help you build a solid rhythmic foundation with your feet that’ll enable you to complement the most typical guitar riffs out there.
The five heavy-metal drum beats you’ll find within this free heavy-metal drum lesson are 16th note based. They’re simple in nature but will hinder you if you’re not careful. Like always, start practicing them at a slow tempo. Make sure the bass drum strokes are consistent sounding, evenly spaced and that they line up perfectly with the hands. Bump up the tempo on your metronome only when you feel very comfortable with the speed at what you’ve been practicing them.
As soon as you’ve become very comfortable with these heavy-metal drum beats and have played them at various tempos, it’s time to work on your snare hand independence. Check the free heavy-metal drum lesson “Heavy-Metal Snare Drum Comping” to work on that right away. If you’re more interested in checking out some cool heavy-metal drum fills, move on to the free heavy-metal drum lesson “Beginner Heavy-Metal Drum Fills.” For more broken double bass beats watch “Intermediate Broken Double Bass Beats.”