Most rock music is based on the 8th note pulse. Playing 8th notes on the hi-hat all the time is almost a given for every beginner rock drummer. Much like the bass drum and the snare drum, you can use the hi-hat to emphasize parts from different instruments. Vocal, piano and guitar parts, which are usually higher pitched, really benefit from a drummer who’s able to complement their rhythmic output with syncopated rhythms on the hi-hat. With that in mind, Jared Falk designed this lesson to teach you how to free up your hi-hat hand to play whatever 8th note- and 16th note-based rhythms. If you’re a fan of Carter Beauford‘s broken hi-hat stuff, you’re going to love what this free drum lesson will do for your drumming. More »

With Christmas 2011 just around the corner, Jared Falk, Dave Atkinson, and the rest of the crew at DrumLessons.com decided to wish you all the best for this holiday season with a very special and unique version of the Christmas song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”. Who knew Santa could play the drums? He does have a lot of free time on his hands. More »

The single paradiddle is one of the Percussive Arts Society’s (P.A.S.) seven essential drum rudiments, along with the single stroke roll, double stroke roll, multiple bounce roll, five stroke roll, flam, and drag ruff. It’s also one of the most used drum rudiments around the drum set. In this free drum lesson, Jared Falk teaches you a couple of great sounding drum beats and drum fills that make good use of the single paradiddle, and that you can use as inspiration for coming up with your own patterns. More »

In this free video drum lesson, Jared Falk teaches you how to play a half-time shuffle drum beat known as the “Rosanna Shuffle”. This half-time shuffle drum beat is one of the most recognizable and essential shuffle drum beats out there. The “Rosanna Shuffle” is a challenging pattern to perform accurately, but with Jared’s step-by-step approach you’ll be playing it in no time. More »

The single stroke roll is the most basic and essential drum rudiment out there. It’s the most used as well, so it’s essential to have good dynamic control and ability to play it at various tempos. Increasing the speed at what you’re able to play the single stroke roll can be quite troublesome and frustrating, especially if you don’t have the right collection of exercises to help you achieve that. Hence, in this free drum lesson, Jared Falk teaches ten different exercises that you can use to improve your single stroke roll speed, no matter the level at what you are right now. More »

The dragadiddle #2 (also known as drag paradiddle #2) is the third and last pattern from the drag family of drum rudiments that incorporates the single paradiddle. The dragadiddle #2 is heavily based on the dragadiddle #1. In this free drum lesson, rudimental-pro Lionel Duperron takes you through the various steps needed to master the dragadiddle #2, and shows you how effective the dragadiddle #2 can be when applied to the drum set. More »

The dragadiddle #1 (also known as drag paradiddle #1) is the second drum rudiment from the drag family of drum rudiments that incorporates the single paradiddle. In this free video drum lesson, Lionel Duperron shows you exactly how to play and practice the dragadiddle #1. Once he’s done teaching you the basics behind the dragadiddle #1, Lionel makes his way to the drum set to show you how to apply the dragadiddle #1 to drum beats and drum fills. More »

Understanding and playing polyrhythms can be a real challenge if you don’t have the best set of tools to do so. You can use traditional music notation to help you out, but that can actually make your learning process that much harder. So, with this free drum lesson, Dave Atkinson teaches you how to use and decipher the notation from the Time Unit Box System (TUBS), a great system for simplifying the relationships between complex rhythms, and how to expand on the polyrhythms he’ll be teaching you about in this series of free drum lessons on polyrhythms. More »

A polyrhythm is a combination of two or more rhythms played simultaneously while moving at the same linear tempo. So generally speaking, two rhythms are considered a polyrhythm if the number one is their only common divisor. In this free drum lesson, Dave Atkinson explains what’s a polyrhythm and shows you how a polyrhythm sounds on the drum set. More »

The single dragadiddle is one of the three drum rudiments from the drag family that incorporates the single paradiddle into its sticking pattern. In this free drum lesson, Lionel Duperron teaches you how to play the single dragadiddle and how to incorporate it into drum beats and drum fills. More »