Almost every style of music has been influenced by the shuffle in one form or another. There are rock, jazz and blues shuffles; funk has them and even Jamaican music has been highly influenced by them. Learning how to play shuffles properly is tricky. Shuffles can be technically challenging and hard to play with the right amount of feel. That’s why we put this free live drum lesson together for you. In it, Jerry Adolphe teaches you what he believes to be the essential shuffle patterns and shares a wealth of information on how to play great sounding shuffles. More »

Webster defines essential as something that’s of the utmost importance. Like any other art form, drumming has a big set of essentials one must grasp before working on their own voice on the instrument. It’s also imperative to learn them if you’re serious about gigging and playing professionally. In this free live drum lesson, Jared Falk teaches seven of the most essential drum beats you’ll ever encounter. These are patterns any drummer should know how to play. More »

Drum rudiments are nothing more than rhythmic patterns. You can play around with their note values, dynamics and orchestration. They’re killer for enhancing overall hand and foot technique and can be used quite effectively within drum beats, drum fills and drum solos. The problem most students face with drum rudiment apprenticeship is knowing what to with them. Sticking with a drum rudiment on a practice pad can get boring, redundant and old pretty fast. To get you motivated with drum rudiments, Jared Falk wrote this free drum lesson to show different ways in which you can use the five stroke roll – one of the 40 drum rudiments – within drum fills. More »

One of the biggest issues drummers face on a regular basis is getting a good sound out of their drum set. Drum Tuning is as much of a science as it is an art form. The more you do it the better you get at it and at understanding how to influence your drums’ sound. In order to increase your learning curve and broaden your tuning horizons with new ideas, Casey Drums’ owner Jason Kliewer recorded this free live drum lesson to share his knowledge and experience on drum tuning. More »

The flam accent was one of the 13 patterns chosen to take part in the first collection of essential drum rudiments. In 1936 it was included in the 26 American Drum Rudiments and in 1984 in the 40 International Drum Rudiments. Due to its relevance in the world of rudimental drumming and applicability around the drum set, Jared Falk created this free drum lesson to show you exactly how to use the flam accent creatively within drum fills. More »

The time you spend practicing hand and foot technique, drum rudiments, drum beats and fills boils down to the moments you apply it all to music. Playing along to music is one of the coolest ways to practice and spend a hell of a good time behind a drum set. It helps develop your skill set a lot better because of its fun factor. However, there has to be a more structured approach to practicing with drum play-alongs; you have to do more than just jamming along. In this free live drum lesson Dave Atkinson addresses this topic by teaching how to use drum play-alongs and songs for improving virtually every aspect of your drumming. More »

In this free drum lesson, Jared Falk discloses the result of the social challenge he put himself through: playing a single paradiddle between his left limbs while executing a double paradiddle between his right limbs in a week. He also takes this opportunity to show you how to play this challenging pattern in 4/4 and 6/4 time signatures. More »

The flat foot technique is used for achieving higher speeds with either a single or a double pedal. It’s quite popular among the heavy-metal drumming community but can be used within any style of music you see fit. In this free live drum lesson Sean Lang goes over the flat foot technique and shares tips and exercises that will make you a master of this technique in no time. More »

Drumming is more of a long-distance track event than a sprint. Thus, endurance is the key to success. Keeping a steady practice schedule and a focused and energetic mindset are what separates the men from the boys. However, this is all highly dependable on one thing: motivation. Without it, you’ll never achieve your goals. It’s hard to keep a consistent and high level of motivation throughout our lives. Nonetheless, there are tools one can use to keep high spirits. In this video, Jared Falk discusses how to use social achievement and accountability to increase your motivation and drumming skills. More »

Finger control technique is mostly associated with speed drumming. It’s a very important hand technique to practice because of its use in blast beats and fast ride and hi-hat patterns for funk and jazz. Very fast drum fills and patterns that rely on quick bursts of strokes are highly dependable on this technique as well. So if you’re going to practice the finger control technique you have to do it accurately from the get go, since it can take long to get good at it. With that in mind, this free live drum lesson with Jared Falk on the helm was designed to give you plenty of tips and exercises for getting your finger control technique to where you want it to be. More »