Heavy-metal drumming is heavily (no pun intended) based on powerful, fast and energetic patterns. It can be tricky to add groove and dynamics amidst the wall of sound generated by machine-like drumming. Breaking up the ride patterns you play with the leading hand is a great way to spice up and compliment the music you’re playing along to. In this free heavy-metal drum lesson, Sean Lang teaches five ride patterns that you can apply to your heavy-metal drum beats to make them groove a lot more.
It’s important to practice these heavy-metal drum beats at various tempos. Don’t just master a pattern at a given tempo before moving on to other things. Heavy metal is primarily a fast paced style of music, but it can be played at slower tempos. Going through a broad range of tempos ensures your ability to perform these heavy-metal drum beats at any given speed. Now, don’t forget to start slow and work your way up as you get comfortable with the tempos you’re practicing at. Play around with different snare drum patterns as you practice each ride pattern, much like Sean Lang did in the video. Watch the heavy-metal free drum lesson “Snare Drum Comping” to get some ideas on what to play.
Once you’re done with the drum beats from this free drum lesson, you can keep furthering this concept on your own by watching the free drum lesson “Broken Hi-Hat Concepts.” That free drum lesson is killer for developing your ability to play creatively and freely within the realm of 16th note ride patterns. Take the concept taught in that free drum lesson and apply to what Sean Lang taught you here. If you’re not interested in taking on this concept as of yet, you can always take the ride pattern from this video and move them around the drum set for coming up with fresh and cool sounding heavy-metal drum beats.