The pataflafla is one of the drum rudiments that’s most frown upon. Many drum set players perceive it as useless and musically irrelevant outside the realm of snare drumming. If you’re one of them, we hope to change your mind through this free drum lesson. In it, you’ll find four good examples of how to use the pataflafla for coming up with cool sounding and creative drum fills. More »

Hi-hat barking is a type of open hi-hat technique where the open sound has a very short duration. Hi-hat barks are usually played as 16th notes, 16th note triplets or 32nd notes and are great for playing accents and shots with a band, as well as for ending songs. Hi-hat barking can be found in many different styles of music, but it’s in funk that it shines the most. In this free drum lesson Jared Falk teaches five drum beats that make use of this technique in very creative ways. More »

In this video, Sean Lang walks you through the drums, cymbals, hardware and drumsticks he uses while gigging and recording free drum lessons for DrumLessons.com. He discusses some of the aspects he likes the most about his drum gear and why he chose to use it in the first place. More »

Heavy-metal drummers are usually perceived as one-dimensional musicians that lack groove and dynamic control. Heavy-metal’s need for speed and volume tends to overshadow the highly technical and musical persona that’s within the double-pedal loving, speed-freak known as heavy-metal drummer. This drum solo showcases exactly how there’s more to heavy-metal drummers than meets the ear. With some very cool rhythmic ideas and dynamic contours, Sean Lang tells a story of his own in the form of a drum solo that’s worth watching and, most important of all, hearing. More »

Breakbeats are drum patterns taken from sections of songs during which the melody “breaks” to allow the drummer or other musicians of the rhythm section to solo in a groove-based style. Breakbeats are characterized by the heavy use of syncopated figures and can be found in numerous styles of music nowadays, from which hip-hop and drum’n’bass stand out the most. More »

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. More »

Practicing drums is the single biggest issue almost every drummer faces since the invention of the drum set in the early 1900s. The growth of population density in cities around the world has only aggravated it since most citizens have to live in apartments. This makes it almost impossible to practice in an apartment with an acoustic drum set. Let’s face it, drums are loud and obnoxious. Unless you’re trying to get evicted from the building you’re living in, you won’t want to bust out your acoustic drum set for a long, loud practice session. In order to solve this age-old issue, over the years many companies have developed products that allow drummers to practice at home by keeping noise levels to a minimum. More »

The Roots are an American hip-hop band that formed in 1987. The song Aaron Edgar covers in this video is called “Boom!” and is taken from The Roots’ 2004 release The Tipping Point. Before pressing play get your favorite drink, sit back and relax while you watch Aaron Edgar groove and play a little drum solo at the end of the tune. More »

A metric modulation increases or decreases the tempo at what you’re playing, in relation to the note value setting the pulse. You can think of a metric modulation as a rhythmic illusion. This concept is quite common in classical music but has made its way to drum-set playing through guys like Tony Williams and Vinnie Colaiuta. Applying this concept to the drum set can seem quite daunting if not explained correctly. However, through simple methods, Aaron Edgar shows you exactly how to do a metric modulation in this video. If you’re not sure about how to use a metric modulation, you will be after watching this free drum lesson. More »

Latin drumming is an umbrella term used to describe the rhythmic vocabulary developed for the drum set and hand percussion in various Latin American and Caribbean cultures. The melding of jazz with Afro-Cuban music in the 1940s–through guys like jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and percussionists/ vocalists Chano Pozo and Machito–and with the bossa nova in the early 1960s–through jazz musicians Charlie Byrd, Stan Getz and Brazilian composers João Gilberto, António Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes–introduced a whole new pallet of sounds and rhythms that were, for the most part, foreign (no pun intended) to mass North American and European audiences. More »