A rhythm section provides rhythmic texture and pulse to the music. They serve as a reference for the rest of the band and can be found in virtually every style of music. The instruments used in a rhythm section vary with style of music and era. Drum set, bass guitar, piano and guitar are the more frequent ones. However, no matter the style, the drum set and bass guitar are the core instruments of any rhythm session. More »
On the heels of a very successful Kickstarter project launch, the one and only Cobus Potgieter pays a visit to the DrumLessons.com studio to talk about The Cobus Method, his YouTube Band Project and to play some intense and creative drum solos and duets with Jared Falk. More »
In this free live drum lesson, Sean Lang–drummer for melodic death-metal band First Reign and an instructor at DrumLessons.com–teaches you to play the traditional blast beat and the hammer blast beat. He also goes about a couple variations on those blast beats and exercises for increasing your blast-beat speed and endurance. More »
Not every gig requires a full drum-set. Weddings, restaurant and corporate gigs are a couple of the venues where a drum set might be overkill. Whether it’s the space the gig is being held on or sound and space limitations, there are various reasons to dismiss bands who have a drum set player as their only percussionist. This is where knowing to play hand drums can come quite in handy. You see, hand drums take almost no space at all and are way quieter when compared to a drum set. Knowing to play hand drums will get you all kinds of different gigs you wouldn’t get otherwise. Due to its usefulness to drum set players, Mike Michalkow put together this free live drum lesson to teach the basics of djembe and cajon and how to use them to reproduce drum set patterns. More »
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 »
