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 »
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 »
In the last 10 years the Internet developed like crazy. We’re literally just one click away from talking to someone on the other side of the globe. Thousands of communities have come together to share knowledge and evolve. This is the biggest strength of the Internet: people working together and sharing knowledge. However, there are those who’d rather destroy than help build. In this free drum lesson, Jared Falk shows how you can build your confidence and fight back detractors with your favorite drum patterns. More »
The drum set is an instrument that’s primarily focused on playing rhythm. Rhythmic possibilities, although finite, are pretty much endless in the sense that no one can play every one of them in a lifetime. Still, learning as much as you can about different rhythmic combinations and possibilities is still well worth it due to their musical value. Having the ability to play different rhythms will greatly enhance your musicianship and the music you play along to. You’ll be able to complement it better and be a lot more creative and expressive. In this free live drum lesson, Mike Michalkow teaches how to spice up your rhythmic vocabulary on the hi-hat while playing rock-based drum beats with broken hi-hat patterns. More »
Along with rhythm and orchestration, dynamics are the main tools a drummer has for coming up with different ideas on the drum set. Playing accented patterns on the hi-hat is a great way to instill variety and expressiveness to whatever you perform on the kit. It’s also great for complementing parts from other musicians. In this free live drum lesson we’ll be taking a look at 10 drum beats that include different accented hi-hat patterns. Dave Atkinson exemplifies how to break them down between different instruments and how to play them using drum rudiments and with double bass going continuously underneath. More »
Odd-time signatures have been part of heavy-metal drumming for quite some time now. It’s especially easy to find them in heavy-metal styles of music like progressive heavy-metal. The music of bands like Meshuggah, Opeth, Dream Theater and Tool are a great example of that. Due to its rather important role in heavy-metal drumming and music, Sean Lang wrote eight odd-time signature drum beats for this heavy-metal free drum lesson. The odd-time signature heavy-metal drum beats are in 7/4 and 5/4. More »
Groove is playing the right notes in the right place at the expected time. Groove cannot be notated nor summoned but can be practiced and felt. Developing groove behind the drum set takes time and dedication. Playing along to a lot of music and with good musicians and practicing the exercises Calum Rees wrote especially for this free live drum lesson will help straighten your groove out. More »
In this free heavy-metal drum lesson, Sean Lang continues to explore the world of broken double bass drum beats but on a more intermediate level. The heavy-metal drum beats you’ll find within are 32nd note based, so expect to be way more challenged than you were with the beginner broken heavy-metal double bass drum beats. More »
A blast beat is basically a single stroke roll broken up between the snare drum and the bass drum, with the hi-hat/ride hand playing unison strokes with the bass drum. In this free heavy metal drum lesson, Sean Lang teaches you to play skank beats and the most common blast beats out there: the traditional blast and the hammer blast.
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