DRUMS & PERCUSSION

DRUMS and PERCUSSION

This is a great video on how to hold (or grip) the drum sticks.

Here are more, very beginning snare drum lessons:

1  Stick Grip and basic strokes

2 How to count quarter notes :-)

3 More on basic quarter notes

4 Quarter & half with notes and rests

Snare Drum Rudiments - Coolio

This is my favorite rudiment site. Each rudiment is displayed clear and simple.

    Here is a printable version of snare drum rudiments.

This site has big print versions and recordings of all rudiments.

    Here is an advanced version of our Tardy Cadence #1.

The double stroke. This is the most important and fundamental rudiment. 

This is the "check pattern" exercise. Do on your drum set, or just on one drum. Here's the written version of it. Fun as snot :-)

     Here's the US Army Field Band Percussion players showing how to play both keyboard instruments and various drums. Really good stuff!

                        Jazz Drumming

  I love these studies on using brushes on snare drum. Smooth as silk!

Here's a nice basic swing (Jazz) beat pattern for drum set.

Here's another way of thinking about a swinging Jazz beat.

And yet a third good video on Jazz drumming basics. It has more advance concepts in the last half if you understand the previous videos.

In this video, the person has a great accent but also explains basic Jazz drum notation and how to read it. This is the most advanced. If you can play the above drum grooves, move on to learning these.

This one has a focus on New Orleans style drumming. Start at one minute for clarity.

Bernard Purdie is a great funk, soul, and shuffle drummer. Listen to what he does in the video. Great N' Orleans style snare and very good dynamics. Pay attention to his nice buzz (bounce) rolls.

This lesson describes how N' Orleans drummers use the 2nd line 3 -2 clave pattern. Great for just snare drum or the complete set.

                    Other Drumming

Nice and concise video with both playing and written examples of 22 basic drum beats.

Bongos are amazing, especially in Latin Music. Here is an easy Mambo rhythm for bongos.

Much Latin drumming is based around the Clave patterns. Here they are. To play Latin music either on traps or in a percussion section, you MUST understand basic clave. Clave is the King when it comes to percussion. Verdad?

This is an excellent Mambo Rhythm on trap set. You can also learn any of the parts individually if you are in a percussion section. Easy Peasy! 

And here we have a nice Bolero with a few variations. Bolero are perfect for slow, mellow grooves.

This is a great grove to use for Jazz, Rock, Blues, and even Reggae, the Shuffle Beat.

Marco is a good teacher. Here's his version of good dance styles (rock, disco, funk...) with a focus on the high hat. Simple yet effective.

These are good, basic drum fills. They are rock types, but you can play them in any music, Jazz, Reggae, et.   

  Great Reggae drums here. Don't make fun of his hair! It's all about beat 3. Listen.

Here's one of the greatest drum battles of all time :-)

Nice, simple and direct lesson on Latin Drumming.

    Good and understandable Afro Cuban drum groove based on a double paradiddle.

How's the understanding of your hi hat? Check this out. And this is more in depth regarding all things hi hat.

Soloing on Drums

There are millions of lessons regarding soloing. This is how to hear the melody WHILE you "take a solo". If you can sing it you can play it.

The original song, Three Card Molly. Now, see how Elvin Jones explains creating a solo.