The famous “Amen Break” drum groove
How to play the Amen Break. The Amen Break is a 4-bar loop which lasts for about 6-seconds, taken from a track called “Amen Brother” recorded in 1969.
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The drum rudiments
The drum rudiments A guide to Drum Rudiments Think of the drum rudiments as the “building blocks” of drumming. Their purpose is something roughly equivalent to a pianist or a guitarist learning and practicing their musical scales on their instrument. The... Read More
When Flams Meet Paradiddles
When you’ve got to grips with the basic form of the main drum rudiments you could try out a bit of cross-breeding. Hybrid rudiments can be a lot of fun. Take a couple of old friends of ours, the Flam and the Paradiddle. Fuse them together and you get the... Read More
Developing grooves in 12/8
The 12/8 time signature Following on from our previous article about the basics of constructing a groove in a triplet time feel, this article takes the idea a step further and suggests some ways to play grooves in the 12/8 time signature. 12/8 is an example of what is... Read More
Online drum lessons 2012 – editor’s picks
Traditionally at this time of year we review our picks of free online drum lessons. These are some of best bits from the drumming archives: Popular topics in 2012 Most viewed topic: Practice Routine Topic with most social shares: Drum Techniques Most commented topic:... Read More
Using beat displacement to create drum beats
By altering familiar drum beats using permutations and variations you can create new drum beats without a huge amount of effort. Take a drum beat or phrase you’ve got “in the bag” (one that you can play without even thinking about it), and alter it... Read More
Internal Dynamics
Dynamics are an important part of playing drums. There are two basic ways to use dynamics in your playing; short dynamics that apply to a specific note, or long dynamics which apply to a series or group of notes across time. “Short” dynamics A loud note... Read More
Triceratops Groove
This groove is based on the “Triceratops Triplets” idea we covered in the previous article. See the original post on Triceratops Triplets to get familiar with these. If you’ve followed through the previous post, the result is a pattern using three... Read More
Triceratops Triplets
This is a ‘dinosaur’ of a challenge based around groups of 3 notes, hence the name Triceratops Triplets. It is deceptively simple when broken down into its component pieces, but as these components get layered the challenge develops some interesting... Read More
Spicing up Paradiddles
Paradiddles can add a fun and unique sound to your drumming. We’re going to explore how to spice up paradiddles and move them from the practice pad onto the drum kit. A paradiddle is two single strokes then a double stroke. When paradiddles are played after each... Read More