This article follows on from the previous ariticle about the 3 ‘M’ Words which apply to learning a new pattern on the drums. You may want to recap the concepts on that page as a point of reference. See Creative approaches to drumming – the 3 ‘M’ words The... Read More
On Saturday 25 October we are joined by drummer Robert Castelli (The Boom Quartet) for a special workshop on Groove & Independence. It’s suitable for all levels and ages – find out more here: Boom! Robert Castelli – October 2014 More info / Book... Read More
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 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
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
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
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
Some of the most commonly misinterpreted drumming terms are covered in this mini-dictionary of drumming definitions. We’ve chosen one drumming-related word for each letter of the alphabet for this drumming dictionary. Learn these if you’re starting out on... Read More
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
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
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
A method for playing better double strokes Continuing our series of articles about drum rudiments, today we’re going to apply an interesting creative twist to the double stroke. We often get asked about technique and control, especially when it concerns playing... Read More
