If you are a beginner looking for a perfect place to start learning more about drums, this post is just for you.

 Learning to play drums through various drum lessons platforms shouldn’t leave a hole in your wallet.

 There are some great sources to learn to play drums; some are free.

 The best thing about it is that you can be anywhere since the internet has made it possible as long as you have everything you need to play.

 Today, we will go over the best drum lesson platforms, both paid and free.

Mike’s Lessons

Mikeslessons.com is run by one of the most accomplished drum educators, Mike Johnston. I believe this is one of the best places to start if you are still new to drumming or even want to polish some of your skills.

Mike has a fascinating personality and is very interactive with his audience. In addition, he is an excellent teacher and knows how to convey knowledge.

To unlock all content, you must become a paid member. However, it is well worth it since you will have many topics and courses available. All of them are entry-level, and after completion, you will become a master of that topic.

Mike’s Lessons is the best for drummers who want a more personal and individualized approach to drumming lessons. Also, Mike has weekly lessons with all of the paid members and always assigns homework for them to do. This is a great way to learn and grow.

Drumeo

Drumeo is maybe the best option for total beginner drummers. It has a lovely series of Drumeo’s beginner lessons which are excellent for newbie drummers looking to learn fundamentals or a base.

On top of everything, Jared Falk is a great teacher and can connect with new drummers and teach them everything that has to do with drumming in the easiest way possible. Drumeo has a channel, the “world’s largest collection of free drum lesson videos,” full of free and paid lessons.

These are one of the most valuable lessons you can find on the internet today, and they cover every single topic you can imagine. If you are searching for a solution to your problem, visit their channel, and I guarantee that you will, most of the time, find everything you need.

In addition, if you are a drummer looking for personal instruction, check out the Drumeo Edge course. It is only 240 dollars per year, and you will have access to more than a hundred courses and lessons dedicated to making you the best drummer possible.

Drum Ambition

Drum Ambition was initially designed to be the perfect source of drumming knowledge for beginner drummers. They have built a curriculum on over 20 years of teaching various students across the globe. Their lessons are fun but educational and will transform you into a complete new drummer.

Drum Ambition has more than 70 videos about drumming. Their homepage has a link that leads to 45 minutes of free content, which you can watch immediately. However, some content is paid. You have an option to start with as low as 19 dollars per month, and you will gain unlimited access to all 3 Modules.

The name of the previously mentioned plan is a Solo Plan. Now, if you are looking for a personalized approach to learning, check out their Pro Plan, which costs 29 dollars per month. You can even pay 199 dollars annually to save more than 100 dollars.

Virtual Drumming

Virtual Drumming is a good combination of audio samples and a virtual drumset with music notation. This combination has shown to be one of the best for easy learning of the beats and rudiments.

You can play their audio sample, follow the music notation, or watch a pair of sticks play the beat. Their website offers various lessons and is for all levels. They even have lessons for three classic songs: “Smoke on the Water,” “Hold the Line,” and “Roxanne.”

Virtual Drumming’s website is also one of the best sources to learn music notation if you are a complete newbie.

DrumTraxApp

DrumTraxAPp is a platform run by several drummers performing in the Gospel drumming scene.

The idea behind the app’s name is that the platform offers a sheer number of drumless tracks you can be supplied with. In addition, there are also numerous lessons covering everything from rudiments, chops, shedding, and performing.

Teachers have a unique approach to the teaching process, and I think they are hilarious. There isn’t a single chance that you aren’t going to laugh at least three times for every single lesson you watch. I believe the platform is also excellent for somebody who wants to learn to play complex patterns and chops.

180 Drums

180 Drums is very similar to Drumeo, mentioned earlier in the article. The platform is a collection or, better to say, a library of lessons taught by famous drummers. It is run by multiple drummers who are great at teaching and only offer high-quality drum lessons.

There are more than 100 lessons, some of which can’t be found anywhere other than on 180 Drums. Every week, teachers add new classes, so you can constantly improve and learn new stuff or improve something that isn’t going for you so well.

There isn’t any course on the platform, but the lessons are designed systematically depending on your skill level. Everybody from beginners, intermediate and professional drummers can find something useful for him on this site.

Dave Weckl School

Some say he is a drumming Encyclopedia, but one is sure that Dave has spent his whole life developing different sounds and styles that inspired countless drummers worldwide. His platform features everything from technique, setup, musicality, and tuning.

It is an excellent option for drummers of all ages since it has tutorials for beginners, intermediate, and advanced ones. If you purchase a membership, you will get access to a private Facebook group where Dave teaches everything you need to know about drumming with his staff and famous artists.

You can exchange your feedback with Dave and other professionals, and occasionally there are webinars where you can interact with David in real-time.

Online Drummer

OnlineDrummer is one of the best free options to learn to play drums online. What is best about it is it offers more than 500 video and sheet music lessons, ensuring there is material for both beginners and advanced drummers. 

Maybe the website seems a bit old-fashioned, but don’t let the looks distract you from its essence, which is to learn to play drums for free and online. You can search for all kinds of lessons with PDFs. 

In addition, they have an excellent YouTube channel with a step-by-step approach, making it impossible not to learn. If you are suspicious about their legitimacy, you can hop to Google Reviews to see how other people rank their service.

Drum Channel

Drum Channel is founded by Don Lombardi, who is also a founder of Drum Workshop, Drum Channel’s YouTube lessons, live performances, interviews, and more.

He featured legendary drummers like Mick Fleetwood, Neil Peart, and Sheila E. Drum Channel offers a paid membership. It has a premium lesson library which starts from 10 dollars per month.

Premium membership includes hundreds of lessons and access to 12 courses by famous artists. You will learn to play drums directly from Chad Smit, a Red Hot Chili Peppers member.

YouTube

YouTube is an excellent source of information for learning just about anything. And you know what the best thing about it is? It’s completely free. Some great YouTube channels teach just about anything related to drums. 

Here are some of the best YouTube channels to learn drumming online and entirely for free(keep in mind that some of these channels are already mentioned since they belong to previously outlined platforms in this article):

1. 180 Drums – contains hundreds of lessons and is excellent for all drummers.
2. Drumeo – features tons of education and is the leader in online drum lessons. 
3. Alex Ribchester – maybe the channel is a bit small, but on the contrary, a lot of content comes out regularly.
4. Mike Johnston – is the owner of MikesLessons.com. There aren’t many free videos on his channel since he prefers to lock most of his videos for premium users on his website.
5. The Drum Professor – this channel is excellent since it doesn’t focus on specific aspects of drumming but puts more spotlight on breaking down the parts of popular songs.
6. Stephen Taylor – he is usually a guest teacher on Drumeo. However, his channel is packed with incredible drumming content.
7. Vic Firth – this company is a leader in making drumsticks, and their channel is filled with excellent drumming content.

Other than that, I can also recommend Siros Vaziri, a drummer who gained all his popularity on Instagram by simply posting easy-to-consume drum tutorials, and Jeff Randall, who also has a YouTube channel filled with helpful content and material to learn drumming entirely for free.

How hard is it to learn drums?

Drumming is a challenging skill to learn. It will take you 3 to 6 months to learn drum basics. But, for getting comfortable behind a drum set it will take you around 5 years.

By that time many people give up on drumming altogether, but there’s no reason why you should find it difficult if you follow some rules.

Some people believe that buying expensive drums makes them easier to play, while others say cheap is best when starting. 

There isn’t much of an argument against buying cheap equipment at first, as long as it’s well made and playable. However, inexpensive drums have come with poor hardware design, which causes frustration for beginners.

In this article, we are going to talk about different drum techniques that professional drummers use.

Behind every extraordinary drummer you like, there is a substantial amount of work on these techniques. 

Of course, you don’t need to master them all, but we suggest you utilize them in your playing to achieve a specific sound, speed, groove, and all other drumming elements.

Here are all the drum techniques we are going to discuss in this article:

• The Posture
• Different grips
• Basic strokes
• Wrist control
• Finger control
• Moeller stroke
• Foot technique
• Rudiments
• Drum fills
• Coordination
• Dynamic
• Staying relaxed
• Counting out loud

Before we dive into techniques, let’s talk about sitting behind the drum kit.

The posture

Almost all drummers suffer from back problems. As a young drummer, you don’t think about it, but as time goes by, you get fearful because a back injury can move you away from playing the drums.

If you are a beginner drummer, why not do it the right way and avoid risks.

The correct posture implements relaxed shoulders where your trapezius muscle is completely relaxed. Also, the more you bend during playing, the more pressure you put on, the lower part of the back.

Sit behind the drum kit at 90 degree angle, put your hands beside you and make sure your shoulders are down.

Now raise the forearm and put drumsticks into your hands. Ok, you are ready to start. Let’s move on…

Different grips

Now, when you know how to sit properly, it’s time to learn how to hold the drum sticks properly.

It’s time to choose the proper grip:

• Matched (German and American)
• French
• Traditional

Professional drummers mix all these grips but to start, use one while you practice others.

Matched (German and American)

Matched grip has two variations: German and American grip.

German grip

The fulcrum is either between a thumb and the index finger or a thumb and the middle finger. Next, take the stick, make sure everything is relaxed and the drumstick has enough space.

Now, try to find the balance point – part of the stick where it bounces the most. Palms need to face down, and you should be able to see the bottom of the stick.

American grip

American grip is a changed version of the German grip. Drummers who propagate this grip suggest that your fulcrum should be between a thumb and the middle finger while the index finger serves for support and stick coordination. The remaining fingers hold the stick with cheekbones.

The main difference, however, is in the wrist position. Instead of facing down, palms face each other, just a little more than in German grip. Also, the bottom of the stick is in the center of the palm rather than peeking from the side.

French grip

The French grip is known as the main grip for finger control. Drummers mostly use this grip to get to a specific tempo that other grips or wrist can’t achieve.

In French grip, the fulcrum is between the thumb and the index finger. Thus, palms are fully facing each other, and thumbs are placed on top of the drumsticks.

Traditional grip

Traditional grip is also known as orthodox or underhand grip. It is widely used in jazz music. It’s the only grip where hands are not matched. The right hand uses a German or American grip, while the grip in the left hand is different.

Here is how to properly hold the stick in the traditional grip. First, face your palm inwards and put the drumstick between your palm; the index finger goes between the middle and a ring finger.

This kind of grip allows a drumstick to hit the drum at a different angle than in matched, which causes a different sound, the more refined, which is precisely why drummers use this grip for grooves with a lot of ghost notes.

Basic strokes

Although it’s boring as hell to practice this, please have patience. It will pay off for you, we promise. It’s an essential exercise to develop your wrist technique and dynamic.

There are four basic strokes, and each stroke consists of two drumstick positions, a starting and an ending, and only one note.

• Downstroke
• Tap stroke
• Upstroke
• Full stroke

Downstroke

In the starting position the drumstick stands vertical. So you need to hit a drum and leave the stick an inch away from it. Pay attention to stick height after you hit a drum.

Tap stroke

It’s effortless. You stay in the ending position of the downstroke, so the inch away from the drum, and while you’re there, you need to hit the drum as quietly as you can.

Upstroke

After a tap, please do the same quiet hit but raise the drumstick in the starting position of a downstroke, all the way up, so it stands vertical.

Full stroke

Now, while your stick stands vertical, hit the drum and put it back in the same position.

Ok, this is the full circle splitted into separate steps. Try to connect them all and speed up after some time, but tap and upstrokes stay quiet.

Wrist control

You generally have more control with the wrist than with your fingers, so the wrist is more used for stick control than fingers, especially in slow tempos.

The essential and challenging part is staying relaxed. If you want to master wrist control, we suggest implementing four basic strokes into your playing and practice moving around the set.

Leave fingers for later, and try not to use them so you can get complete wrist control.

With the wrist, you get a controlled stroke, while with fingers, it’s more of a rebound stroke.

Finger control

Remember that your fingers and hands can be conditioned for speed just like the rest of your body. Like with upstrokes, you need good coordination between the two hands to develop speed. Therefore, staying relaxed is a necessity and helps keep control while playing at high speeds.

Practice finger control while you are in French stroke. Try bouncing the stick with a thumb and the index finger, and then add one finger at a time.

 Then, try bouncing the drumstick with the thumb and index finger, then with the thumb and middle finger, and so on.

When you get comfortable, try practicing coordination. Speed will come eventually after your hands get coordinated.

Moeller stroke

Moeller technique came from a need to get hands more relaxed by getting several strokes out of only one movement.

The man who initially developed this technique was a man by the name of Stanford Moeller.

Moeller developed the system by observing army veterans who played in a certain way naturally. So, he took this approach and developed a learning system. Many of his students adopted it and referred to it as Moeller’s technique.

One of his students was legendary Jim Chapin, who later taught guys like Dom Famularo, Dave Weckl, etc.

That’s how this technique was brought into the drumming community. The whole technique relies on the whipping motion you need to implement into your playing.

Here’s Jojo Mayer showing how it’s done:

It’s safe to say we covered pretty much everything in terms of hand technique, so let’s switch to a foot technique and see how it’s done

Bass drum techniques

Several bass drum techniques are popular nowadays:

• Bury the beater
• Come off
• Heel down technique
• Heel up technique
• Heel-Toe
• Swivel technique 
• The slide

All the bass drum techniques are based upon foot motion rather than moving the entire leg, or if you are moving the whole leg, you might as well get several hits.

Bury the beater

This technique doesn’t imply the foot movement but the place where the beater ends after a hit, and that is on the drum head. This way, you get a shorter tone with more attack.

Come off

If you want to get a more comprehensive sound with less attack after hitting a bass drum, take the beater off the drum head. This way, you will get a longer sustain and a bigger sound.

Heel down technique

In this foot technique, the heel is down at all times. Be careful with this technique because it can hurt your foot muscles if you push it too far.

Heel up technique

It’s opposite from the heel down technique. The heel is always up in the air, and all hits are performed by foot. So it looks pretty much like dancing on the pedals.

Heel-Toe

The heel-toe bass technique implements that you first hit the drum with your entire foot and then with your toes. This kick drum technique is very similar to hand motion in the Moeller method.

Check out the demonstration:

Swivel technique

This bass drum technique relies on the ankle motion from side to side. Therefore, your heel should be up in the air at all times. Metal drummers often use this technique because it is designed to target speed rather than strength.

Here is how to do it:

The slide

It’s one of the most popular foot techniques. It has two versions, let’s name them Jojo Mayer’s version and Benny Greb’s version. Check out how they do it and see which version is better for you.

Whether you plan to implement some of these bass drum techniques into your playing, we suggest you practice and develop them because they will develop your foot muscles in charge of coordination and foot movement.

Rudiments

Rudiments are the basic foundation of drumming, and therefore they should be practiced daily. Of course, we can practice them without drums, but we recommend practicing them on a drum set to get used to orchestration (playing rudiments around the drum set).

They can be performed on a drum pad, snare drum, or around the drum set.

Basic rudiments are:

• Single stroke rolls – R L R L
• Double stroke rolls – R R L L
• Triple stroke rolls – R L R L R L
• Paradiddles – R L R R L R L L
• Flams – two strokes, one little before other
• Five, seven, nine-stroke rolls

Each of these rudiments has multiple variations, plus there are a lot more rudiments.

Also, besides different variations, each of these rudiments could have accented notes, flam accents, unaccented notes, or even pauses.

We suggest you start with single strokes as an exercise for both hands and multiple bounce rolls to develop only one hand.

For instance, you could practice a nine stroke roll with only one hand.

Drum fills

Let’s talk about licks, fills chops, or however you want to call them—an unseparated part of drumming but not as essential as steady timing, dynamic, and groove.

So, please don’t dive into fills before you dive into all of these crucial things. Steve Gad once said, “Fills bring the thrills, but groove pays the bills.”

Take this seriously and make sure your “one” is safe and sound before you start chopping the drums.

Ensure you first develop a sense of time, coordination and dynamic.

We suggest learning the systems either from drum books, online lessons, or YouTube videos rather than learning lick per lick.

Let us explain.

Have you heard about linear drumming?

Linear drumming implies the use of one limb at the time. Therefore, there are no two notes played at the same time.

The most common patterns are:

R L F

L R F

F R L

F L R

R F L

L F R

R L F F

F F R L

R L R L F F

F F R L R L

• R= right hand
• L= left hand
• F= foot

If you get comfortable with linear drumming as a system, you can use it to develop many fills.

This approach is more beneficial. So, whenever you hear some excellent fill, we suggest you dig more and try to figure out the system behind this lick.

Coordination

Maybe the most challenging part of all drum techniques is the coordination. By coordination, we refer to playing complex polyrhythms and separating your limbs.

Here is an excellent example of independence by Virgil Donati:

As you see, drums can get very complex. We suggest you start with more simple exercises.

One of the best books to develop independence is 4-Way Coordination by Marvin Dahlgren.

This book contains a step by step guide to developing your independence.

Also, another part of drum coordination is moving around the kit, also known as fluidity.

Here is one fantastic exercise to develop fluidity:

Dynamic

You should think about the dynamic at all times. Dynamic makes drumming musical; without it, it’s just noise.

Dynamic in a song is a difference in the volume of verse and a chorus, but the dynamic in drumming is the volume difference between notes.

Ghost notes are harder to play and control, but you should use them to your advantage. If you play soft, then it’s easy to play an accent.

Using ghost notes and controlling the accents will make a substantial difference in your drum sound. 

To extract the best sound of a drum you need to hit the center. While doing that your hand needs to be completely relaxed.

Check out this video of Thomas Lang where he talks about the importance of dynamic range in drumming:

Staying relaxed

An essential part of drumming is staying relaxed at all times. If you get stiff, your sound changes, you get cramps, your speed suffers, and at the end, your body suffers.

When you come to the complex part, which is hard for you to play, that’s the moment when muscles get stiff. 

The only solution is to improve technique. The idea is getting  more with less effort.

Also learn more rudiments, it will be easier for your brain to recall the information rather than stepping into the unknown.

If you know what you will play before you play it, your brain will not freeze, and your muscles will not get stiff.

Counting out loud

It’s a part of the coordination and developing your inner sense of time. For example, you might hear drummers talk about knowing where the “One” is.

All the chops in the world are useless if you lose the “One.” Counting loud will teach you to feel the “One” and to develop your sense of time.

It will also make your grooves steady and your playing more accurate.

We suggest you check out this video of Benny Greb, where he talks about the importance of counting out loud.

Stretching

Before sitting behind a drum set, make sure you stretch your muscles just like you will play sports. It will keep you flexible and loose. 

As a drummer, you use every muscle in your body. Therefore, it is essential to be flexible.

Flexibility also helps with endurance. You can play longer without getting tired if your muscles are looser than usual, as they should be after stretching.

Faster hands

The eternal question for most drummers is how to get faster hands?

First things first. Make sure you have a solid grip. This is most important for speed and endurance. Your hands should be perfectly relaxed while holding the drumsticks, not weak or too tight.

Stretching exercises will help you with this as well. Many of the legendary drummers state that hand speed is all about control. 

It’s easier to gain control by using the wrist, and when the tempo is too fast, you should use your fingers.

It would be best if you first practice slowly, to make sure you have complete control over your body in terms of stick control, relaxation, breathing, and endurance.

1st approach

Some drummers like Dennis Chambers suggest practicing on pillows to improve your hand speed. It’s because pillows don’t have a rebound, so your muscles need to work more.

2nd approach

Others suggest you should practice with heavier sticks than the one you are playing regularly. 

3rd approach

The third option is to always practice on a surface with a rebound to learn to control the drumsticks.

We suggest you try all three and see which one is good for you.

Here are Mike Johnston’s tips for faster hand speed.

How Long Should I Practice Every Day?

There is no general rule, but the good rule of thumb is to focus your exercise on quality rather than quantity. 

Meaning, it’s better to practice 1 hour a day but slow with a clear goal than to play chops for 5 hours.

Your practice routine should have an exact goal in mind. Whether it’s coordination, technique, endurance, or time it doesn’t matter as long, you have a clear intention behind every hour of practice.

How to practice drums without drums?

You can use pillows, a drum pad, or any playing surface. Thus, you can practice various things without actually sitting behind a drum kit.

On a single drum pad, you can practice:

• rudiments
• time
• wrist control
• finger control
• rebound
• hand speed
• Dynamic

Also, you don’t need a pedal to practice your foot technique. All the techniques mentioned above can be done without a drum pedal. 

Go check out a video with Tomas Lang about the foot technique we posted above.

Drum notation

Reading drum notation is a challenge for most of us. Although sight reading is very common in drum education, many drummers worldwide don’t read notes.

Some drummers built careers without knowing how to read notes or at least not being comfortable with fast sight reading.

That says it all. It’s good to know but not essential to succeed.

If you decide to learn to read drum sheets, cool. It will be easy for you to learn new things using drum books. 

We suggest you start with The Drummer’s Link to Sight Reading book.

If not, that’s cool too, because like we said, it is not essential.

Is it hard to learn drum notation?

No, you will be able to master basic drum beats and fundamental sight reading in a few weeks, but for sight reading complex rhythms or drum solos, you need to spend more time.

It is easier if you already know how to write music, but it will take some time because drum notation has different symbols not used in a standard written piece.

Final thoughts

We hope this article will help you in developing a drum technique and mastering drumming in general.

It’s just the tip of an iceberg in terms of information that you will gather by exploring drumming.

Don’t take your talent for granted and for the ones with lack of talent we say 99% is hard work.

Keep pushing and building your knowledge base by listening to music and building your drum technique.

By Brad Schlueter

Can’t play a convincing shuffle? You might as well cross a whole range of potential gigs off your bucket list. Shuffles play a crucial role in every professional drummer’s vocabulary, and those still struggling to get the hang of this particular feel might be surprised to learn there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.

Shuffles can lightly bounce behind a track or drive like a freight train, and everything in between. You may be content knowing a handful of basic patterns, but there are dozens of types of shuffle grooves that can help you develop greater control and coordination while expanding your fluency. So let’s take your shuffle to the next level.

WHAT IS A SHUFFLE?

As you dig deep into shuffle pedagogy, you’ll find that they’re sometimes written as triplets in 4/4 and other times as 12/8. So, to help you adjust to this idea, we’ve presented the following examples both ways—in either case, they’re more or less equivalent. I’ll refer to both patterns as being counted as 1 & ah 2 & ah 3 & ah 4 & ah because it’s easier to count them that way, even though my music theory teacher would slap my wrists for that.

Shuffles generally sound like a child skipping, with a cymbal pattern playing the pattern 1 – ah 2 – ah 3 – ah 4 – ah. However, as you’ll soon see, there are countless variations on this idea. Sometimes the feet play the shuffle, or it’s divided among several limbs, or occasionally it’s just implied.

GETTING STARTED

For those new to shuffles, we’ll start with a few blues beats that aren’t technically shuffles, but will help you get used to the feel of triplet-based beats. These grooves are written in 6/8, and since they’re shorter, they’re easier to master. Practice each slowly until it becomes comfortable, and then try speeding up the tempo.

Keep your snare and bass drum medium strong, and play your hi-hat softer using the tip to create a musically balanced sound. Once you’re comfortable with these, you can link pairs together to create longer and more interesting patterns. The second line has some simple shuffles.

When playing these on the ride cymbal, you may close your hi-hat with the snare note. The third line is trickier. To master these, play the unaccented snare notes very softly. More advanced drummers can expand these by buzzing or playing soft drags instead of ghost notes for different textures. Feel free to add variations on the cymbal, foot, or snare patterns to spice up any shuffle once you’re comfortable playing it.

MORE SHUFFLE VARIATIONS

There are dozens of shuffle variations and, just to confuse you even more, their names sometimes change by geographical region. Here are a few of the best ones.

KICK DRUM SHUFFLE. The bass drum plays a shuffle rhythm beneath the hands. This is a tiring and loud groove that doesn’t work everywhere, but it’s well worth the time to develop it for situations where it fits. Once mastered, the hands are free to play fills over it.

SAMBA SHUFFLE. You can think of this as the strange progeny of a samba and a kick drum shuffle hookup. The hi-hat pedals the second triplet partial (the &s) for a constant rolling feel.

PURDIE SHUFFLE. Here’s a simple version of a this celebrated shuffle (we dig deeper into it below). Note how the snare ghost notes maintain the momentum of the groove. Many other bass drum patterns are possible. Try to come up with some of your own.

CHEATER SHUFFLE. Okay, this isn’t really a shuffle, but it’s something I’ve seen hard rock drummers and beginners play from time to time, and it can be useful as a fill pattern too.

FLAT TIRE SHUFFLE. Also called an Inside or Backward Shuffle, it sounds like a flat tire turning. This is a key blues groove.

DOUBLE BASS SHUFFLE. An indispensable tool for rock and metal drummers, here we shift the shuffle pattern to the feet. Lots of drummers lead these left-footed, since their left foot is already used to keeping four-on-the-floor time on the hi-hat.

STEVE GADD SHUFFLE. This is similar to a double bass shuffle, but uses the hi-hat in place of the second bass drum.

LAZY MAN SHUFFLE. Here’s a useful variation to use when you want to let the rest of the band play the shuffle feel while you drive right down the middle of it. This can groove really hard.

JAZZ/SWING SHUFFLE. In this permutation a jazz ride or hi-hat pattern takes the place of the shuffle pattern. Drummers often place a quiet snare on (1) ah to complete the feel.

HAND TO HAND SHUFFLE. If you’re ever asked to play a shuffle at a ridiculous speed, this version may become your best friend.

TRAIN BEAT SHUFFLE. Basically a triplet version of the country classic.

LA GRANGE SHUFFLE. On the ZZ Top classic “La Grange,” drummer Frank Beard plays this variation of a Hand To Hand shuffle on the rim of his snare, and embellishes the pattern with flams and drags.

SNARE SHUFFLE. This is a great country or blues groove, and sounds fantastic when using a brush in your right hand while playing a rim-click with your left.

ROCK SHUFFLE. Played heavier than many other variations, the kick and snare suggest the shuffle as much as the hi-hat pattern does. Lots of rock drummers begin learning to shuffle with this kind of beat.

HALFTIME SHUFFLE. Here the snare accents count 3 and the groove feels more laid back and often funkier than a regular shuffle.

GLAM ROCK SHUFFLE. This variation transfers the hi-hat part to the floor tom for a powerful jungle feel.

BUILDING THE DOUBLE SHUFFLE

The Double Shuffle is also known as the Chicago Shuffle, the Full Shuffle, the Prima Shuffle, and sometimes the Texas Shuffle, as well as several other names. It goes by so many aliases it almost makes you wonder if it’s on the lam from the law. This groove has been around for quite some time. Drummer Bobby Morris played it on Louis Prima’s song “Just A Gigolo,” though you’re probably more familiar with David Lee Roth’s 1985 redo of it.

This is an essential shuffle groove. If you can’t play any other shuffle, you should at least have a handle on the Double Shuffle. However, it’s a bit tricky to master. The challenge is getting the left-hand dynamics just right, so practice playing all the unaccented notes very softly. Admittedly, you can also perform this groove with medium level “soft” notes, but by practicing them softly you’ll be ready for any musical situation.

The accented snare note can be played in the middle of the drumhead for a meaty sound, or as a rimshot for a higher pitched ringing timbre. Here’s a tip: To play a quick accent after a soft note, it can help to use a Moeller “whipping” motion or use your fingers to “grab” the stick briefly. Most drummers accent both the snare and ride together, mainly because it’s easier to do it that way. For greater control, work on just accenting the snare hand and keeping the ride or hi-hat even.

ADD-A-NOTE METHOD. One way of teaching this groove is to start with a basic shuffle and add notes to the snare and bass drum parts until you’re eventually playing the whole pattern. Keep in mind that patterns C and D are often interchangeably referred to as Texas Shuffles.

LIMB PAIR METHOD. Another way I often teach grooves is to isolate the hand pattern (the first limb pair) in order to master it first. Once that’s solid and the dynamics are consistent, layer it on top of the much simpler foot pattern (the second limb pair). The slower you work on the hand pattern, the sooner you’ll be able to get the dynamics under control. Once you get these down, experiment with other bass drum patterns.

SHUFFLE FEELS

Once you learn a variety of these grooves you may wonder why some drummers’ shuffles feel so good. It could be a number of things, but first, check out their dynamics. Is the drummer accenting differently from you? What about their overall volume range? It may depend on musical context, but it’s good to be able to adapt your levels to different situations.

Another common stumbling block is dynamic contrast. Is there enough of a difference between your soft and loud notes? Record yourself and listen closely. Make a quick video to check your stick heights for consistency. Playing rimshots on your accents is a great way to add tonal contrast at every volume range between the notes you want to emphasize and those you don’t.

Some drummers employ a more subtle way of altering their feel by varying the note spacing. By deviating from a straight triplet feel, you can drastically alter the music’s feel. Straightening out the notes a bit, notated here with the cymbal on the first and fourth note of a quintuplet rhythm, will give the shuffle a rounder, lazier feel.

This can occur naturally when the tempo becomes so fast that it’s hard to play an even triplet. Think of rockabilly or early rock and roll—lots of those hi-hat patterns had a slightly uneven, somewhere-between-straight-and-swung type of feel.

If you slightly delay the skip note (the last triplet partial—the ah), here shown as the first and fifth note of a septuplet rhythm, you end up with a harder, more driving feel. Now, I’m not suggesting blues drummers are counting fives and sevens, but hopefully this notation will help illustrate their subtle feel changes.

Our last example here uses accents on every ah to give the groove a pushing quality.

ROCKING SHUFFLES OFF THE RECORD

There are many well-known shuffles you should know. Here are a select few of them.

“BALLROOM BLITZ.” Glam rock band The Sweet had a hit with “Ballroom Blitz” and Mick Tucker created this up-tempo driving snare shuffle for the song.

“RADAR LOVE.” Drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk came up with this great pattern for the classic Golden Earring single. Even though he played a right-handed kit, he actually reversed the stickings we notated on this version.

PURDIE SHUFFLE. There are many different versions of this groove played by Bernard Purdie, but perhaps his best known is this one from the Steely Dan song “Home At Last.” This is a halftime shuffle with the snare emphasis on count 3, and he closes his hi-hat on all the beats creating openings on every ah.

“FOOL IN THE RAIN.” This Led Zeppelin track finds John Bonham playing another variation on a halftime shuffle. His hi-hat opening is funky and a little tricky to get down.

“ROSANNA.” The Toto hit features the late studio great Jeff Porcaro behind the kit. He created this funky groove that somehow combines elements of the Bo Diddley beat, the Purdie Shuffle, and “Fool In The Rain.” The challenge is playing the ghosted snare immediately following his accented backbeat.

“QUADRANT 4.” Jazz and fusion innovator Billy Cobham kicked the drumming world in a bombastic new direction when he decided to play a shuffle on two bass drums.

“SPACE BOOGIE.” Simon Phillips soon followed in Cobham’s footsteps with Jeff Beck’s “Space Boogie” (in 7/4), and its swing ride cymbal pattern. Note that Phillips leads his double bass shuffles with his left foot.

“HOT FOR TEACHER.” Alex Van Halen put his own tasty spin on the double bass shuffle by superimposing this unique ride bell pattern over it.

This article originally appeared in the April 2015 issue of Drum! magazine. This is the first time it has been published online.

Here’s a road-tested program guaranteed to increase your hand speed. Too good to be true? Only one way to find out.

By Mike Johnston | Photography By Robert Downs

Outside the obviously speed-centric world of extreme metal, the ability to drum fast shouldn’t be your top priority. Which isn’t to say it doesn’t have its place, even if you never play anything faster than a ballad.

For one thing, the faster you can play, the more control you’ll have across the whole tempo spectrum. Who wants to sweat it out at the top of their range every time a rushed chorus fill comes around? Besides, having that speed reserve will only increase your confidence for those moments when the wow factor of a super-sonic tom assault might be just what the doctor ordered. But most importantly, practicing for speed the right way will reap benefits in all aspects of your playing.

This workout is based around the concept of muscle memory. Now, we are all aware of the fact that our muscles don’t have brains, so the term “muscle memory” is a bit of a misnomer. That being said, we also know that when we repeat a motor skill over time, such as throwing a ball or riding a bike, a long-term memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems.

In my experience as an educator I have found that hand speed is not the only issue that holds drummers back from being able to play their rudiments fast. The mental stress of trying to remember the pattern is what tends to slow drummers down more than anything. By playing at a slower bpm for longer periods of time, and focusing on perfect repetitive technique, you will be creating the muscle memory required to play all your rudiments and sticking combinations at a high bpm while remaining calm and relaxed, which is key for good feel.

Below are the Five Focus Rudiments. These are the rudiments that we are going to build your speed on over the next ten days. I have chosen these five rudiments for a very specific reason: When I examine my own playing and the playing of my idols I find that almost every chop, lick, or groove can be traced back to one of these five standard rudiments. Obviously, the world of drumming is made of much more than just five rudiments, but trust me, if you master these you will be well on your way to enjoying some serious freedom and creativity on the kit!

Before you begin, you’ll need a starting reference point for where you’re at with your speed so you’ll know exactly how much further along you’ll be ten days from now. Use a metronome to find out your max bpm on the Five Focus Rudiments. After you have written down your scores, begin the Day 1 Workout on the next page. You can do each workout as many times per day as you like, but I recommend doing it at least twice — once in the morning and once in the evening.

DAY 1

Welcome to day 1 of your 10-Day Plan For Faster Hands intensive program. Each workout will begin with you playing our Five Focus Rudiments for one minute each. Remember, muscle memory is the key here so slow down and focus on repetitive perfection.

Warm up with the Five Focus Rudiments for one minute each, at 50% of your max speed.

Exercise 1: 8-4-2-2
The 8-4-2-2 exercise is designed to help you build your individual hand speed. During this exercise you want to pay close attention to the difference between your right hand and left hand. Is your right hand gripping tighter than your left? Is your left hand angled differently than your right? Use your dominant hand to “teach” your weaker hand.

Exercise 2: Paradiddle Accents
The paradiddle accent exercise will increase your muscle memory. By shifting the placement of the accents each measure you are forced to really give every note a great deal of care. Remember, speed will come through repetition and focus, so don’t rush through this. Focus on perfection.

Exercise 3: Flammed Groupings #1
The flammed groupings exercise is designed to help improve your speed on flam taps as well as improve your ability to memorize long patterns. Symmetry between the hands is key during this exercise. You really want to listen, and correct for any difference between your right hand and your left hand.

Note: For each exercise, each day, record your tempo at 60% of your max for 2 minutes, 70% of your max for 2 minutes, and 80% of your max for 1 minute, as well as any notes like right vs. left, soreness, etc.

DAY 2

All right guys and girls, it’s day two. Please don’t lose sight of what we are trying to achieve here. Muscle memory is the name of the game. Resist the temptation to “max out” and keep focusing on playing each and every note with purpose.

Warm up with the Five Focus Rudiments for one minute each, at 60% of your max speed.

Exercise 1: Mixed Meter Doubles
The mixed meter double-stroke warm-up will help you learn to control each and every note. When playing your double strokes at one speed, your hands enter an autopilot mode that is great for overall speed, but overall control can be lost. We want to make sure that your doubles remain perfect as you weave in and out of different subdivisions.

Exercise 2: Paradiddle-diddles And Singles
The paradiddle accent exercise will increase your muscle memory. By shifting the placement of the accents each measure you are forced to really give every note a great deal of care. Remember, speed will come through repetition and focus, so don’t rush through this. Focus on perfection.

Exercise 3: Flammed Groupings #2
This flammed groupings exercise incorporates flam taps as well as groupings of four. The grouping of four gives you a chance to A/B how your dominant hand feels compared to your weaker hand. It’s important that you take time during the slower tempos to look down at your hands and make sure that they are both using the same technique.

DAY 3

Day three is all about repetition. We will be using two of the exercises from day one and one exercise from day two. Remember, our goal is to increase the overall speed of our Five Focus Rudiments, so do not skip out on the five-minute warm-up. Focus on playing each individual note as perfectly as possible.

Warm up with the Five Focus Rudiments for one minute each, at 60% of your max speed.

Exercise 1: 8-4-2-2
Focal points:

• Right and left hand evenness
• Use your dominant hand to “teach” the weaker hand

Exercise 2: Paradiddle-diddles & Singles
Focal points:

• Listen for the rhythm of the accents
• Sing along internally to the accent rhythm

Exercise 3: Flammed Groupings #1
Focal points:

• Use the four-note grouping to A/B your dominant and weaker hands
• Watch your hands to ensure consistency of technique

DAY 4

Day four brings you three brand-new exercises. We have also bumped up the speed of the rudiment warm-up to 70 percent of max. Remember, the focus of this workout is muscle memory so don’t push yourself. Play at a tempo that you can easily handle and allow your brain and muscles to memorize the rudiment.

Warm up with the Five Focus Rudiments for one minute each, at 70% of your max speed.

Exercise 1: Dynamic Doubles
The dynamic doubles exercise focuses on accenting the doubles on the right for one measure, followed by accenting the doubles on the left for one measure.

Exercise 2: Paradiddle-diddles & Paradiddles
This is a great two-bar exercise that will help you master flowing in and out of paradiddle-diddles and paradiddles. Measure one is right-hand lead and then it switches to left-hand lead for the second measure.

Exercise 3: Accented Singles
The accented singles exercise is simple yet extremely effective. If you want to get faster at single strokes you are just going to have to practice them. The accents will break up the boredom and give you something to focus on. Try to make a huge dynamic difference between your accented notes and your non-accented notes.

DAY 5

Congrats! It’s day five and you’re still going strong. It would be easy to give up now but this is the most crucial point in the workout. This is where the muscle memory will start to take hold and your hands will begin to do the exercises without you even thinking about it. Let’s get warmed up.

Warm up with the Five Focus Rudiments for one minute each, at 70% of your max speed.

Exercise 1: Flammed Groupings #1
Focal points:

• Right and left hand evenness
• Work on memorization of patterns

Exercise 2: 8-4-2-2
Focal points:

• Right and left hand evenness
• Use your dominant hand to “teach” the weaker hand

Exercise 3: Mixed Meter Doubles
Focal points:

• Pay attention to controlling every note
• Crisp, even double strokes

DAY 6

Now it’s time to start pushing yourself a bit. Our five-minute warm-up is being bumped up to 80 percent of your max for the next two days. Be sure to stay as relaxed as possible while playing the rudiments. Your workout for today incorporates two exercises from previous workouts and one new exercise, the paradiddle flam tap combo.

Warm up with the Five Focus Rudiments for one minute each, at 80% of your max speed.

Exercise 1: Paradiddle-diddles & Paradiddles
Focal points:

• Concentrate on flowing into and out of the two patterns
• Consistency with each hand leading

Exercise 2: Paradiddle Flam Tap Combo
This is an old-fashioned two-for-one. You can maximize your practice time by combining two rudiments into one exercise. Be sure that the sixteenth-note subdivision stays steady and consistent throughout the entire exercise.

Exercise 3: Flammed Groupings #2
Focal points:

• Use the four-note grouping to A/B your dominant and weaker hands
• Watch your hands to ensure consistency of technique

DAY 7

You have dedicated yourself to building your hand speed for an entire week now, and that is definitely something to be proud of. Okay, now back to work. Our rudimental warm-up will stay at 80 percent of your max for today. We will do two exercises from previous workouts as well as a new one, the sextuplet changeup.

Warm up with the Five Focus Rudiments for one minute each, at 80% of your max speed.

Exercise 1: Paradiddle Accents
Focal points:

• Pay careful attention to each note
• Make shifting accents consistent

Exercise 2: The Sextuplet Changeup
So far, all our paradiddle exercises have been phrased as sixteenth-notes. This exercise puts the rudiment back into its natural subdivision. It also forces you to maintain focus as it slips one beat worth of alternating strokes in on the downbeat of 3.

Exercise 3: Accented Singles
Focal point:

• Work toward a huge dynamic difference between accented and non-accented notes

DAY 8

By now the muscle memory has fully set in and we can start working on breaking down your physical barriers. We will be doing our rudiment warm-up at 90% of your max. The workout has also been bumped up by 10% per set to force your muscles to work harder during the home stretch.

Warm up with the Five Focus Rudiments for one minute each, at 90% of your max speed.

Exercise 2: 8-4-2-2
Focal points:

• Right and left hand evenness
• Use your dominant hand to “teach” the weaker hand

Exercise 2: Dynamic Doubles
Focal point:

• Consistency between the opposing hands’ accents

Exercise 3: Flammed Groupings #2
Focal points:

• Use the four-note grouping to A/B your dominant and weaker hands
• Watch your hands to ensure consistency of technique

DAY 9

Day nine is the last time we will run through our workout before you test yourself on day ten. That means you need to put in maximum effort today. Maintain a sharp focus during every exercise including the warm-up. I know this sounds cheesy, but care about every single note you play today!

Warm up with the Five Focus Rudiments for one minute each, at 90% of your max speed.

Exercise 1: Paradiddle Flam Tap Combo
Focal points:

• Maximize practice time with two rudiments in one exercise
• Listen for consistent sixteenth-note subdivision throughout

Exercise 2: Paradiddle-diddles & Singles
Focal points:

• Listen for the rhythm of the accents
• Sing along internally to the accent rhythm

Exercise 3: Accented Singles
Focal point:

• Work toward a huge dynamic difference between accented and non-accented notes

DAY 10

Congratulations! You just completed an intense 10-day workout that will change the way you approach drumming for the rest of your life, and no, that’s not hyperbole. You now know how important muscle memory is, and how it can make complicated patterns seem easy over time. Next time you want to work out an ostinato with your feet, remember this workout. Instead of trying to “max out” right away, take it slow and focus on repetition. Allow your body to perform the pattern over and over for long periods of time at slower tempos. Then when you try to improvise over the top of it you won’t have to figure out how every stroke with your hands fits with your feet. Your feet will be on autopilot, playing the ostinato without you having to focus on it at all, and your hands will be free to play all the amazing ideas floating through your brain every time your car blinker gets switched on.

Speed Test: Final Exam
For each “question” on this test, record the following information: What is your Day 1 speed? What is your Day 10 speed?

• Single Stroke Roll
• Double Stroke Roll
• Single Paradiddle
• Flam Taps
• Paradiddle-diddle

This article originally appeared in the April 2013 issue of Drum!

By Brad Schlueter

Rudiments are the drummer’s alphabet, which is why there were just 26 standard rudiments for many years. Rudiments are just sticking combinations that, once learned, enable you to execute musical phrases with surprisingly little effort. Here’s a look at five essential drum rudiments that are great chop builders, and also transfer well from the practice pad to the drum set.

Check out more of our FREE drum lessons here

The key to improving your hands is to play with a good solid grip, practice slowly until the stickings are in your muscle memory, and you can play them with accurate dynamics, from very soft to extra loud. If you maintain good form, grip and spacing, and gradually push your tempos over a period of weeks, months and yes, years, great speed will come.

Brad Schlueter is a professional drummer and drum teacher, and has been a competitive rudimental snare drummer in multiple groups, serving as Drum Sergeant and competing in the Pipe Band World Championships.

Five Essential Drum Rudiments

1. Single Stroke Roll

Singles are the most common rudiment heard in rock music, but are a challenge to play quickly. Being born with an excess of fast twitch muscle fiber helps. They seem simple: RLRLRLRL. Some people advocate a loose grip that will allow the stick to bounce back into your hand. Some people “dribble” the stick with the fingers, using a technique called finger control. Others suggest a whipping motion called the Moeller stroke.

Still others advocate a much more controlled grip and stroke, which requires you to develop your muscles more and rely very little on rebound. Some generally safe advice is to start slowly, keeping the sticks at the same height, and gradually speed up. Mike Mangini, who has been recorded as the world’s fastest drummer at playing a single stroke roll, uses a controlled grip and wrists; his stroke averaging 19 notes a second for one minute straight. I believe Mangini is an alien.

2. Double Stroke Roll

Strong double strokes are the dividing line between drummers with solid technique and those without, and are essential for all the diddle (double-stroke) rudiments. They have a sticking of RRLLRRLL. Played quickly they have a machine gun quality and sound similar to single strokes but require much less exertion. A good way to learn them is to wrist them at slower speeds holding the stick securely with the back fingers and as speed increases, gradually release the back end of the stick, letting it rebound and bounce at higher speeds. This, you will find is easier said than done, but it is definitely time well spent.

3. Flams

Flams are frequently one of the most misunderstood rudiments. They are deceptively simple: lR or rL. A rudimental or orchestral flam has a soft grace note immediately preceding a louder, main note. Think of them as a way of thickening a note, rather than just making it louder. The width of the space between the two notes varies by musical style.

In rock music, flams are often played wrong, with no space or dynamic difference between the notes, and both notes played simultaneously, resulting in a “flat flam.” In Latin music, the width is much greater and the grace note is often played on a different drum than the main note. Trivia fact: Flams are named after the louder second note, not the softer first grace note. So a Right Flam is played lR.

4. Paradiddle

This is the sticking pattern that countless drummers have struggled to learn, and then once mastered, have no idea what to do with them. “Para” refers to a “pair of” singles and “diddle” means a double stroke. So a paradiddle is played: RlrrLrll. There is an accent played on the first note of each four-note group. Inverting paradiddles means to start the pattern on the second, third, fourth, etc., note of the pattern.

A common paradiddle inversion is Rllr Lrrl. Paradiddles can be used to create instant funk grooves by putting the right hand on the hi-hat and the left hand on the snare and dropping bass drum notes underneath. Keep the accent strong and it will sound much more funky and complicated than it is.

5. Six Stroke Roll

The six stroke roll has a sticking of: RllrrL or LrrllR, with an accent played on the first and last notes. The first version of the two is much more common. Rudimental drummers traditionally have played the first note as a sixteenth and the remaining five notes as thirty-seconds, creating a pause after the first tap followed by a five stroke roll, while drum set players tend to play the pattern as sixteenth note triplets with all notes equally spaced. One very cool lick is to play the first note on the floor tom, next four (the two doubles) on the snare, and the last note on the high tom. Thank you, Steve Gadd.

By Brad Schlueter

Steve Smith has always been a serious drummer. He has made a careful study his craft, drawing inspiration from the great drummers who came before him. And he has continued to develop his abilities throughout his enviable career. He came to wide attention during his tenure with Journey, and unlike many drummers in radio-friendly bands, he always managed to sneak some clever little twist into the tunes that kept us drummers interested. So Smith, on behalf of those of us who’ve covered Journey’s hits, thanks!

“Don’t Stop Believin’,” Journey

Smith created an interesting and somewhat challenging drum part for this inspirational song. Inspired by Terry Bozzio’s approach in his band Group 87, Smith employed similar offbeat cymbal accents and tom hits to create a drum part that’s become a classic. The difficulty many drummers face when playing this part is that Smith played the cymbal bell and tom hits with his right hand while maintaining an unbroken hi-hat pattern with his left hand. The drum part evolves as the song progresses with three subtly different cymbal parts. The first two are defined parts. For the third section, Smith plays more freely and improvises cymbal hits around this basic pattern.

“Separate Ways,” Journey

This fill has baffled more drummers than probably any other fill that Smith played with Journey. I’ve seen lots of bands dedicated to the Journey/REO/Styx idiom (what else are you going to play with a castrati lead singer?), and the drummers nearly always change this fill, either because it’s fast, they don’t understand it, or it’s just too difficult. This fill is basically a linear triplet played snare, high tom, low tom and bass drum. The difficulty is that Smith magically fit four of these triplets across just three beats creating a 4:3 polyrhythmic fill. Don’t be scared! It can be counted and learned if you remember to play the snare on every third sixteenth-note (1, the ah of 1, the & of 2, the e of 3), squeeze the other notes in between them and end with a flam. One of the best rock drum fills ever!

“Island Holiday,” Vital Information

This early Vital Information track features some tasty drum work from Smith, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. The first break begins in the middle of bar three with him playing eighth-note triplets divided into groups of four beginning with a bass drum note that creates an interesting polyrhythmic effect. The second break shows Smith playing quad-type patterns and then switching in the eighth bar to a paradiddle-diddle played between his hands and feet. It may have been played RH RF RH LH RF RF or he may have used a double pedal to split the bass drum notes. The final break is absolutely mind blowing: Basically, Smith plays something like the break in the first line in that he plays eighth-note triplets divided into groups of four beginning with a bass drum. On top of that, he adds a tom note between the bass drum and the first snare and then double strokes the last two notes of each grouping. You may prefer to think of these as a bass drum leading into flammed 5-stroke rolls played in the rhythm of a half-note triplet. That clarifies things, doesn’t it?

“Novato,” Vital Information

I chose this Vital Information tune because I’m a sucker for a funky march, and this tune starts with a tasty but simple one. Smith later switches to a Samba-esque groove with a backbeat that alternates bars of 6/4 and 4/4. He outlines the ending of the 6/4 measures with an extra bass drum on the & of 6 and embellishes the pattern throughout the section. [Editor’s note: This song is on the 1986 album Global Beat. We were unable to find a streaming version for you to listen to here, but you can find it for purchase on Amazon.]

BY BRAD SCHLUETER

Who is the prototypical hard rock drummer of all time? While we’re certain that our readers will offer scores of conflicting answers to that question, we think it’s none other than the late John Henry Bonham whose incredibly creative grooves and fills with Led Zeppelin—not coincidentally, the prototypical hard rock band of all time—earned him that notable distinction in the pages of drumming history books including his black dog time signature.

Though he was a very aggressive drummer, his playing often possessed a surprisingly laid-back feel. Employing technique that raised the bar for generations that followed, he grooved with tons of attitude and invention. It’s hard to say if he was more admired for his remarkable right foot or the massive sound he always coaxed from his drum set.

Regardless, when you put all the pieces together, you can’t miss the fact that he was one of a kind, who played Black Dog time signature. Sadly, Bonham died a premature “rock-and­roll” death, a loss that touched musicians around the world. It’s painful to think how much of his genius we’ve been denied. The following song excerpts will prove it.

How to Play ‘Black Dog’ and 5 Other John Bonham Beats

‘Achilles Last Stand,’ Presence

It’s easy to choose songs that showcase Bonham’s abilities. While you could literally pick any Zeppelin song, “Achilles Last Stand” is a particularly good example. Here he plays a driving groove that served as the primary inspiration for Michael Derosier’s groove on Heart’s “Barracuda.” It’s no wonder why—it feels great.

This song is about ten­and-a-half minutes long, and proves Bonham had one heck of a right foot. The most interesting part happens during Jimmy Page’s guitar solo, where the band executes a metric modulation to a slower tempo, and changes to 5/4 meter. The eighth-note in the solo shifts to the value of a quarter-note triplet, and Bonham plays a series of triplets in 5/4 at the new tempo.

In the transcription of the pattern’s variation, I’ve indicated where the original tempo lies in relation to the new one, to help you understand how complex this modulation is. Unlike “Black Dog,” it doesn’t sound particularly odd, which is all the more remarkable con­sidering how unusual it is.

‘The Crunge,’ Houses Of The Holy

Odd meters were the bread and butter of Led Zeppelin. In “The Crunge” we see a famous Bonham groove, and some of the variations of it that he used to navigate this unusual song. This song has a 9/8 intro with some varying hi-hat openings to allow the groove to breathe.

At the chorus, the song changes to a much more comfortable 4/4 groove for three measures before reprising a measure of 9/8. When the chorus returns to the verse, there’s a measure of 10/8, just to keep Zeppelin tribute bands on their toes.

‘Rock And Roll,’ Led Zeppelin IV

This is one of the most recognizable drum intros in music. From the first sloshy hi-hat note to the last, this drum part is instantly recognizable. It has been featured in movies, commercials, and is the choice of thousands of bands for the last song of the night. So let’s give credit where credit is long overdue—to the great Charles Connor. Er, what?

That’s right, John Bonham didn’t create the intro to this song. He stole it, note for note, from Connor’s drum intro to Little Richard’s 1958 hit song “Keep A Knockin’.” Despite this being one of the most recognizable intros in rock, most drummers still don’t play it right. Here are two tricks to playing it correctly.

The first is to recognize that it begins on the & of beat 3. Second, Connor and Bonham played both hands simultaneously throughout it, making it more powerful, and that much more challenging.

‘Fool In The Rain,’ In Through The Out Door

This tune is another example of Bonham’s great sense of groove. Here he plays a funky half-time shuffle for the intro and verses chat, once again, just feels great. He opens the hi-hat on the ah of beat 1 and uses ghost notes to perfectly set-up the accented snare hit on count 3. He plays a great little fill chat sets up the change into and out of the chorus.

During the chorus, he plays quarter-note triplets on his ride chat makes the groove feel faster than the verse. The lace studio drummer Jeff Porcaro was very influenced by Bonham, and used “Fool In The Rain” along with the Bo Diddley beat, as the basis for the groove to the Toto song “Rosanna.”

‘The Ocean,’ Houses Of The Holy

The title of “The Ocean” refers to the massive audiences that Zeppelin performed for on tour. They were incredibly popular, and broke most of The Beatles’ box office records, which is all the more remarkable since they were so musically adventurous. In the intro of this song, the time signature alternates between 4/4 and 7/8 and Bonham’s groove perfectly complements Jimmy Page’s great guitar riff.

I wrote out the studio version and a live version of this groove to show how Bonham embellished his parts on stage. The live version is definitely funkier and more powerful. Notice how the bass drum note on the ah of 3 is pretty faint, but still adds a lot of lift to the pattern. In the verse, we see one of Bonham signature single bass drum triplets.

‘Black Dog,’ Time Signature Led Zeppelin IV

This song is avoided by cover bands like an unpaid bar tab at the end of the night. It has several things to fear: a really high vocal part, constantly changing time signatures, and a guitar and drum groove relationship that could baffle Trilok Gurtu. When this song is played well it sounds incredible, and rarely results in serious injury.

This article originally appeared in the February 2005 issue of Drum! magazine. Please note the above article includes affiliate links, meaning Drum! will earn a small commission (at no cost to you) when you click through and make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

Check out our FREE DOWNLOAD of “Bonham: Like Father Like Son.” In this father and son interview we asked John and Jason Bonham the same exact set of questions, only twenty years apart.

BY BRAD SCHLUETER

It’s happened to all of us. A song comes on the radio, and you tap your foot along with the music and the drum intro. A few beats later, you suddenly discover that something is very wrong. Your foot wasn’t on the downbeat after all. Count 1 has suddenly appeared someplace else, far away from where you thought it was, much like a Criss Angel magic trick. This has happened to all of us, momentarily inducing that terrifying feeling we get when we’ve leaned too far back in a chair, hovering on the brink of disaster.

Here’s an even worse scenario. You’re on a gig, and someone calls a song you don’t know and says, “The intro’s kind of weird — just listen,” and the next thing you know you’re playing a beat displacement that would make Vinnie Colaiuta or Gavin Harrison proud.

Drummers live in quiet, quivering dread of these humiliating moments. Worse still, we all know that if anything goes wrong on stage related to the timing of a song, the drummer gets blamed no matter who’s really at fault.

Some songs have this effect on the listener entirely by accident. It was just a musical illusion caused by assuming or perceiving a pattern to start on count 1, or any other count, when it doesn’t. Other songs throw the listener off with an unusual accent pattern that suggests the phrase begins somewhere it doesn’t. Some songs have this effect due to a mistake made during the recording that was later kept, simply because it sounded good.

Some songs deliberately use this technique to intentionally mess with your head. Those songs are just plain evil. Bands like The Police, The Rolling Stones, Van Halen, and Led Zeppelin have so many songs that begin this way, it almost sounds like no one really knew where 1 was, and it just kind of coalesced into existence by musical consensus during the song’s recording.

We’ve collected a few well-known and some not-so-well-known examples of these songs and tried to decipher how and why this deception occurs. Hopefully, this admittedly incomplete sampling of tunes can serve as a primer that may help you survive a train wreck onstage and achieve “oneness” with your band.

One incredibly useful technique that can help make you a master of meter is to simply count. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn there are cave paintings of Cro-Magnon drum teachers instructing their students to count out loud while using saber-toothed tiger bones to pound on mastodon hides. Many drummers hate to count. Go on, admit it, you’re one of them. But it works well, works quickly, and always has.

Plus, counting can help you get your bearings until you can just “hear” it. For these examples, we’ve written out the drum part along with the part responsible for this deception. It’s a good idea to listen to the originals and count along with them. It’s a great ear/brain training exercise.

While writing this article, I noticed that intros like these are a bit more rare today than they were 20 or 30 years ago. That would be the BPT epoch: before ProTools. Our desire to correct all our best mistakes may put many of these wonderful intros in a time capsule to be forgotten. I hope not, since I think that’s one of the reasons that all these songs are unique and interesting. It’s the imperfections — deliberate or otherwise — that let you know it’s human.

Examples of Drum Intro Songs

1. “Rock And Roll” by Led Zeppelin

Every rock drummer has to play this classic song sometime, and most screw up the intro. The common mistake is to play the first note on count 1 and then add extra notes to the end of pattern to make it add up to 4/4. The intro is all in 4/4, and starts on the & of beat 3, though some drummers prefer to think of it starting or ending with a measure of 3/8. It definitely helps to count it out. Most drummers don’t know that John Bonham based this intro very, very closely on — or perhaps just plain stole it from — Charles Connor’s intro to Little Richard’s song “Keep A Knockin’.”

2. “All Along The Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix

This intro is really out there. It might sound like it starts on beat 1 to you. It could just as easily sound like it starts on beat 4 to you, too. I’d bet it sounds like it starts just about anywhere other than where it does, on the & of 3. Of course, it doesn’t help that Mitch Mitchell is the drummer. He’s sort of a jazzy and rudimental version of Keith Moon.

Wonderful, impulsive, quirky, inspired, completely unpredictable, and a definite part of the Hendrix charm. There are three distinct groove and feel changes in the first ten measures. You’re going to need a GPS system to find your way through this one.

3. “I Wish” by Stevie Wonder

This one looks obvious on paper, but I’ve known several students and have seen other drummers who have messed it up live. It’s funny how some of these intros may completely baffle one drummer while being obvious to another. If this one throws you, the melody of the bass line or the snare accent on the & of 4 may be the source of the problem.

4. “Take It Easy” by The Eagles

The Eagles were known for their bluesy country-influenced pop-rock songs, which populated the airways for over a decade. With members like Joe Walsh, Glenn Frey, and Don Henley on drums and vocals, it’s not hard to imagine why this supergroup had a string of radio hits.

“Take It Easy” was but one of several Eagles tunes that had tricky intros. The guitar accent pattern is usually misperceived as being played on 1 2& &4& in every measure up to the drum entrance in the ninth bar. The trick to this one is that the guitar chords actually come in on count 4.

5. “Start Me Up” by The Rolling Stones

Perhaps the best-known recorded screw up of all time. Charlie Watts had a problem finding 1 with Keith Richard’s guitar intro to “Start Me Up,” screwed up his entrance, and then tried to fix it as it went along. That would make this the best-known train wreck ever to become a hit song and make oodles of dollars in the process. I’m sure he laughed all the way to the bank. Oh well, it just goes to show that sometimes a mistake can be the most interesting thing you can play.

6. “Since You’re Gone” by The Cars

The Cars were another popular ’80s band that was all over the radio and MTV with a string of huge hits. “Since You’re Gone” begins with drum machine handclaps, then later with keyboards and guitars. The handclaps are primarily responsible for this auditory illusion. The tendency is to hear them on the downbeats rather than the upbeats.

7. “The Crunge” by Led Zeppelin

I included this song simply because the last time I wrote it out, I screwed it up. An astute reader of DRUM! (and aren’t you all?) pointed out the mistake to me, and I’ve wanted to correct it ever since. My mistake was to loop the first measure of the groove with software and not count the entire intro out.

I assumed the pattern started on count 1, when it actually starts on count 6. If I’d counted further into the tune, I’d have noticed that both the bass and guitar entrances suggest the actual placement of count 1.

8. “No More Tears” by Ozzy Osbourne

“No More Tears” has a cool little bass intro provided by Mike Inez, who later played with Alice In Chains and Black Label Society. The trick is guaranteed by changing the time signature in the measure where the late Randy Castillo enters on drums. I had to work through this one a couple of times to work out the 9/8 time-signature trick. This may be cheating, but it worked. This one’s guaranteed to make any and all headbanging stop, if for only a moment.

9. “Pride & Joy” by Stevie Ray Vaughan

These tunes are a bit like magic tricks. They’re easy to play right once you know the trick. On this one, the guitar starts on count 2 and not count 1. Counting it out can help you get it down the very first time. I could have just as easily chosen to write out SRV’s “Couldn’t Stand The Weather,” another of his tunes with a tricky intro that uses an odd time signature to achieve its dastardly ends.

10. “Sold Me Down The River” by The Alarm

“Sold Me Down The River” was The Alarm’s biggest hit in America and is one of those evil songs that were deliberately designed to throw you off balance. This time it’s the work of the clever drummer Nigel Twist. By the time the guitars enter in the fifth measure, it’s anyone’s guess where 1 is.

This tricky band is still around today but with some new members. They successfully pulled off a huge hoax on the record industry in 2004 with their song “45 RPM,” which they falsely attributed to a youthful band called the Poppy Fields. The song charted well and, like Garth Brooks’ similar Chris Gaines hoax, tells us lots about the music industry.

11. “Panama” by Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen is notorious for making drummers’ lives hell with his wacky intros. From a guitarist’s perspective, I’m told his parts make sense. But to a drummer, well — you can almost see the darkened light bulb hovering above our collective heads. I’d struggled with Van Halen’s “Unchained” several months earlier, rarely coming out in the same place twice, before the bulb flickered and then suddenly went on.

Of course, Alex Van Halen offers us an equally odd drum part to master. This one’s pretty much impossible not to butcher if you don’t count. Frankly, it’s pretty easy to butcher even if you do count. The trick is knowing that the guitar part enters on the & of 1 and then not getting lost.

12. “Honky Tonk Woman” by The Rolling Stones

This one is tricky because it can sound like the cowbell begins on the & of 4 rather than on count 1. The way in which that cowbell is either muted or let to ring enhances the illusion. Charlie Watts saves the day with his offbeat but simple entrance.

This article originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Drum! magazine.

BY BRAD SCHLUETER

Alex Van Halen’s drumming has influenced generations of drummers and always served as the perfect complement to his brother’s stellar guitar riffing. Sure, he’s got chops – just listen to “Hot For Teacher” – but like Keith Moon, there’s also something a little loose about his drumming, as though he’s thinking more about the whole song rather than obsessing over each note. That hint of looseness is also a bit magical since it seems to transport you to another time and place, always making you feel like you’re at a concert hearing the band playing live. Let’s check out a few of this iconic drummer’s best moments.

Drum Notation Guide

1. ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love’

Van Halen’s self-titled debut record sold more than 10 million copies in the U.S. and this track is a good reason why. There are several interesting drum parts in the track, but the ending has a few drum breaks that are classic AVH. The first run across the toms feels a little atypical because he doesn’t move on the beats but changes toms on the &’s. The next two fills are memorable simply because Van Halen first moves melodically down his kit, then reverses direction.

“Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love”

2. ‘Ice Cream Man’

Chicago blues guitarist John Brin penned this track that VH covered on their debut. The intro of this fun version is a classic and is the perfect vehicle for Diamond Dave and may be the progenitor of A Different Kind Of Truth’s “Stay Frosty.” Drums come in around the 1:18 mark.

“Ice Cream Man”

3. ‘House Of Pain’

This track off 1984 reveals one of the things that makes Van Halen’s drumming so interesting. He sometimes enters songs on the offbeat, creating a momentary deception of where the beat actually falls. For this song his first two hi-hat notes land on ah of 4 with his snare played powerfully on the e – creating the brief impression that his snare is on a backbeat rather than its e – and then completes the measure with two more hi-hat notes. The beat that follows is a standard rock groove but it takes a couple of seconds to regain your bearings. Again, we see his signature use of sloshy hi-hats.

“House Of Pain”

4. ‘Hot For Teacher’

This is the drum groove Van Halen is best known for. Billy Cobham is often credited with creating the double bass shuffle on his track “Quadrant 4,” where bass drums are used to play a shuffle pattern of 1 (&) ah 2 (&) ah 3 (&) ah 4 (&) ah, usually played either R – L R – L or the opposite. Using the bass drums to outline the shuffle can free the hands from the duty of playing it on the ride cymbal. Simon Phillips, who was very influenced by Cobham, played another example of this feel (though in 7/4) for Jeff Beck’s tune “Space Boogie,” but VH’s version of it on “Hot For Teacher” is by far the best known example of this pattern. What makes this version so unique is that his ride cymbal pattern doesn’t just play quarter-notes or a swing pattern. His cymbal pattern falls on 1 & (ah) 2, 3 & (ah) 4 filling in a couple of the &’s, giving the groove a unique feel. Though at this breakneck tempo this aspect of his unique pattern is often overlooked.

“Hot For Teacher”

5. ‘Jump’

1984 was a great rock and roll album. The song “Jump” kickstarted the Van Halen keyboard sound (provided by an Oberheim synthesizer) and another great drum part from AVH. The prechorus has an unusual pattern that uses his ride bell, ride, and snare to outline the dotted quarter-note accents. The unique tom sounds were provided by the Remo Rototoms and Remo CS heads that Van Halen and other drummers like Terry Bozzio were fond of at the time.

“Jump”

6. ‘Panama’

Here’s another one of those tricky VH entrances that can throw you for a loop if you’re not paying attention. This version has the guitar part broadly outlined to help you keep your place.

“Panama”

7. ‘Unchained’

If the guitar intro of this great song doesn’t disorient you, this section just might. Van Halen plays a tricky beat that’s phrased in 7/4, but is more easily thought of as being all in 4/4.

“Unchained”

8. ‘Judgement Day’

Van Halen leads into this high-energy song with some syncopated choked crashes and follows them up with a powerful groove and offbeat cymbal accents.

“Judgement Day”

9. ‘China Town’

This song is off Van Halen’s newest release and reunites David Lee Roth with the band, but this time with Eddie’s son Wolfgang featured on bass. This fast track shows off Alex’s quick feet. For the intro, he plays a sixteenth-note double bass drum pattern with the snare landing on all the beats, but then flips the groove for the verses, placing the snare on all the &’s and moving his right hand from the hi-hat to catch the recurring (4) & ah notes.

“China Town”

This article originally appeared in the January 2013 issue of Drum!

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