Tagged: beginner course
10 articles
The Beginner Course
Lesson 7: Accents, ghost notes and dynamics
Loud and quiet on purpose: the backbeat that cracks, ghost notes that whisper between it, hi-hat accents, and the stick heights that make all three possible.
The Beginner Course
Lesson 6: Your first fills
A fill is beat four with something in it: four sixteenths on the snare, then around the toms, then a whole bar, and the crash on one — with the notation.
The Beginner Course
Lesson 1: Hold the sticks and sit like a drummer
Matched grip and the pivot, a seat height that saves your back, and your first strokes on a practice pad — the free beginner drum course starts here.
The Beginner Course
Lesson 4: Hi-hat variations
Quarter notes for a bigger sound, sixteenths for a busier one, the open hat on the 'and' of four, and the ride — four ways to change a beat without changing it.
The Beginner Course
Lesson 3: Playing to a click
Why 60 BPM is harder than 120, how to lock the snare to the click until the click disappears, and why 'boring' is the signal you are looking for.
The Beginner Course
Lesson 10: How to practise so it sticks
A twenty-minute routine for hands, time, something new and a song; the practice log and streak; and where to go after lesson ten: rudiments, grooves, songs.
The Beginner Course
Lesson 8: Rudiments on the kit
The single paradiddle from the pad to the drums: as a groove split between hi-hat and snare, and as a fill around the toms — one sticking, three sounds.
The Beginner Course
Lesson 5: Sixteenth-note kick patterns
Counting '1 e & a', and the kick on the 'a' of two and the 'e' of three that turn a straight beat into one that grooves — three patterns, counted.
The Beginner Course
Lesson 2: The money beat
The beat behind most songs you know — eighths on the hi-hat, kick on one and three, snare on two and four — built a layer at a time, with notation you can hear.
The Beginner Course
Lesson 9: Your first song, When the Levee Breaks
A real song at its real tempo: When the Levee Breaks at 71 BPM, the most sampled drum beat ever recorded — the beat, the placement, and how to play along.