Free Drum Lessons

How To Play The Pretender by Foo Fighters

This week, we're going over the fast-paced, energetic drum part from The Pretender by Foo Fighters. The drum part is easy to understand but takes some work to get up to speed. The transcription excerpt below is provided by Steve Ley.

How To Play Closer To The Edge - 30 Seconds To Mars (bridge)

The bridge from Closer To The Edge by 30 Seconds To Mars uses a catchy, syncopated tom groove. There are some differences in the way it sounds on the album versus the way it's played live.

Conspiracy - Paramore - Verse Beat

The verse groove from Conspiracy by Paramore uses a common hand pattern that can be applied in a number of ways to spice up your drumming.

Adding Flair With Threes - Under the Bridge

Often, drum grooves involve straight 8th notes played on the hi hat or cymbal. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it's what the music calls for. However, there are many opportunities where adding an additional stroke in-between the 8th notes will improve the song.

Adding Flair With Threes - Hotel California

In part 1, you were introduced to the playing threes concept. This week, we'll continue developing threes coordination and expanding ideas on how to use them around the kit. I'll start with an example from Hotel California – Eagles, which was transcribed by Steve Ley. Then, we'll throw in a couple of fills that fit in context with the three technique used.

How To Play The Rosanna Shuffle - In 3 Steps

The Rosanna Shuffle is one of the most iconic drum beats of all time. The groove was played by Jeff Porcaro in the song “Rosanna” by Toto.

Single Bass Pedal Exercises

I receive a lot of questions asking for ways to help unlock the hi-hat hand from the bass drum foot. The answer is – repetition. The more you play these types of patterns, the easier it will be to keep consistent hi-hat strokes while playing 16th notes on the bass drum.

The Most Common Non-Common Time Signatures

I hope you excuse the pun in the title. “Common time” is a term used to refer to 4/4, which is the most common time signature. This lesson focuses on the most common, non 4/4 time signatures, giving you some drum beat and fill examples.

Two Most Common Patterns In Drumming

This lesson takes a step back to examine the grooves we play, breaking down and discussing two of the most used patterns in drumming. Being able to recognize and play these patterns will help you to grasp new grooves more quickly.

How Do You Backbeat?

Backbeats have a strong influence on the feel of your grooves. They can make your groove sound energetic, up, down, off, on, etc. This lesson explores different backbeat arrangements all based on the same foundational groove. This way, you'll be able to examine how each backbeat influences the feel of the groove in its own unique way.