The Easy Way to Get the Most Out of Your Beats

We've all spent time learning new drum beats, and that's great. However, we often learn a groove and then move onto the next without really getting the most out of the pattern.

This lesson explores an easy way to create new beats from beats that you already play simply by moving the left-stick snare strokes to the hi-hat hat. Snare strokes that fall on beats 2 and 4 remain on the snare drum in order to maintain the backbeat.

This technique can also be applied to the toms (i.e. moving the left-stick snare strokes to the toms instead of the hi-hat) which adds a melodic element to the groove. Example 4 demonstrates how the same technique can be used for beats that have the right stick playing on the ride cymbal.

 

 

Have fun exploring these grooves, and then try using this technique on some of your own drum beats.