How to play the drums. How to start playing if you have a drum kit

Transfer the pattern you played on your knees to the drum kit. Play 8th notes on the hi-hat, hit the 2 and 4 counts with your left hand, and hit the bass drum on the 1 and 3 counts.

Count out loud and loud. This is not necessary when you are playing, but when you are practicing it will be very useful.
To get comfortable behind the kit, hit whatever you like on counts 2 and 4 instead of the snare drum.
Try to get the best sound from your rhythm, smoothness, and don't forget to count out loud.

Pay attention to your left leg. Learn to close the hi-hat while you play it with your hand. You will get a short sharp sound. Most drummers use a closed hi-hat sound.

Play 8th notes right hand. With your left hand, play the snare drum on 2 and 4. Try dropping the hi-hat on different beats to see what effects you can achieve. You can play with a constantly open hi-hat, you can open it slightly for a while, you can hit the edge of the cymbal or the cup.

Develop your foot technique. Letting go of the hi-hat and strumming the bass drum at the same time will help develop coordination and strengthen your muscles.

Practice playing with your foot and right hand at the same time while your left hand improvises, and with all parts of your body at the same time. This will help you learn to control your shots better.

Change the rhythm. Play the same rhythmic pattern, but instead of hitting the snare drum on the 2 and 4 counts, hit the hi-hat with your left hand. As you swing with your right hand, move your left hand to the snare drum. You should play the snare drum with your left hand between hits of the hi-hat.

During the exercise, do not forget to count “One-yes-and-yes-two-yes-and-yes-three-yes-and-yes-four-yes-and-yes-”, continuing to play “One and two and three and four and" on the hi-hat, but playing the snare drum with the left hand on "-da-".

Part 4

Develop coordination of movements

Start learning snare drum rudiments. Basic "single roll" and "double roll" are absolutely essential parts of any drummer's game. A single fraction is different from double theme, that in a single you strike each subsequent blow, changing your hand and making a new swing, and in a double you let the stick bounce off the plastic and make two strikes in one swing.

Playing in twos allows drummers to develop tremendous speed and play incredible patterns. All basic patterns using single strokes, twos, triples and fours are presented in the book “26 Basic American Rudiments”.

Learn to play with both feet. It may be challenging and make you rack your brain, but playing the drums means constantly learning something new. Instead of alternating single kicks, try doing two, three, or four kicks while performing a different pattern with your hands.

At the same time, do not forget to count the 8th notes and play the hi-hat with your left foot on the 4th or 8th weak beats. To play within a standard rock beat, play 2 and 4 on the snare. At the same time, lead the rhythm on the ride cymbal with 8 notes with your right hand; if there is no ride, play along the hoop of the snare drum.

Play the bass drum with your right foot. Experiment with your bass drum pattern while keeping the rhythm with the rest of your body. This is where the fun begins. But don’t worry if it doesn’t work out right away, over time it will become simple and familiar. This is a matter of coordination of movements and the ability to play your own pattern with a separate limb. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist fast way learn this. Just concentrate and practice. Sometimes it helps to play the part of the game that doesn't work out separately.

Part 5

Learn more complex rhythms

Learn to play triplets. To learn how to play fourth triplets, you need to start from the second notes. Count 1-tri-ole for every other note. For eighth note triplets, everything is the same: three notes are counted for every fourth note.

Triplets are not used as often in rock beats, but they are an excellent fill tool and are often found in school orchestra scores. A triplet is when you play 3 notes instead of 2. You can play 4th, 8th, 16th and 32nd triplets.
There are many great-sounding 8-note triplet patterns out there. You need to count “[One-tri-ol][Two-tri-ol][Three-tri-ol][Four-tri-ol]” or any other in a suitable manner. Play this pattern with a metronome, playing each click count and mentally dividing each count into 3 parts.

Learn to play 16th notes. These are the notes you already played when you played the hi-hat exercise. They are considered "".

16th triplets are considered "".

We count the 32nd: « »/

It is possible to play 32nd triplets, but the complex structure of the subdivisions makes it very difficult to pronounce the count out loud. If you want to hear what 32nd triplets sound like, listen to "Hey Joe" Jimi Hendrix. This is a very difficult time signature to play, as it requires the ability to play very quickly, while it is necessary to distribute accents across the setup in unison with the main rhythm.

Remember: Each subdivision has its own place in time, and the downbeats must clearly coincide with the click of the metronome. By playing fourth beats on a metronome, you won't have any difficulty saying the count when you move up to higher tempos.

Pauses mean that no instrument plays during that unit of time. Listen to your favorite song and count the 16th or 8th notes, during many transitions or fills you will find places where no instrument is playing - these are pauses.

Learn to feel the different subdivisions and rests by playing only the snare drum. One of the goals in this exercise is to punch with equal force with both hands. Accented strokes should sound louder than normal strokes, regardless of whether you play them with your right or left hand.

An accented shot is a shot that sounds louder than a regular roll shot, sometimes performed with a rim shot. Accenting adds dynamics to music. In musical notation, accents are indicated by the mathematical greater-than sign (>).

Don't focus on speed. Pay attention to the smoothness of the groove and maintaining the tempo.

Practice regularly, even if you don't have access to a drum set, for at least 15-20 minutes a day. Exercising 5 minutes every day is better than 35 minutes once a week.

Realize that you are a musician first and a drummer second. The best drummers take a very musical approach to their playing, putting the sound of the song first rather than showing off their skills. There is a time and place for everything.

If you decide to start playing the drum kit, an inexpensive model costing about 10 thousand rubles will do the trick for you to start with. Most often it will consist of a bass drum, two hanging toms, one floor tom, a snare, a hi-hat, a ride, a crash and stands, a chair and pedals. You can always purchase additional items later.

Drumsticks bounce off the drum perfectly, doing some of the swing work for you, so don't press them against the head.

Do not pinch the stick too hard, otherwise you will tear the head, break the sticks and may suffer injuries that will make it impossible for you to continue playing the drums. Remember John Bonham and Keith Moon - not everything is so simple, they knew what they were doing. Drum gloves will help get rid of calluses.

Do not neglect ear protection - earplugs or headphones. For example, the snare drum was made to cut through the noise of battle, but here it is a couple of tens of centimeters from your ears.

Find educational literature or books. Check their reviews before spending money. Not all books will be useful to you, some are designed for a different level of student, while others are specific style, which may not coincide with your desires.

Learn to play the rudiments and then ask someone to show you how they can be applied to music. Just speed training, no musical application, will not do you any good. Train the rudiments to the point of automaticity, so that you can calmly apply them in music, and not just bang on the ped.

If you don't have room for an acoustic drum kit, consider electronic drums, like RockBand - you can connect them to your computer and play using the Drum Machine program. You can assign a different sound to each ped, but the response speed may be too slow - this is their serious disadvantage.

Take a lesson from a teacher and see if you like playing.

You can start banging on metal cans and buckets if you don't have the money for installation. Another option would be to purchase a training pad.

To avoid angering your neighbors, parents, and everyone in your neighborhood, soundproof your drums and the area where you play.

Nothing on your installation should fall off and hang on the good word.

Relax. If you get tense, slow down and start again.

For most people, playing the drums is just a hobby that does not require serious practice. Almost all drummers sit down at the kit when the mood is right and play for fun. But for professional musician There is always a need to improve and develop your skills. So how can you learn to play the drums yourself?

Firstly, it’s worth setting up for yourself specific goals that we should try to achieve in class. Secondly, you need to practice a lot and often. A drummer of any level should pursue three goals in his work: learning new techniques, repeating previously learned material, and developing musicality. Like any other musician, a drummer must constantly learn something new.

What do you need to play the drums?

A metronome is something every drummer needs. For both beginners and seasoned professionals. All exercises must be played to it. Metronomes are either electronic or mechanical. For a drummer, the first one will do;
pad - useful if you don’t have drums at hand. You can also practice with the pad in relative silence;
music player - with it you can play parts to songs;
earplugs - will help during long rehearsals;
music stand - you can do without it, but with a music stand it is much more convenient to read unfamiliar parts;
and, of course,

How should rehearsals proceed?

If you play the drums well, then know that the key to success lies in regular and properly structured lessons. Ideally, you should train every day, especially for those who want to connect their lives with music. In addition, playing the drums requires the drummer to have a developed muscular system. For this reason, it would be a good idea to take up some kind of sport.

There is no need for long, grueling rehearsals, especially if you are learning something new or complex. Scientists have proven that a person can properly concentrate his attention only in the first twenty minutes. Therefore, you can take short breaks every twenty minutes. If you play with a group, then it is in these five to ten minutes that you can discuss this or that song.

How to learn to play the drums smoothly? This will be helped by the following point, which every musician should remember - playing parts in at a slow pace. The muscles need to be given a chance to practice movements at a slow pace, so that later there are no mistakes and you don’t have to relearn them. You can also count out loud as you practice the exercises. This will help you correctly understand the tempo and size of the piece. You can also sing along to the game.

Proper sound production is the key to success. You must strive to get into the middle of the drum to get a pleasant and clear sound. You also need to hit the plates correctly and hold the sticks correctly, watch the landing and impact. Planting, technique and sound production - key points in drumming.

It is also important not to lose interest in classes over time. One lesson should contain many aspects that the drummer must keep in mind. It is undesirable to spend the entire class time practicing the same technique.

What should be included in the lesson?

control over the correctness of the blow and sound production;
practice with a metronome;
playing in different styles;
game in odd sizes;
development weak hands and legs - play like a left-handed drummer;
playing at both slow and fast paces;
game of polyrhythms;
various tricks with sticks - devote your free time to this;
shuffles;
come up with your own ideas and develop creatively!
use of brushes;
Recording and listening to your rehearsals will help you hear your mistakes.

So we answered the question of how to learn to play the drums. Now you can purchase everything you need to play and start training.

Music, and especially music performed live, is something that has the strongest influence on a person. Having gone through its centuries-old life, music today is a combination of performing skills of the highest level, high technology in the field of recording and sound design, as well as serious development business musical styles and individual performers. Our article will talk about where a future drummer needs to start his journey. So:

How to play the drums and what is needed for this?

The subject of our conversation will be an ordinary drum kit, which is a mandatory attribute of any studio. Let's first talk about what it is, and then we'll go through the basic requirements for playing technique on the kit.

A drum kit or “set” (as musicians call it) consists of different drums, which differ in the tone of the sound and the method of playing parts on each of them. Here is a list of tools that are common features of any modern installation:

Big drum (kick or kick). This instrument stands on the floor and the head is turned towards the musician, so it rests on the body. The plastic is the area where the pedal hits. Kick drum is played with the foot using a pedal or double pedal. Particularly dexterous drummers sometimes use three pedals. As a rule, it is placed on the pedal right leg.
Snare drum. One of the most important attributes of a drum kit, without which it cannot be considered complete. You can't play drums without it. The snare drum is installed in front of the drummer at the level of the bend of the arm at the elbow at an angle of 90 degrees. This positioning is necessary to perform a correct and powerful hit on the snare drum. It is usually equipped with a white top head and an adjustable snare, which is used to change the sound of the instrument.
Toms are drums of a lower pitch than snare. They are used by the drummer during transitions in the composition, during the so-called “breaks”. Depending on the style and desire of the drummer, he can set at his discretion from zero to large quantity volumes. The maximum limit of toms is the drummer's ability to reach them to make a full hit. A typical setup comes with three toms of different tones. Above the snare is the highest sounding tom, to the left is the lower tone, and the floor tone is the lowest sounding instrument, with the exception of the kick drum, of course.
Let's move on to the hardware, that is, to the plates. An indispensable attribute of any installation is the hi-hat. Without it, you won't learn to play the drums. It is located near the snare drum on the left. Only the hi-hat has unique properties and structure. The fact is that it includes an upper and lower plate. A special stand allows the musician to open and close them, which significantly affects the sound of the hat.
Another indispensable tool as part of the hardware it is a ride. This is the largest cymbal in diameter, which is located to the right of the drummer and gives a gentle, airy and sonorous tone when played correctly.
Well, a set of cymbals, such as crashes. This includes a variety of cymbals of any sound and tone. The main cymbals used by everyone are crashes of a different tone, China, and splash.

That's probably all the instruments that drummers use. Let's move on to the principle of drumming. It's no secret that good drummer Must have perfect coordination and sense of rhythm. It is these two indicators that determine the success of a particular drummer. The principle of the game comes down to the following. Each composition has its own time signature. The most common of these is the bar, which contains 4 beats. So the drummer must fill these four beats correctly to play the drums well. Proper filling comes down to this idea. The barrel performs the first blow in the measure on the count of times. Further, the game of barrel may vary. The snare drum creates the rhythm of the song. The snare drum hits weak share tact. Thus, the bar pattern is: 1-kick, 2-snare, 3-kick, 4-snare. To give the composition a more pumped and slow sound, play this way: 1-barrel, 2-barrel, 3-snare, 4-barrel. At that moment, while the musician's right foot and left hand hit the kick and snare, respectively, the drummer's right hand plays any of the cymbals in this way: 1-cymbal, 2-cymbal, 3-cymbal, 4-cymbal.

Only in this way and in no other way can you achieve a sound similar in its composition to the sound when a professional drummer plays. A few words about what drumsticks are and how to use them correctly. The drumsticks are two processed wooden bars having tips for playing instruments. The stick should be held by the thicker end, and hit with the side where there is a tip. The correct grip of the stick is to hold it not with your entire palm, but only with your fingers. The palm only holds the stick, stabilizing its trajectory. This is exactly how you should play the drums. The drum can be struck three times different ways, depending on the genre and nature of the work. The first method corresponds to light music, such as jazz. Played with fingers only. With the help of special finger work, the drummer performs light blows on the heads percussion instruments. The second method, which is used everywhere, involves using a brush. The musician's hand and fingers are used to strike. Well, the strongest blow, which transfers maximum energy to the instrument and extracts maximum decibels from it, is performed using the elbow or shoulder part of the hand. This method is used extremely rarely and in special moments of the composition.

We hope that the material we presented will help beginning musicians master the basics of mastering such a multifaceted and complex instrument, like a drum kit. For those who strive for highest level skills, there is a video of how to play the drums.

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What are Paradiddles

It is generally accepted that paradiddles are fractions. And Dave Weckl clearly demonstrated the truth of this statement in his first video. Ideally, it should really be a fraction, but in order for it to become such, you will have to work hard. And, for the most part, over the automaticity of their rapid execution. Paradiddles- this is a purely cramming thing, they are practiced at the minimum bpm on the metronome, as low as you can wait for the next click.

Paradiddles are something like Doctor Aibolit for sick hippopotamuses and sluggish, one-sided and dynamic rhythms. After paradiddles, the drummer usually begins to think in a completely different way and changes so dramatically that, sometimes, the members of his band begin to miss the past - the “monotonous” single champion who permeates their compositions with a great dull concentration exclusively.

Start disassembling paradiddles “dry”, that is, without being tied to a metronome - just poking them into the rubber. Right, left, right, right (here you scratch your knee and yawn) - Left, right, left, left. Those. The task is simply to make out this bunch of notes. First, sing them out loud in the spirit: “Ta-tu-ta-ta-Tu-ta-tu-tu.” It is very important to feel the melody of each paradiddle, since it is individual for everyone. It will also be useful to try playing paradiddles by moving your hands to different instruments. Further, when a slight understanding visits your body and instills hope in it, you turn on the slow one, between the clicks of which you can, for example, check your mail, and start click-by-click trying to connect it all.

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How to tune the drums - quite frequent and problematic issue: after all, you want to understand what exactly changes, for example, if you tighten the resonator head too much and relax the drum head, or vice versa. In this unique video lesson, we will hear with our own ears what exactly changes with different settings of the toms, snare drum, and bass drum. The fact is that from this small study I myself heard and understood a lot, because everything here is clear and understandable. I didn’t take the liberty of drawing any conclusions, because tuning the drums is an exclusively personal matter, so the freedom of choice is yours!

I’m also preparing a new subject on methods of recording, processing and mastering drums, but I’ll write it down as I’m freed from my main work responsibilities (I’m finishing up another client site).

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Today I invited myself to visit an old friend, whose, I must say, very powerful playing I (just like many fans of Soviet metal) have listened to since school. Pavel Droban is the drummer of the popular doom metal band Melissa in Soviet times. His biography is remarkable, for example, in that he began his career as a drum technician for Gorky Park, and, having abandoned drums, this man worked for some time as a financier in a bank; Now he can really repair any laptop, camera, phone, monitor or anything for you, and he has an absolutely hellish punch (that’s where it is in practice), but the most surprising thing for me personally was watching him (together with the staunch metalheads from the band “Melissa” ") - with instrumental backup by M. Shufutinsky.

And, despite the fact that I have known this person for quite a long time, for some reason only now did I pay attention to some kind of veiled intelligence, often characteristic of people Soviet times, on the sobriety and naturalness of his views, which are impossible not to share. And, while some continue to grow fat while playing LineAge, today you will personally learn:

1. Opening speech in the manner of N. Drozdov and Melissa as a backup dancer for M. Shufutinsky
2. What should real metal be like?
3. Details of the drum recording of the first Melissa album
4. How should one behave in order to avoid the counter question “me or the drums”?
5. Favorite drummers of Pavel Droban.
6. How do you mean “play forward” and “play backward”? Drummers with hyper-thrust.
7. Problems with modern drum recording, why has everything become the same?
8. Drum stool - why?
9. . Why take a stick with a traditional lock?
10. Chips from Pavel Droban, how to play SKA correctly
11. Budget track with Pavel Droban.

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I admit honestly, when I practiced this subject in my distant student youth, I relied on it big hopes. The fact is that it was with this simple feature that I could safely “tear” and show off in front of my drum peers, who believed that such “things” were played exclusively through two barrels (some still think that I used a cardan). It is the ability to perform high-speed breaks - with only one leg, in conditions traditional installation, from appearance which emanates lonely tranquility and from which, certainly, no one expects such a quantity of sprinkles - allows you to produce, although cheap, but a very lasting effect on those around you. “Well, what the heck,” you can hear in the hall, and you smile impudently at your own cunning. The other drummers with whom you share the stage modestly lower their gaze and frantically hide their signature Ahead drum gloves away from your gaze. But essentially there is no trick here. All you need is to learn how to fill - quickly (and most importantly - evenly). Everything else is a clearly worked out sequence.

And while many of us rushed to Wikipedia to look for the meaning of this mysterious word, those who scored and stayed will find out below that in this video lesson:
1. The second direction in the development of doubles on pedals and what was the first?
2. The role of the evenness of the execution of the two-legged pair in filling the carry-on luggage with it.
3. Should you replay your legs? How to get up from classes correctly, is it worth being fully satisfied with classes?
4. Quarters through a barrel. Exercises.
5. Drumming trick - practicing 4/4 exercises in triplet counting.
6. Sixtol breaks through one barrel. Exercises on sixtoles.
7. Penotol fillings and breaks flowing from it.
8. and the resulting shuffles and rocker rhythms. John Bonham's feature in Good Times, Bad Times

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New exercises to develop the technique of playing twos are coming to the rescue! This time we will work on the control (controllability) of performance in triplet time (where - oh, how often they will need to be used), and we will do this through a very powerful triplet exercise, which in itself sounds very killer and is easy to apply in rhythms and breaks. Personally, I use it all the time during the game, so I recommend that you focus your attention on it and analyze this matter properly. It's about about a fraction with a two in one hand and in the other. This drawing is beautiful because in addition to the ease of screwing this control into 4/4 (due to the fact that the right hand is always leading), there is space for accents, especially in the second, where it is offset. Playing such a thing quickly after a little practice will not be any problem, and by connecting them together into a single roll you will get a very effective solo fill.

And while search bots are trying to somehow decipher the above, below you will find out that:
1. What will happen to the “scaffold” if we throw out the “hole” from there and turn it into a triplet?
2. “Tribans” from the right and left hands. What are they developing?
3. Why should the right hand stick to the downbeat?
4. Triplet deuce - why is it so difficult? Opening the palm.
5. What would happen if these “troubans” were played single?
6. Practical use, tricks and shifts in emphasis.
7. How to increase the speed of training and the rules for carrying a ZIL brand refrigerator.
8. We combine the first and second exercises - a hell of a solo break!
9. Announcement of the next exercises.
10. Encouraging PS

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Hello friends! Finally, I put together this lesson dedicated to one of the most problematic areas of our drum technique - twos in the legs, the recipe for which is probably passed down from grandmothers to grandchildren, and getting its intelligible form is often very problematic. This is quite strange, because the importance of twos in legs greatly exceeds the importance of . Without mastering a double kick in the leg, it is almost impossible to perform rhythms (most of them), and what opportunities this opens up for all kinds of breaks and polivalov! This is one of the most frequently asked questions on the Internet, and rightfully so. And while some people, with their mouths open in surprise, shave their beards with the TV remote control, and some chew the cord from their headphones, this will not prevent them from finding out that..