Drum Related

So two days ago I gave you an exercise in counting a slightly broken bar. HOEPFULLY you’ve all have a crack at it at least. I’m sure some of you found it easy but a few may have struggled a bit.

I’m now giving you a few patterns to try and turn into fills.

But before you do this, know one thing…..

The pattern is simply what you are playing from your bar. It has nothing to do with WHERE you play it on the kit. A pattern actually has NO SOUND until you apply one. Just like words on a page have no sound until someone reads them aloud. If YOU were to read them aloud they’d sound like YOU reading them. If I were to read them aloud they’d sound like ME reading them. Simple stuff I know but you’d be surprised as to how many people don’t realise this. So all I’m doing here is giving you patterns for you to apply a sound.
If you’re more of a beginner I’d recommend just sticking to the snare and toms, however if you’re a more seasoned player why not try to be really elaborate with the sound. Just make sure you’re counting them right when learning them in the first place.
A little tip is to get some nice sounding fills is to take a simple, boring pattern and make the sound a bit more intricate. If you take a more complex pattern keep the sound relatively simple so as not to sound too random. (They’re all written on the snare, but that’s only to have a blank canvas on which to start to learn the patter. You can make them SOUND how you want while sticking to the pattern.)

Have some fun and see what you can come up with, click here to download the file in PDF format.

Know What You’re Doing!! – I’ve saved the best until last. Now it may be something pretty obvious, but you’ll be surprised as to how many people try and play not really knowing what they are trying to do! This is my point… You must know exactly what you’re doing at all times, otherwise how are you going to be able to do it?!?! I think this is a pretty good rule for life in general too!
You must know the most intricate detail about your bar. You need to know, BEFORE you start, what it is you are listening out for. Otherwise how are you supposed to know you’ve got it right when you do?!?  Be able to describe what you’re doing to someone else so that they’ll be able to understand it. If you can do this then you have a much greater chance of getting the hang of something. If you don’t know what you are trying to play then figure it out before hand.

These are my fundamentals. Work on these things and you have a much greater chance of being a great drummer.

Counting – Counting means that you have a marker for your bar. My analogy is this….. If I gave you a plank of wood and told you to mark a point bang in the centre from both ends you might have a good guess and get it pretty close, or maybe just right every so often. But there’s no consistency in it. Now if I gave you the same plank of wood and a tape measure you could get it right every single time without fail! That’s what counting is for your bar. It’s the tape measure. If you want to put something into a specific place you need to count to make sure you get it there!

Hand & Foot Coordination – If you have great hand and foot coordination then it will enable you to play more complex grooves. It’ll enable you to play faster tempos without necessarily playing physically faster. It will make everything more fluent and easier to play, therefore easier for you to play for longer. When things are easier to play you can concentrate more on what sound you’re producing and how you are contributing to what other people are doing as opposed to being completely absorbed in what you re trying to play each and every second of your bar.

Round the Kit – Some drummers are very fast, but only on one drum. This should not be so. If you work round the kit then it improves your hand/ eye coordination. It gets your hands, arms and body to work in harmony together. It enables you to play faster and more complex fills and to be more confident with creativity. If done at speed for any length of time it can also be very good for your cardio!

Singles – By singles I’m really talking about stick control. However this could also be pedal control. It doesn’t necessarily always mean hand to hand. It could just be a single hand or foot too. So really maybe it should have been called “hits”, but hey! If you have great singles then your control must also be good. If you work on your singles then your endurance will also be good. The better your singles, the more ability you will have to gain power should you want it. The faster you can play your singles at the more tempos open up for you at which to play songs. Also, using singles means you can play pretty much the same speed on any surface, not only on a tight one.