Drum Lessons

The paradiddle is another important snare drum rudiment that will help you get a handle on the sticks. The basic paradiddle is played by the hands with the following repeating pattern:

R L R R L R L L ...  read more »

You can start to learn to play drums right away, without even owning a drum set.

Drums are a lot of fun to play, and every rock/pop band needs them. Since there are way more guitar players than drummers, drummers are in high demand. In fact, I started playing because my friends wanted to form a band, and couldn't find a drummer. So I decided to learn.  read more »

Continuing the series of online drum lessons, this time the concept of syncopation is introduces. And as in the previous online drum lesson, you are welcome to practice this one by tapping your hands and feet, or by using an actual drum set.

In music, the concept known as syncopation means playing or accenting a note that is offset from the regular beat. What this means for our drum practice here, is that we're going to play some snare notes in between the hi-hat notes.  read more »

In the previous online drum lesson, every four count the beat repeated exactly. In this lesson, the beat is going to repeat every eight count, but instead of counting to eight, we are going to count half beats like so, "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and...", where the 'and' indicates an inbetween half beat. Our beat is now going to be have an 8^th note feel, because the basic unit of count is an 8^th note.  read more »

This is the first in a series of online drum lessons for the very beginner. In this lesson you'll get up to speed quickly by laying down a basic beat. You'll also learn how to start practicing without a drum set.  read more »

Why should you learn how to read drum notation? Standard drum notation is the most powerful way of communicating a drum set beat. Therefore, nearly every drum book and exercise will use it, and learning drums will be much easier if you know how to read it. Unless you're a professional, you don't have to be a reading superstar to reap the bennefits of drum notation. Just knowing the basic rules will give you access to a vast amount of learning material otherwise impossible to use.  read more »

I hope you're enjoying the tips ans lessons on this site. This page presents some great books and DVDs to take you to the next level of drumming.  read more »

Many people have emailed me asking where they can find drum lessons in their home town. Given the global nature of the Internet, I'm not likely to be familiar with anyone's local area, but I can give some pointers for drum lessons in New York City, which is my local area. Some of this is also applicable if you live elsewhere.  read more »

This page will guide you through this site's free starter drum lessons collection. If you're a beginner you can start learning how to play the drums right now.

If you are truly committed to making quick progress, I recommend signing up for the Music Master Pro drum lesson program as well. Go here to try it out. (And then click the Learn Drums button in the main menu bar up top... You'll see it once you get there.)  read more »

Drum fills are breaks from the normal beat that emphasize transitions between two separate musical parts, such as the verse and chorus of a song. Fills are typically composed of fast successive drum notes, also known as rolls. This page will discuss how to use roll to play interesting and effective "killer" drum fills that are not very difficult to master.  read more »