If youвЂ™re struggling to play fast kick patterns in succession, try using either the slide or heel-toe bass drum technique to make it a bit easier. If that happens to you, play the groove slow and make sure to count out loud when reading the rhythms. IвЂ™ve put this beat here because it will help beginners separate their hands and feet in a groove.ДЄll my students double up their hands and feet at first when trying a groove like this. What you have here is a double kick pattern. YouвЂ™re going to be shifting your focus onto the bass drum for this next drum beat. This groove sounds the best when played at a high tempo, so try speeding it up when youвЂ™re feeling comfortable with it. If you play those two snares louder, itвЂ™ll be easier to play the other notes softer. Make sure to play the ghost notes as quietly as possible while accenting the snares on beats 2 and 4. I first heard something similar to this in NirvanaвЂ™s вЂSmells Like Teen SpiritвЂ™. I think this particular groove is one of the most common ones where drummers start to get a bit busier on the snare drum. If you lift your wrist up to play, you might get a snare sound that is too loud. IвЂ™ve found that the best way to get good-sounding ghost notes is to simply drop your wrist near the snare to play the note. Ghost notes usually make beats sound a lot groovier, making them a fantastic tool. TheyвЂ™re shown by the bracket around the note and you play them by lightly tapping the snare drum. Introduced in this groove are things called ghost notes. Make sure youвЂ™ve nailed the first 5 beats before moving on as the next few will be a bit trickier to learn. However, you need to lift your left foot off the hi-hat pedal just before the second snare hit. IвЂ™ve put this groove here as a small exercise to get comfortable with opening the hi-hat within a groove. There are so many components involved with playing the drums that using your fourth limb can shut your whole body down. Something that IвЂ™ve found that is very common with beginner drummers is experiencing difficulty in opening and closing the hi-hat. My students always find this groove harder to speed up than the previous ones, so be prepared to practice it more often. Once you speed the groove up, it becomes a driving beat that could be used in a rock or punk song. If you play the groove slowly, itвЂ™ll act as a foot exercise to work on foot speed.

There are a few repeating kicks here that will give the groove a very dense low-end sound. Beat 4Д«eat 4 will test your leg endurance. So, IвЂ™d say this is a great groove to lay a foundation of offbeat ideas with.ДЄnd since itвЂ™s so popular, youвЂ™ll probably be able to use this beat with some of your favorite radio tunes. Playing that may take a while to get used to, but youвЂ™ll feel ready to expand even further once youвЂ™re used to it. The bass drum falls on the offbeat before the second snare drum. Producers seem to love it and add it into as many songs as they can. I recently saw a video on YouTube where a drummer pointed out how often this groove is used in pop music. When playing the groove, make sure that you kick the bass drum fairly hard to give the groove a strong driving feel. IвЂ™ve also found this to be one of the main beats I play when drumming in church.

Playing all the quarter notes on the bass drum is typically referred to as playing вЂњfour-on-the-floorвЂќ.ДЇour-on-the-floor grooves are quite common in pop and dance music. You only add two more notes, but it completely changes the vibe of the groove. The next groove to learn is a slight variation of the basic rock beat. Your right hand will be playing 8 th notes on the hi-hat all the way through. When learning to play the groove, just remember that your snare drum lands on beats 2 and 4 while the kick drum lands on 1 and 2. ItвЂ™s the most used beat in the world, meaning itвЂ™s vitally important that you learn and develop it in the fundamental years of your drumming. IвЂ™ve most probably used this beat at least once in every gig IвЂ™ve ever played. The great thing about it is that you will never stop playing it. This groove is the first thing everyone learns to play on the drums, arguably making it one of the easiest beats out there. Here lies the holy grail of drumming, the basic rock beat.

Best songs with basic drum beats