How To Drum - Drum Lessons

So you just bought your first drum kit and you want to know how to play the drums. Or, maybe you don’t own a drum kit yet but you still have that passion to play drums. Well, you have come to the right place to learn. Learning how to play drums is actually very easy; you don’t need to own a drum kit at all when you are beginning. In fact, the first few steps in learning how to play drums involves you, 2 sticks and a practice pad. On this site you will learn how to play drums, how to play fills, how to play solos’s etc… This is the complete how-to for drumming! Follow these instructions and you are well on your way to drumming like the professionals!

How To Play Drums – First Steps

The first steps to playing the drums is by counting. Without being able to count or understand time signatures, you are useless behind the kit. Everyone knows how to count to 4 – this will be the basis of your beat. Most basic rock drumming beats are in the time signature of 4/4, meaning there are 4 counts each bar. (or 4 counts before the beat repeats). From here, you want to follow your counting with your dominant (usually your right) hand. With this hand, hit the hi hat on every count. The rest is actually quite simple, now that you are counting, simply add your bass drum and snare drum on the counts. Add your bass drum on 1, and the snare on 3. This will be your basic drum beat.

Now that you have learned the basics on how to play drums, you will be able to see how beats are built around this basic pattern. If you can count to 4, you can play the drums, as I have just shown you. This is the basics to most rock drumming beats and grooves. Next you will want to practice stick control and drum rudiments. Learning how to play rudiments will help you build independence and speed around your drum kit. But do not go too fast at first, pace yourself. Make sure you have a feel for the drum set and your sticks. Start out with the two most common rudiments, the Single stroke roll and the Double stroke roll. Become very familiar with that basic 4/4 groove, so you can play it at different tempos.

Remember, you are a drummer whose main task is to keep everyone on time, so make sure your timing is very precise. Playing the drums is a lot more than just playing a beat on time – there’s much more to it. You want to feel the beat, feel the time, and feel the groove. There is also much you can learn about stick control. A drummer should be able to create the mood and groove for any song, adding fills and accents in to spice things up. Learning how to do this is not an easy task, but you are at the right place if you are interested! When you want to improve your overall skills on the drum set, check out these 2 powerfull articles and lessons: Increasing your stick Speed and control, and learning the double bass drum. Keep posted for upcoming lessons and the complete how to on the drums!