It’s so important to be able to play different note values evenly within tempo. In order to internalize the subdivisions it’s helpful to play them against a quarter note. In this video we’ll play quarter notes with our feet and the subdivisions (Quarter Notes, Eighth Notes, Eighth Note Triplets, and Sixteenth) as alternating single strokes. We play the quarter note under all the subdivisions in order to establish that as our anchor. This video is especially valuable to beginners.
If your looking for an easy lesson plan for a group drumming class I recommend buckets. Bucket drumming is easy to pickup and you can easily buy 5-gallon buckets in bulk at places like Lowes or Amazon.
We can easily get different tones out of a bucket by turning the bucket upside down and hitting it with a drum stick. If we strike the bucket towards the center we get a lower pitch. If we hit the rim and the bucket simultaneously, we get a higher pitch–closer to a snare drum. Drummers call this a rim shot. Striking only the rim of the bucket is another option for the higher pitch–which might be easier for beginners.
I created a simple lesson plan with three parts that segments the students into three groups:
The pulse part can be played on the rim or on the sides of the buckets. The snare part is played utilizing rim shots and the bass part is played by striking towards the center of the bucket. Here are the parts:
Download the Bucket-Drumming-Lesson PDF
These exercises, which utilize 3-16 hi-hat accents, will help build your polymetric groove vocabulary. We’ll start with playing the hi-hat accents against a quarter note to get familiar with the three measure phrase–notice the 4 against 3 pattern. Then we’ll mix in the measure positions with 16th notes on the hats and snare drum backbeats in order to create more usable grooves. Enjoy!
These exercises, which utilize 3-16 kick drum patterns (dotted 8ths), will help build your polymetric groove vocabulary. We’ll start with playing just the kick drum pattern against a quarter note to get familiar with the three measure phrase–notice the 4 against 3 polyrhythm. Then we’ll mix in the measure positions with 8th notes on the hats and snare drum backbeats in order to create more usable grooves. Enjoy!
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