Week 3/4 : Part 1 (more to follow)

 Hello, and firstly apologies for not getting the last lesson's bits up on the blog. I've had a busy week coordinating the Academy's entries for the Rockschool exams at the end of March. We've got over 120 candidates entered this time and just shows how the Academy is going from strength to strength.

Anyone who is new to Drum Lessons at Playsomething should have a look here for the warm up and here for the list of 8th note grooves to practice.

Then, following on from this week's lesson, have a look through Quarter Note Grooves here and the 16th Note Grooves here .

Week 2 : 11th -14th January 2010

This week we looked at playing the hi hats and in particular the use of open hi hat as an effect within a groove and as an accent effect in fills.

A quick bit of history - thanks to Iain H. Foot operated cymbals were originally 'Low Hats' - two cymbals that were played with the foot, very simply crashing together. These then developed into 'Hi Hats' that could be played with the sticks as an integral part of the drum kit. This is an image from an old Premier catalogue showing a pair of 'Low Hats'.

We began by playing an 'open' Hi Hat with a basic 8th Note groove pattern. Play through the exercises below at your own pace. Remember to focus not only on which beat the open hi hat is on but also where the foot will close the hi hat (usually the next beat that you will play).

Then we looked a series of exercises using a basic 16th note pattern on the snare drum, using the open hi hat as an accent.

Week 1 : 4th - 8th January 2010

Welcome back!

This week we looked at a 'Rudiment Refresher' exercise to get you back into the swing of things.

Work through the exercises below to a 'click' or a metronome. Start at 100bpm, play it through a couple of times then push the tempo up very slightly - 101, 103, 105 etc

Another good way of practicing this is with recorded music. Most 'dance-ie' music around the 120bpm mark.