Putting Together the Pieces
Episode #7 of the course How to play the drums to (almost) every song you’ve ever heard by Dylan DePice
Let’s get right to it. You know how to count. You know all the pieces. It’s time to play the beat.
As always, start by just counting. Don’t worry about counting in rhythm.
• Say “one,” play hi-hat (HH) with your right hand on your left thigh, and play bass drum (BD) with your right foot on the floor, lifting your leg high.
• Say “and,” and play HH with your right hand on your left thigh.
• Say “two,” play HH with your right hand on your left thigh, and play snare (SN) with your left hand on your right thigh.
• Say “and,” and play HH with your right hand on your left thigh.
• Say “three,” play HH with your right hand on your left thigh, and play BD with your right foot on the floor, lifting your leg high.
• Say “and,” and play HH with your right hand on your left thigh.
• Say “four,” play HH with your right hand on your left thigh, and play SN with your left hand on your right thigh.
• Say “and,” and play HH with your right hand on your left thigh.
Here’s a smoother way to look at it:
Try to play it. Piece by piece. G o . a s . s l o w . a s . y o u . n e e d . t o .
Whether you got it or not, do it again.
Try to get it four times in a row. At any speed. Not in rhythm. But without hitting any wrong notes.
If you make a mistake, stop and take it from the top. The phrase “take it from the top” probably came from musicians learning songs together from sheet music and needing to “take it from the top of the page.” So, “the top” in musician-speak means the beginning.
Next, try the beat in rhythm. Slowly, of course. V e r y s l o w l y .
This time, if you make a mistake, don’t stop counting. Keep counting, wait for “the top” of the bar, and get it the next time around.
Oh, by the way… YOU DID IT! It doesn’t matter how slow you had to go. YOU. DID. IT.
That’s it! That’s the beat!
Now go for four in a row again. Find a speed that works for you and get comfortable there.
Once you feel like you can do it without thinking, speed up just a little bit. Once you can do it at this speed—in rhythm, consistently, without messing up—speed up again.
Make sure you’re counting the whole time to check that you’re hitting the correct thing, with the correct limb, at the correct time. (It’s very easy to get into a rhythm doing something incorrectly and build the wrong muscle memory.)
You now officially know how to play the beat that’s the basis of just about every song ever! Oh, what’s that? You thought it was going to take 10 lessons? We’ve still got plenty more to do. Tomorrow, we’ll learn how to find that beat in songs you already know.
Recommended book
Alfred’s Beginning Drumset Method by Dave Black and Sandy Feldstein
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