Hey guys, here's a nifty free drumming lesson for you. In this lesson, I'll teach you how to take the most simple rudiment, the single stroke, and turn it into a funky beat! For this, you'll need: a drumset of a hihat, snare, bass drum, and maybe a cymbal, sticks, and the basics. You have to know how to grip the stick and the stroke and everything.
Now, we're going to start by just reviewing the rudiment itself. If you have a metronome, set it to 120, and play single strokes as 8th notes. If you don't know what that means, let me explain. For every one click the metronome sounds, play a note with your right hand, and then a note with your left hand. Make sure they are evenly distributed between one click of the metronome and the next. If you need help with this, read this article here about topics to practice and how to do them.
Once you can do the basic RLRLRLRL (right = R, left =L), try switching it up. Do LRLRLRLR. Then try switching between the two. RL-LR-RL-LR. Here are some more: LR-RL-LR-RL, LR-LR-RL-RL, RL-RL-LR-LR, RL-LR-LR-RL, LR-RL-RL-LR. That may take some practice in and of itself. Practice it with the metronome on until you can do them all.
Then play the basic RL-RL-RL-RL again, but move your right hand to the closed hihat. Play hihat-snare-hihat-snare. Then play it, and make the snare drum very quiet. You want your right hand to be loud on the hihat, but your left hand quiet on the snare.
Then play that beat, adding your right foot playing the bass drum on beats 1 and 3. On beats 2 and 4, move your right hand from the hihat to the snare drum.
Once you establish that groove, you can make it fancier by changing the bass drum part, adding fills, or adding a swing feel. For more details, video, audio clips, etc. check out the Drumming System, which can teach you the grip, stroke, stick control, beat, fills, bass drum technique, swing feel, just about everything. Learn all the drum concepts HERE!
