How To Play The Drums- Beginners To Advanced

Learn how to hold the sticks, play the bass drum, play cool beats, fills and read drum music.

What you'll learn

Learn how to hold the sticks and play the bass drum pedal

Learn how to read music in a simple, fun and practical way

Learn to play beats and cool drum fills, from basic to advanced

Learn how to play rock, funk and shuffle rhythms

Learn how to play a rim click, rim shot and ghost notes

Requirements

You don't need any experience at all to take this course! You can be an absolute beginner. Or if you are a self taught player who has holes in their music theory. Having a drumkit is necessary..

Description

In this course, you will learn important skills to help you become an excellent drummer. Starting at the beginning, you will learn how to hold the sticks, play the bass drum pedal, and read drum music. Magesh breaks down drum notation in a simple way that anyone can understand.  He also created a system for people who like learning with their ears. This is for people who are self-taught or have holes in their knowledge of rhythm. There are over 50 downloadable PDFs for the beats, fills, sticking patterns, and video play-alongs.  These will help you not only play the right notes but also create the right feel.  This course is great if you want to learn the drums quickly!  If you want to play along to your favorite songs it is important to know what you are playing! This course will show you that if you understand 1/4 notes, 8th notes, and 16th notes you can play thousands of songs. The videos are designed to be short and high-impact.  After you learn how to hold the sticks, you will be introduced to 2 of the most important rudiments.  The single stroke and double stroke roll. These are used in every style of music!  Playing them will help you develop stick control and speed.  After teaching drums for 25 years I developed a simple technique for showing people how to play the bass drum.  It has 4 simple steps and will save you years in trial and error department. When I teach privately, my whole concept is that I can show someone who has never played the drums a basic beat in their first 30-minute lesson.  That's why, in this course, you will learn your first beat in the 5th video!  I think some courses teach people a lot of things that you don't need to know at the beginning.  If you are like me, you want to play beats, fills, and songs in a short amount of time.  That's why I made this course just under 2 hours.  The PDFs of the beats usually have 1 or 2 beats/fills or exercises on them. (There are over 50 PDFS!) This was made to not overwhelm you. Also, it creates bite-size goals that you can achieve!I realized that some people learn with their eyes by reading music and some people with their ears through listening. I created a UNIQUE system where I show people how to 'sing' a beat.  It is amazing how quickly you can pick up something complicated with this method.  I go into detail about this system in videos 6 to 10.I feel people are intimidated when it comes to reading music.  This is usually because they had a bad experience in high school or with a mediocre teacher.  Or maybe they watched a YouTube tutorial that was more confusing than quantum physics! Learning 1/4 notes, 8th notes and 16th notes will open up a lot of doors for you. It will mean you can buy a drum book or download music from the internet knowing what the music notation means.  This is important regardless if you want to play rock, funk, jazz, or heavy metal. This course will show you not only how these notes sound but also what they look like.  The music notation is on the screen as I play a beat so you can follow along. Videos 3 to 9 go in-depth on 1/4 notes,8th notes, and 16th notes.  I play them around the drums and in beats.  You may already be playing these notes without knowing what you are doing.  This course simplifies written drum notation.When I watched online drum tutorials I noticed a lot did talk about note values but hardly any talked about RESTS! I wanted to show you how these rests are just as important as the notes. Videos 10 and 11 cover rests.  They are paramount to understanding rhythm.Being a great drummer means having great timing.  This course will also talk about how to use a metronome and also the best types of metronomes.As you progress in this course you will slowly start to play more complex beats.  Videos 20 to 23 demonstrate off beats which are popular in funk music. A big part of playing the drums is coordination.  I included a really useful hand and foot combination exercise to help you use your hands and feet.  Video 24 breaks down this exercise while video 25 shows you how to apply it to a beat.Video 26 on this course shows you how to play 8th-note triplets.  This rhythm is used a lot in blues, rock, and jazz music.  Understanding how to count the triplet and play it accurately will make your drumming a lot more solid.Video 28 is dedicated to teaching you the difference between a swing and a straight feel.  I feel this is hardly ever covered in online drum tutorials.In videos 29 to 31 of this course you will learn how to play a rim click, a rimshot, and ghost notes.  These techniques are important for drummers and are commonly used in funk, rock, and blues music.The next part of this course is the 'Play along' section.  Here, I break down the subtleties of playing Rock, Funk, and Shuffles (the shuffle is commonly used in Blues music!) The idea is for you to play along with me.  I play several versions of each style of music for 60 seconds.  Playing along for this amount of time with me will help your timing and feel.  The feel is created by how hard I'm hitting the drums, where I'm hitting the drums, and with what part of the stick I'm hitting the drums. There were some beats where I did 2 versions of the play-along.  A normal tempo and a slowed-down version for beginners.In the rock section play along you will learn beats that are used on popular songs by bands like Guns n Roses, Aerosmith, and Jimi Hendrix.In the funk section I purposely had the camera do a close-up of the snare drum so you could see how to play ghost notes. These funk beats sound similar to beats played by James Brown, Prince, and Bruno Mars.In the triplet play-along, you will learn how to play multiple bass drum and snare drum parts while the hi-hats play 8th-note triplets.In video 47 I talk about the shuffle rhythm.  I believe this is one of the most incorrectly played drum beats! I wanted to break it down into small pieces to really teach you how to play a great shuffle beat! I also show you how to play an 'implied shuffle' which is commonly used by the band Green Day.  Video 52 shows you how to play a halftime shuffle which is the basis for the beat of the song 'Rosanna' by the band Toto.Videos 55 to 57 cover playing 16th notes on the hi-hats.  I purposely included slowed-down versions of these beats for beginners.I wanted to finish this course with some quick snippets of me improvising concepts like ghost notes, rimshots, and 16th notes from this course. I also wanted to give you advice on how to get the most out of your practice time.  I believe playing the drums should be FUN! I really hope you have fun learning how to play drums in this course!

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Introduction

Section 2: How to sit at the drums

Lecture 2 How to sit at the drums

Section 3: How to hold the sticks.

Lecture 3 How to hold the sticks.

Section 4: The single stroke roll

Lecture 4 The single stroke roll

Section 5: The double stroke roll

Lecture 5 the double stroke roll

Section 6: How to play the bass drum

Lecture 6 How to play the bass drum

Section 7: The basic beat

Lecture 7 The basic beat

Section 8: Singing the beat

Lecture 8 Singing the beat

Section 9: Singing the beat part 2

Lecture 9 Singing the beat part 2

Section 10: The basic beat with multiple bass drums

Lecture 10 The bass beat with multiple bass drums

Section 11: The basic beat in 4/4 time

Lecture 11 The basic beat in 4/4 time

Section 12: Quarter note rests

Lecture 12 Quarter note rests

Section 13: Eighth note rests

Lecture 13 Eighth note rests

Section 14: Using a metronome

Lecture 14 Using a metronome.

Section 15: Playing drum fills

Lecture 15 Playing drum fills

Section 16: Playing a beat with a fill

Lecture 16 Playing a beat with a fill

Section 17: Playing 1/4 notes and 1/8th notes in a fill

Lecture 17 Playing 1/4 notes and 1/8th notes in a fill

Section 18: Introducing 16th notes

Lecture 18 Introducing 16th notes

Section 19: 16th note drum fill.

Lecture 19 16th note drum fill

Section 20: Mixed subdivision drum fills.

Lecture 20 Mixed subdivision drum fills.

Section 21: More mixed subdivision fills

Lecture 21 More mixed subdivision fills

Section 22: Drum fills with the bass drum

Lecture 22 Drum fills with the bass drum

Section 23: Off beats on the snare

Lecture 23 Off beats on the snare drum

Section 24: Off beats on the snare in four four timing

Lecture 24 Off beats on the snare in four four timing

Section 25: Another 16th note off beat on the snare.

Lecture 25 Another 16th note off beat on the snare.

Section 26: co ordination exercise

Lecture 26 Co ordination exercise

Section 27: Co ordination exercise in a beat

Lecture 27 Co ordination exercise in a beat

Section 28: 8th note triplets

Lecture 28 8th note triplets

Section 29: 16th notes on the hi hat

Lecture 29 16th notes on the hi hat

Section 30: Swing versus straight

Lecture 30 Swing versus straight

Section 31: The rim click

Lecture 31 The rim Click

Section 32: The rim shot

Lecture 32 The rim shot

Section 33: Ghost notes

Lecture 33 Ghost notes

Section 34: Play along intro

Lecture 34 Play along intro

Section 35: Rock play along intro

Lecture 35 Rock play along intro

Section 36: Rock play along 1

Lecture 36 Rock play along 1

Section 37: Rock play along 2.

Lecture 37 Rock play along 2

Section 38: Rock play along 3

Lecture 38 Rock play along

Section 39: Rock play along 4

Lecture 39 Rock play along 4

Section 40: Funk play along 1

Lecture 40 Funk play along 1

Section 41: Funk play along 2

Lecture 41 Funk play along 2

Section 42: Funk play along 3

Lecture 42 Funk play along 3

Section 43: Funk play along 4

Lecture 43 Funk play along 4

Section 44: Playing along with triplets intro

Lecture 44 Playing along with triplets intro

Section 45: Triplet play along 1

Lecture 45 Triplet play along 1

Lecture 46 Triplet play along 1 faster tempo

Section 46: Triplet beat play along 2

Lecture 47 Triplet beat play along 2

Lecture 48 Triplet beat play along 2

Section 47: Triplet play along 3 slow version for beginners

Lecture 49 Triplet play along 3 slow version for beginners

Lecture 50 Triplet play along 3

Lecture 51 Triplet beat play along 4 slow version for beginners

Section 48: Triplet beat play along 4

Lecture 52 Triplet beat play along 4

Section 49: Intro to the shuffle rhythm

Lecture 53 Intro to the shuffle rhythm

Section 50: The shuffle rhythm play along 1

Lecture 54 The shuffle rhythm play along 1 slow version for beginners

Lecture 55 The shuffle rhythm play along 1 slow version for begginners

Lecture 56 The shuffle rhythm play along 1

Lecture 57 The shuffle rhythm play along 2 slow version for beginners

Section 51: The shuffle rhythm play along 2

Lecture 58 The shuffle rhythm play along 2

Section 52: The shuffle rhythm play along 3

Lecture 59 The shuffle rhythm play along 3 slow version for beginners

Lecture 60 The shuffle rhythm play along 3 slow version for beginners

Lecture 61 The shuffle rhythm play along 3

Section 53: Intro to the halftime shuffle

Lecture 62 Intro to the halftime shuffle

Section 54: The halftime shuffle

Lecture 63 The halftime shuffle

Section 55: The implied shuffle intro

Lecture 64 The implied shuffle intro

Section 56: The implied shuffle beat

Lecture 65 The implied shuffle beat slow version for beginners

Lecture 66 The implied shuffle play along

Lecture 67 Practice tip

Section 57: 16th notes play along 1 slow version for beginners

Lecture 68 16th note play along 1 slow version for beginners

Lecture 69 16th note play along 1

Section 58: 16th notes play along 2 slow version for beginners

Lecture 70 16th notes play along 2 slow version for beginners

Lecture 71 16th notes play along 2

Section 59: 16th notes play along 3 slow version for beginners

Lecture 72 16th notes play along 3 slow version for beginners

Lecture 73 16th note play along 3 slow version for beginners

Lecture 74 16th note play along 3

Section 60: Practicing tip

Lecture 75 Practicing tip

Section 61: Funky beat example

Lecture 76 Funky beat example

Lecture 77 Funky beat example 2

Lecture 78 Funky beat example 3

Section 62: Practice tip

Lecture 79 Practice tip

This course is for absolute beginners to advanced drummers.