How to Play Drums

Hi, I’m Jared Falk and in this video drum lesson, you’ll gonna learn the basics of how to play the drums. I’m not gonna assume you have any previous experience on the drums. So therefore, we’ll start right from the top. Later, you wanna check out some of the other video lessons on topics like how to hold the drum sticks, bass drum technique, drum theory, notation, and much more. However, this lesson is just gonna get you playing for the first time. We’re not gonna worry about perfect technique or whole bunch of complicated theory. This way, you can have some fun trying at the drums before you commit to investing your time and energy until learning all that extra information. Let’s jump right into it. Take a look at the provided sheet music. The first line starts out with a group of 8th notes. The X on the top row means that these are to be played on the high huts. You don’t have to worry too much about theory but it’s important that you learn to count this out loud. I’ve written the counts above each note for you. So let’s count out loud, one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and. To play this on the drum set, you simply put your left foot down on the high hut pedal to keep the high huts closed. Play each count as you count out loud. I’m gonna play it for you now while I count out loud, one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and. Now the second line on your sheet music incorporates the bass drum on beats one and three. These are represented by notes just above the bottom line. Rest your heel on the bass of the pedal and use your ankle to play like this. Notice how my foot stays in contact with the foot board even on the way back up. This allows you to control the rebound of the springs so you can maintain control over the pedal. Okay, let’s incorporate this on beats one and three. Always making sure you count out loud. The third exercise on the provided sheet music includes a snare drum being played on counts two and four. You can see that the snare is represented by notes that are on the middle line. You simply strike the middle of the snare drum to play these notes. Nothing too complicated here. So let’s add that with our high hut notes by playing the third exercise. And finally, we’re gonna bring it all together with exercise four. It’s important that you really focus on keeping the notes synched up. In other words, you wanna play the bass and snare drum shots right with the high hut strokes. Let’s count out loud as we do this now. If you’re any difficulty with this, feel free to go back and practice beats two and three. You always wanna focus on playing steady and in time. That’s the whole reason why counting out loud is so important when you’re first learning to play. Now, as I said earlier, this lesson is just to get you started. When you’re ready to learn more, I highly recommend you check out our other lessons on holding the sticks, bass drum technique, and much more. You don’t wanna play without proper technique for too long as it can result in you forming bad habits that will ultimately limit your drumming.

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