How to Keep Time on Drums

Drummers have one job, marking time. If they can't keep the beat, the band can't follow. Many beginning kit drummers mistakenly believe the kick drum keeps the beat, but they would be mistaken. The best tool for marking time is the high hat.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Practice with a metronome. Close the high hat on three beats and lift on the fourth. Start with a four/four beat at 80 beats a minute, and if you can't keep up, slow down to 70. Add the lift on the second beat then try it on the first and third beats.

2. Adjust the speed of the metronome by five beats. Continue to practice and continue to adjust until you can play comfortably at much higher speeds. Don't rush this, practice until you can follow the beat without any problems.

3. Close the high hat on the downbeats and play eighth notes on the cymbal. This allows you to keep time by marking every beat on the high hat without striking it. Closing high hat creates a choking sound like a clap, making it ideal for marking time.

4. Experiment with different time signatures. Try mixing up the bass drum and snare drum beats while keeping steady time on the high hat.

5. Work in fills. The most important thing is that you should be able to return to the original rhythm on the down beat of the high hat.

6. Plug your headphones into your music player and play in time with the music. Learn to follow the pros on songs with different times and rhythms.

Tips & Warnings

• It's difficult to understand the importance of keeping time. Many people don't detect shifts in tempo, but band members need to be able to play with a consistent beat so they know exactly when to come in.
• If you can mark out each beat with the left foot, you can free up your other limbs to vary the rhythms and keeps the high hat in play while you work the drums and cymbals.