How to Play a Standard 4/4 Drum Beat

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Shaun Schaefer on behalf of Expert Village and today we're going to learn the basics in rock drumming. I like to call it rock drumming 101, the basics. So, now that we've played the high hat with the snare drum and the high hat with the kick drum, the natural next step, if you will, is to add all three together, the kick, the snare and the high hat. And this is going to form what we call the standard quarter note drumbeat. We're about halfway home and it gets easier from here, and more fun from here, but this is, we're going to add them all together to make the standard quarter note drumbeat. So, let's count out loud. Let's start with the high hat and it's easy to think of this as maybe like a puzzle, okay. You want to play on beats one, two, three and four on the high hat and then you just fill in the pieces on the snare drum on two and four and then you fill in the pieces on the kick drum on one and three, right? So, if you look at it as kind of like a puzzle, it's kind of easier. So, let's do the high hat. One, two, three, four, now remember, slow is better, right? Four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Now if it's too, if this is too fast, three, four, let's go ahead and slow it down. This could be too fast, you know, so let's bring it back and slow it down and make it a little bit easier, okay. So, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, okay. So, let's keep practicing that, okay. One and three on the kick drum, two and four on the snare and let's play beats one, two, three and four on the high hat. Let's keep going with that and keep practicing. You're halfway to getting on stage."