Blues Drum Beat Tips

Series Summary

The drum is the oldest known musical instrument in the history of man and its basic design has not changed in thousands of years. Far from today’s uses as a percussive foundation for pop music or for fueling marching band excitement, drumming has a more profound history as a method of communication, and the drum as an implement of religious symbolism. The drum was perhaps first created from the primal idea of mimicking the human heartbeat, yet today its music has developed into a technical, complex arrangement of beats and grooves. Different sized drums and cymbals are arranged into kits, where a drummer can pick from a variety of sounds to lead or accompany a particular song. The modern approach to drumming is to try and master the fundamentals of beat and time signature, and then to create fresh, innovative patterns and fills for each song. In this free instructional video series you will learn how to play several contemporary drum beats. Our expert Greg Gall shares techniques for creating a basic drum beat, adding fills, and offers tips and advice on how to begin the process and walks you through some great informational steps to becoming a more advanced drummer.

Video Transcript

"This clip I'm going to demonstrate a simple basic Blues beat. Blues beats are fun to do, especially if you're in a party setting where there's instruments around. And I know I'm at a lot of parties where I see a drum kit and a couple instruments and I'm ready to get behind the drum set and do a little Blues so the guitar players can do their thing. So I'm going to show you a basic Blues beat that anybody should be able to pick up on. And I'm going to wear these head phones for my ear protection. So here we go. Like I said, that's a very basic Blues beat. And they are fun to do when you're at a party setting. So like I said, when you're hanging out with your buddies, have fun with it man."