How to Play Accent Beats on Tom-Tom Drums

Series Summary

The drum is perhaps the oldest known musical instrument 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 as an implement of religious symbolism. The tom-tom drum was used by Native Americans and Asian cultures to relay messages. The modern version of this drum, most often in a matched pair, was added to the traditional drum kit setup in the early 20th century. In this free video series on drumming, an experienced musician explains how to play accent beats on the tom-tom drums. Learn how to improvise around a Latin clave beat as well as a more straightforward beat, starting slowly and building up the pace as the beats become more familiar. Also find out how to integrate the high hat cymbal and bass drum into these accent beats, which are an important part of improvisation in jazz as well as rock and roll music.

Video Transcript

"Ok in this series we are going to look at bass sticking with our ideas of sixteenth notes for the time being that we have been working on with opening hi hats and sixteenth note fills and sixteenth note beats. I'm going to show you two different accents patterns on toms that we can do to really create a great effect. The first pattern is this one. And the second one is this one. So that second pattern is based on the three two clave, often heard in Latin music. And the first one is just a different pattern a little more linear so we are going to look at both of these, we are going to go through the ways to put them together. We'll add in the feet, we'll look at just the hands. We'll see what they're based on and by the end we'll be able to look at some variations of these patterns and really you'll be able to improvise and put in accents where ever you want."