{"id":11441,"date":"2018-09-12T08:57:07","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T15:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/?p=11441"},"modified":"2023-03-13T14:38:25","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T21:38:25","slug":"best-beginner-drum-book-5-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/best-beginner-drum-book-5-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Beginner Drum Techniques From The Best Beginner Drum Book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bUOWYQJlRGM\/\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beginner-book\/\">Best Beginner Drum Book<\/a> is a 210-page guide to help get you started on the drums and take your playing to the next level. It covers many different topics we think are important for beginner drummers. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today we\u2019re giving you a sneak peek with five must-know beginner drum techniques that will help you spice up your beats:<\/span><br>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b><strong>Dynamics &#8211; Crescendo and decrescendo<\/strong><\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think of dynamics as how you &#8216;speak&#8217; on the drum set. Would you rather listen to a monotone speaker, or someone who has a lot of variation in their voice? It just isn&#8217;t as interesting when every word has the same tone and the same volume.<br><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apply this concept to the drum set. Try creating slow builds that start quiet and get louder over the course of a bar or two (a crescendo). Then try doing the opposite &#8211; a decrescendo &#8211; starting at full volume and gradually reducing your volume.<\/span><br>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b><strong>Ghost Notes &#8211; Spooky soft strokes<\/strong><\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ghost notes are more felt than heard. These soft strokes on the &#8216;e&#8217; and &#8216;a&#8217; need to clearly differ from your backbeat hits on the 2 and 4. Whether they&#8217;re five times quieter or ten times quieter is up to you. There&#8217;s no need to wind up for ghost notes; just let yourself lightly drop the stick down to the drum naturally as you play.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start with a basic beat. In the book&#8217;s first ghost note exercise, we put a ghost note on the last \u2018a\u2019 of the phrase. Try not to overdo the ghost notes, but use them sparingly when you\u2019re playing with a band to keep yourself grooving.<br>&nbsp;<br><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b><strong>Cross Sticking &#8211; Flip it around<\/strong><\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s better to flip around your stick when you\u2019re cross sticking because you get a fuller, richer sound from the base of the stick. As for the grip, try and \u2018pinch\u2019 it so your fingers go just beyond the sides of the stick &#8211; so when you\u2019re cross sticking, you aren\u2019t muting the rim. Don\u2019t go too far back or far forward; find that rich, woody sweet spot.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get comfortable going between the cross stick and snare drum. Try flipping the stick a few times as you go back and forth (watch the video at 6:29 to see what we mean).<br>&nbsp;<br><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b><strong>Rim Shots &#8211; Bring up the volume<\/strong><\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is where the tip of the stick hits the middle of the drum at the same time that the shoulder hits the rim. You\u2019ll notice you get a much more robust and loud sound when you do this. This is great for both live settings and studio where you really want to lay on the backbeat.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hardest part about rim shots is being about to use it consistently on command. But that&#8217;s what practice is for!<\/span><br>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b><strong>Open &amp; Closed Hi-Hats &#8211; Cymbal dynamics<\/strong><\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s unbelievable just how many things you can do with the hi-hat. For those new to incorporating open and closed hi-hat into a groove, try playing a basic beat and opening the hi-hat on the &#8216;and&#8217; of 4. You then close it on the 1 of the next bar. It&#8217;s only open for one 8th note count.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can also open the hats for the entire groove. The more they\u2019re open, the more they resonate. You can get so many different sounds out of your hi-hats, and by changing the amount they\u2019re open, you can really build some cool dynamics.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, try starting a beat with them closed. Then over the course of a few bars, gradually open them more and more.<\/span><br>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can check out the book in our store here: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beginner-book\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best Beginner Drum Book<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It covers topics such as setting up your drums, maximizing your practice time, essential drum rudiments, hand technique tips, drum beats and fills, and much more.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to learn drums with the world\u2019s best teachers? Start a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/trial\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free 7 day<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> trial of Drumeo.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe class=\"email-form-include-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/weeklyemail\" frameborder=\"none\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are 5 must-know beginner drum techniques that will help you spice up your boring old drum beats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4015,4018],"tags":[4014,90,32,12],"class_list":["post-11441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beginner-lessons","category-technique","tag-beginner","tag-beginner-drum-lessons","tag-how-to-play-drums","tag-jared-falk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11441"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44089,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441\/revisions\/44089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}