Another lesson on basics, but I say that very casually. Basics isn’t really a great word. I prefer to refer to this as another term – Essentials.

Being able to confidently execute bass drum hits as 16th notes is so crucial to being a good drummer as it’s applicable to every style of music. I found, when I was learning to play during my teens, that my library of songs to play increased dramatically when I was able to play notes “in between the hi-hats”.

With this in mind, I thought I would do a lesson some essential patterns I’ve used in the past. If I had just one short lesson with a student and we needed to cover this concept, these are the patterns I would send them home with.

The key here is to be able to play bass drum parts in between the hi-hats as opposed to always with the hi-hat as we usually do when playing 8th note based grooves. This also means that there are now many more possibilities in terms of what grooves you can come up with.

The PDF below and the video shows the patterns that cover the ‘spots’ in the bar that need to be practices to kick start this concept. Once you have these essentials happening, you’ll be amazed at the level of new material you can learn as so many grooves require you to play 16ths in the bass drum. Basic? Not exclusively but crucial and very, very essential.

Enjoy the vid.