How to Play a Rock Beat on Drums

If you're just starting out on the drum set, one of the best things to focus on is how to get your hands and feet to function independently in a synchronized way.  In my experience, learning how to play a rock beat is a good first step in that direction.

Rock beats are a good place to start learning beats for a few reasons:

• Only three pieces of the set are needed (bass drum, snare drum, and hi-hat)

• Only three limbs need to be focused on at one time for basic beats (right hand on hi-hat, left hand on snare, and right foot on bass drum)

• The rhythmic patters are relatively simple to grasp, especially if you've listened to most music from the past several decades!

The rhythmic foundation of a basic rock beat is usually set in an 8th note framework over the span of one measure in 4/4 time.  This means that the pattern will repeat itself every four beats, so if you can count to four, you can probably play a rock beat :-)

Each measure will look something like this:

Everything that is struck on the drums will align either with beat one, two, three, or four (downbeats), or the subdivided "and" space between them (upbeats).

For this basic rock beat pattern, the right hand will strike the (closed) hi-hat on every 8th note and the left hand will strike the snare drum on beats two and four.  This will remain constant throughout each bass drum variation, so it's a good idea to get comfortable with the right and left hands before adding the right foot into the mix!

Once you're comfortable with the right and left hands, try striking the bass drum on beat "one" (as shown above) by pressing the pedal with the right foot.  This might not sound too difficult or fancy, but it can be tricky to pull off if you're just getting started!  Take it slow, and work on getting each part (hi-hat, snare drum, and bass drum) to sound at the right time.  It's a good idea to use a metronome (slowly at first!) to make sure your timing is accurate.

After getting comfortable with this beat, you can start adding the bass drum to more subdivisions in the measure, like this:

Notice that in this beat, the bass drum is played on beats 1 AND 3.  This particular beat is one of the most commonly used in a lot or rock and pop music, so it's a good idea to get comfortable with it.  In fact, if you can play this beat consistently, you can play along with the drummer on Michael Jackson's Billie Jean!

After this, it's just a question of changing up the bass drum pattern to make unique rock beats.  You may be surprised just how different it sounds to hit the bass drum on the "&" of beat 3 instead of beat 3 itself!

And of course, there can be variations to hi-hat patters and introduction of the ride cymbal to create different variations, but it's always good to start simply with a good foundation and expand from there.

Below you can find a video explanation of how to play a rock beat on drums, as well as a playlist for practice with several variations.  Check them out, be sure to subscribe for more, and leave comments about other videos you'd like to see!

What other music resources would you find helpful?

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