Practice Blog - Independence Part 2

Post date: Feb 22, 2016 3:8:55 PM

Last time we looked at trying to give each part of the drum kit its own voice. As a drummer, you have to be in control of all of the sound coming from the kit. Sometimes you'll want certain parts of the kit to be louder than others. Take a look at this simple drum beat below:

Just like in last week's blog, see if you can play this drum beat and make just one part of the drum kit louder. Begin with hi-hat and see if you can keep the bass drum and snare drum quiet. Once you're comfortable with that, try and play just the bass drum louder, and then just the snare drum louder.

Here's a slightly more complicated exercise:

If you haven't seen those funny arrow thingies above the hi-hat before, they are called accents. An accent is a slightly stronger (Not necessarily louder) note. Just try to lift your stick a little higher with each accented hi-hat. This should bring out some independence within your hands.

Now try this one:

This time, the accents have shifted. When you manage to play this one, listen to how different is sounds to the one where the accents are played on the beat. This is where independence in your hands can really make a difference to the sound that you create using your drum kit.

We'll do one final blog on independence soon, but for now, have fun trying out these exercises!