Free · no kit needed · about 20 minutes
New to drums? Play your first song today.
All you need is a pair of sticks and a practice pad. No pad? A firm cushion and your knees will do. Watch the video, then play each exercise below until it feels easy. By the end you’ll play a whole song from start to finish.
Your pad is a drum kit
The exercises are written for a real kit, so you’ll recognise them when you get there. On a pad:
- Hi-hat = the shoulder (the raised edge) of the pad
- Snare = the centre of the pad
- Bass/kick = your right foot tapping the floor
Each exercise has a play button, a click and the notes lit up as they go. Start slow. When you can play it four times in a row without stopping, nudge the tempo up or move on.
Step 1
Hold the sticks and let them bounce
Grip the stick between your thumb and first finger, about a third of the way up, with two or three fingers wrapped loosely round it. That pinch point is the fulcrum: leave a little room there so the stick can move.
Now think of bouncing a ball. Throw the stick down and let it come back up on its own. If you’re pushing it into the pad and pulling it back out, you’re working twice as hard as you need to.
Your right foot is your bass/kick. Rest your heel on the floor and tap with the ball of your foot.
Step 2
Your first fill: right, left, right, left
Four even strokes on the centre of the pad, hand to hand, one on each count. Play a bar, then rest for a bar and listen, just like the video: four on, four off. Keep the bounce from step 1 in every stroke.
Position follows the click, including through silent gap-click bars.
Step 3
Your first groove, in three parts
A groove is the pattern that keeps the song moving. This one has two halves, so learn each on its own first.
Part A: foot and right hand together
Your right hand on the shoulder and your foot on the floor, landing at exactly the same moment, on beats 1 and 3.
Opens the metronome, drum kit and sticking for this exercise. One at a time, so the click always belongs to what you are playing.
Part B: hands together
Right hand on the shoulder, left hand in the centre, both at once, on beats 2 and 4. Keep your foot still this time.
Opens the metronome, drum kit and sticking for this exercise. One at a time, so the click always belongs to what you are playing.
Put them together
Foot, together, foot, together. The hard part is keeping your foot quiet on the “together” beats, so if it keeps joining in, slow right down.
Opens the metronome, drum kit and sticking for this exercise. One at a time, so the click always belongs to what you are playing.
Step 4
Groove into fill, and back again
This is what makes you sound like a drummer: playing the groove, dropping into the fill, and landing straight back in the groove without a gap. One bar of groove, one bar of fill, round and round.
Opens the metronome, drum kit and sticking for this exercise. One at a time, so the click always belongs to what you are playing.
Step 5
A second fill: twice as many notes
Same hands, right, left, right, left, but two strokes on every beat now. Count “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”. Keep it relaxed and keep the bounce.
Opens the metronome, drum kit and sticking for this exercise. One at a time, so the click always belongs to what you are playing.
Then drop it into the groove. You get back to the groove quicker after this one, because there are more notes to fit in.
Opens the metronome, drum kit and sticking for this exercise. One at a time, so the click always belongs to what you are playing.
Step 6
Play the whole song
You’ve got every part. Start with the talk-through: I count you in and call out every groove and fill. Begin at 80 bpm and only speed up once it feels easy.
Talk-through, 80 bpm
Talk-through, 100 bpm
Talk-through, 120 bpm
Then try it with just the music. You choose where the fills go.
Backing track 1
Backing track 2
Backing track, 90 bpm
Step 7
When you get to a drum kit
Everything moves across. The right hand that played the shoulder of the pad now plays the hi-hat, a tiny movement away. The centre of the pad is the snare, and your foot goes on the bass/kick pedal. Same pattern, bigger sounds.
Once that feels good, move your right hand to the ride cymbal or a tom and play the same groove. One pattern, three different sounds.