Play a Beat
Using Eighth Notes
Lesson Introduction
In this lesson you will learn how to play your second drumbeat using the Kick Snare & Hats. To become comfortable with these patterns, you should be able to play them repeatedly 20 times without a mistake before moving onto the next pattern.
You should also have completed Play a Beat Quarters before attempting this lesson.
Set a tempo of 60 bpm to play on the count (1 2 3 4) and play the following one by one.
Step 1
Play Eighth Notes on the Hats.
Tip: Count 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + at 60 bpm
Eighth Notes on the Hats
Step 2
Play The Hats with 1 & 3 on the Bass Drum
Tip: When audio plays, count to 4 in time
Hi Hat with Bass Drum on 1 & 3
Step 3
Play the Hats with 2 & 4 on the Snare Drum (Counting to 4)
Tip: When audio plays, count to 4 in time
Hats with Snare Drum on 2 & 4
Step 4
Play Hi Hat, Snare & Bass Drum
Tip: This is a full beat
Hi Hat, Snare & Bass Drum
Playing Tips
- All of the above can be played with or without a drum kit. Simply tapping your feet and hands is a great way to get to know the feel of the beat playing in time with the audio files.
- At any stage you cannot keep the beat, get back a few steps and try different combinations as per above until you are comfortable coordinating all three limbs at once.
- Try playing these along with music at various tempo’s.
Conclusion
With this lesson you learn’t how to play a beat using Eighth notes on the Hi Hat, Bass Drum on 1 & 3, Snare Drum on 2 & 4. If you have managed to play all of the above beats Congratulate yourself you’ve just played your second drum beat, this is a commonly used beat you’ll hear with most forms of modern music.