THE

MODERN BEAT
A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO PLAYING THE DRUMSET

BY TOM PIERARD1
 The Modern Beat

Copyright © 2016 Tom Pierard

All Rights Reserved
Published by Pierard Publishing, 2016
Napier, New Zealand

ISBN 978-0-473-36485-4

No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This book and the accompanying audio and video are sold subject to the condition that
they shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise
circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than
that in which they are published and without a similar condition including this condition
being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this
book be photocopied for resale.

Cover design and photography by Melissa Pierard

2
About the author
Well known for his eclectic musical tastes and versatility in drumset playing, Tom Pierard has
worked with many great artists and ensembles including Rhian Sheehan, Warren Maxwell, Kora
and many more. After having completed a Bachelor of jazz music performance at Massey
University Wellington under Lance Phillip and jazz great Roger Sellers, Tom was headhunted by
internationally acclaimed ensemble Strike Percussion, and performed extensively world-wide as
well as delivering Masterclasses in Korea, Taiwan and Australia.
Tom has twice attended and performed at the Taiwan International Percussion Convention, and
in 2011 became the HOD of Music at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawkes Bay, New
Zealand. He lives there with his wife and two children.

In 2016 Tom completed an MMus (Comp) at Auckland University.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my wife Melissa for her incredible support, patience, love and amazing work
on this project; my parents Louis and Jane for their continual support; Louis Pierard (again) for his
masterful editing; Charlie Wallace for his support and advice; Floyd Pepper for his patience and
wonderful videography; Matiu Whiting for his guitar and bass playing, and drum moving; Nick
Blow for his mixing advice; The Eastern Institute of Technology for their support and all the others
who have helped me along the way – thank you all so much.

Book Design
Melissa Pierard

Editor
Louis Pierard

All playalong tracks written by Tom Pierard. All instruments performed by Tom Pierard except bass
and guitar on ‘Blues’ and ‘Jazz’ - (Matiu Whiting).

©The Modern Beat, 2016, All Rights Reserved

3
Contents
Welcome 05
D r u m s et A n a to my 12
P ra c t i c e S c h e d u l e 14
Re a d i n g N ota t i o n 15

Chapter One | Technique Fundamentals 18

St i c k C o n t ro l 15
T h e M o e l l e r Te c h n i q u e 22
I m p o r ta n t R u d i m e n t s 24
I nve r te d Pa ra d i d d l e 25
F i ve St ro ke Ro l l 26
K i c k Te c h n i q u e 27
H e e l / To e 28
N a t u ra l St i c k i n g 29
S p e c i a l To o l s 30

Chapter Two | Independence 32

S n a re I d e n t i t y 33
Tr i p l et G h o st i n g 34
C re a t i ve G h o st i n g 35
T h e L eft F o ot 36
L i m b Ra p p o r t 37

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Chapter Three | Speed 38
H a n d E n d u ra n c e 39
F o ot E n d u ra n c e 41
F a st St y l e s 42
B l a st B e a t s 43
Drum and Bass 44

Chapter Four | Classic Feels 46

B l u e s / S h u ff l e s 47
Funk 48
Latin 49
Re g g a e 50
Ro c k 51
Swing/ Jazz 51

Chapter Five | Advanced Sound 52

Fills 53
Rudiment Fills 53
Bridging 54
S p l i t t i n g Vo i c e s 56
Po l y r hy t h m s 58
O d d M ete r s 60
F o c u s e d G ro ove 61

5
WELCOME
Hello – and thank you for buying this book.
My name is Tom.

I am a drummer, producer and teacher, and I’m pleased you’ve decided to buy this
collection of philosophies on the approach to performing on the drumset.

Let me make this clear - this is not your normal drum exercise book. This book doesn’t
contain rows of every possible variation so you can sit in a room and practice for ten
hours a day. Instead, you’ll learn how to develop exercises specific to you and the sound
you want from your drums. What you will gain from this is a vocabulary not limited to
what’s in these pages, but instead one that is forever growing.

Our main aim as drummers is to provide time and groove (I’ll go further into those terms
later) but aside from these essential elements, we’ll learn the skills to say exactly what we
want to say and how we want to say it through the drumset.

6
There are five main points you should always keep in mind
before we start:

Not everyone can play

Everyone is different, and everyone has a way they learn best. Some may prefer to sit and
practice one or two rudiments for hours and hours, while others may prefer to learn songs,
or even just parts of songs. Some learn by listening, some by seeing and some just by
doing. With this book I’ve tried to suit as many learning styles as possible with the written
notation, the explanation of each chapter and the video clips of each exercise.
In saying that, I’ve had students who have found learning the drums just too hard. You
need to understand that while a lot of people can play a few basic things, drums are

You can play anything if you slow it down.

Just make sure it’s consistent!
actually very difficult to play well – but as with most things, the more you learn, the more
enjoyable they are to play. This comes back to building your drummer’s vocabulary of
grooves and techniques, and you’ll start to find that as you learn, they’ll become muscle
memory, a kind of second nature.

The first thing you’ll need is to commit – you’ve done that already by buying this book!

One of the biggest errors a student can make is failure to identify a mistake in their
practise. This can be as small as playing a rhythm wrong or as big as slowing down
or speeding up – the principle is the same; if you play it wrong more than three times
you’re practicing a mistake. If you have trouble playing an exercise in this book at the
recommended speed, the first thing you should do is slow it down. Try to play it so slowly
that you know exactly what you’re going to play, before you play it. If this means slowing
right down to 20 bpm then so be it – just make sure you practice the whole pattern at that
tempo. You don’t want to be getting used to slowing down or speeding up!

7
The more you can play, the less you have to say
When you go out and perform with the skills you’re learning here, you may feel like you should
be playing at the very top of your ability all the time. Many beginners make this mistake. Instead,
try to see it as all of the technical things you learn providing a foundation for everything you play,
be it a solo or a very simple groove. You may have heard the phrase “Yeah, but can he groove?”
applied to busy drummers. This refers to the ability to sound locked in (in the pocket) with the
rest of the band. You need to understand that as a drummer you’re playing not only for yourself,
but also for your bandmates and for the audience, and one of the greatest gifts you can give an
audience is to make them want to move both physically and emotionally with you as you play.

One of the best ways of doing this is by taking a holistic approach to your playing - you should
be listening to not only yourself and your individual bandmates, but also to the whole sound
the ensemble is making. If you let this dictate your playing, as you should, you’ll find that busy
playing isn’t always required. However, this sound can be made infinitely better by practicing a
raft of different techniques. We’ll look at this concept more closely in the chapter called ‘Focused
Groove’.

As a student you have to be strict with yourself in this aspect. Remember, if you can already play
it, you’re not learning anything new, and you shouldn’t call doing that ‘exercise’. That’s certainly
not to say you shouldn’t play easy things, but when you do, you should consciously differentiate.
For example you could play a very simple groove with a metronome for 20 minutes but your
actual focus is practicing timekeeping and groove rather than learning the pattern, and you
should concentrate on that while you’re playing it. Another good one is practicing going between
straight notes and triplets at the same slow tempo – again this is improving your rhythmic spatial
awareness and this practise is extremely valuable. You’ll probably notice that there might be similar
exercises in two different chapters in this book, this is because we’ll be focusing on different things
for each one, and as an effective learner you should take the time to change your focus while you
practice each one.

It’s not learning if you can already do it

If you want to consciously go over the things you already know, call it ‘revision’ or just warming
up. Don’t trick yourself into thinking you’ve been practicing for 30 minutes when you haven’t.

8
 Listen, listen, listen
Listen to every aspect of your playing. Listen to the tone you’re getting out of each drum; listen to
your kit as a whole and how balanced the different voices are, listen to the other players in your
band and how your part interlocks and fits with theirs. And lastly, listen to the whole sound the
band is making – I call this projecting your ear, and it’s a skill that takes a long time to develop.

Listen to as much music and other drummers as you can so you can form your own educated
opinions on what you like. There is a Recommended Listening page in this book – it’s a great place
to start.

In today’s connected world, we’re lucky enough to have all kinds of musicians who prioritize
entirely different musical things. One drummer might dedicate their entire life to learning the
marching bass drum while another might solely focus on speed. Another might only want to ever
play in their own bedroom. If you want to have your own sound, you need to have your own set of
priorities.

They change often, but here are mine at the moment:

1. Time
2. Fun
3. Time
4. Time (yes this is meant to be repeated)
5. Listening
6. Groove
7. Drumsound
.
.
.
.
12. Flashy stuff (fills, solos, twirls etc)

Don’t get me wrong, I love showing off as much as the next guy, but as a musician it’s important
to understand how to connect with both your fellow musicians and the audience. If you’re playing
in terms they can’t understand, then you won’t get much of a response – and if you don’t get a
response you usually don’t get hired.

9
Now if we go back to when I started playing at around 13 years old (my memory is pretty hazy
around this time), I’m pretty sure they used to look more like this.

1. Metal
2. Speed
3. Double kick
4. Loud
5. Loud
6. What else is there?
7. Yeah maybe some time

This is a maturity thing. I’m still on my own journey with the drums and you’re on yours – which
means you should just go with what you like for now and let nature take its course. They may
change entirely or they might not, just take it a day at a time and try to find some good (and
maybe patient) people to play with.

So now that you have an idea of what to expect in this book, please remember that what I’ve
written and talked about is just one person’s view, where many exist. Admittedly I’ve been playing
and teaching drums for a long time now, but I can still admit this particular learning style doesn’t
necessarily suit everyone. Technically one could argue that there isn’t really a wrong way to play
the drums, and that’s exactly how you should think when creating drum grooves and patterns.

However, when it comes to technique, the ways I’ll show you have been time-tested and are the
general ways of playing longer, faster, louder or quieter and with the least impact on your body. I
would hope that once you’ve worked your way through the book you’ll be able to form your own
opinions and ideas about what works best for you as a player and a learner, and so now you can
begin with an open mind and let me help you unlock your potential as a great drummer with your
very own sound.

The five-step method for finding your sound

You’ll soon notice that in this book, the exercises don’t often follow the same formula i.e. some
sections may require you to practice several variations, while others will have only one or two.
The reason you won’t see many variations of the exercise isn’t because I’m lazy! It’s more to
encourage you to experiment with your own interpretations.

You’ve heard the saying ‘Give a man a fish and he’ll eat today; teach man to fish and he’ll eat
for a lifetime’. Apply these steps and you can develop your own exercises to suit your individual
needs and decide how fast you move forward with drums – work smart AND hard!

10
Follow these steps with each exercise:

1. Try variations with your right hand

2. Change the dynamics between your limbs

3. Play a part on a different drum/limb

4. Move on only when you can play the exercise 8 times without mistakes

– if you make one, then start the count again.

5. Change the metronome accents

11
Drumset Anatomy

Kick/Bass drum
• Played with your right foot
• Gives the low end to your sound

Hihat cymbals
• Held closed with your left foot
• Usually hit with your right hand with the shoulder of the stick
• Stamped with your left foot to keep time

Toms
• Sometimes useful for fills
• Usually set as flat as possible

Snare drum
• Provides the backbeat
• Snare wires can be controlled with a throwoff mechanism
• Usually played with the left hand (crossing underneath the right)

Crash cymbal
• Usually implies an entry/change of section
• Should be struck on the edge with the shoulder of the stick

Ride cymbal
• Usually played with the hihat hand
• Usually treated like a hihat for keeping time
• Can be used as a crash cymbal

12
MIDDLE TOM (TOM 2) CRASH CYMBAL

RIDE CYMBAL HIGH TOM (TOM 1)

FLOOR TOM HIHAT CYMBALS

KICK/BASS DRUM SNARE DRUM

13
Practice Schedule
A good practice regime is not always possible. When you’re younger you might have a short
attention span and it might be lower on the priority list. When you’re older it can be hard to
practice around work and the kids.
Trust me - if you have a routine that you follow as closely as you can as often as you can, you’ll
notice drastic improvement very quickly.

A good practice routine could look like this:

Warm up
• Play along to 2-3 songs with varying difficulty
• Do 10 minutes of paradiddles at 3 different bpm
• Do 10 minutes of doubles at 3 different bpm

Practise
• Work at a chapter of this book for 30 mins
• Develop 2-3 of your own adaptations for 20 mins

This could be anything up to 90 minutes – difficult to fit into anyone’s day at the best of times! Aim
to practice like this at least twice a week. It’s also a good idea to have your drums somewhere
easily accessible so you can fit in the odd 10 – 20 mins of playing if you have a spare moment.

Put your practice into context

Try to put your ideas into practice by playing with some other musicians if you aren’t already.
While you’re at it, be open to feedback and encourage your bandmates to let you know if
you need to play a little less or a little more of something – I’ve learned a great deal from non-
drummers, many of them have their own preferences on how drumming should be approached.
Gaining these insights will only make you a better player.

14
Reading Notation
A brief introduction on reading music.

Here is a time signature: (Show time signature in a bar of rest)

DRUM NOTATION

The time signature tells us how many (the top number) of what kind (the bottom number) of notes
there are in a bar. The bottom number can only be multiples of four, with 1 meaning a whole note,
2 meaning half notes, 4 meaning quarter notes etc. The top number can be any number – by this
definition, you may come across signatures like 7/16 or 3/8. Most of the music you will read
in this book as well as hear on the radio is in a 4/4 time signature, which means we count four
quarter notes to a bar. This means that when we count four beats going into the exercise, these
beats are quarter notes.

Sound complicated? It gets much easier the more you do it!

So when we have four quarter notes in a bar, they can be broken up into 8 eight notes and 16
16th notes. Say we want to count all 16th notes in the bar - we still say the number of the beat, so
the way 16th notes are universally counted is like this: (A)

15
When we play 8th notes, we still count the 16th notes, we just only play half as much. It’s like playing every
1st and 3rd 16th note. We count them like this (B)

B C D

By this logic, when we play quarter notes we play each beat but give each the full length of four 16th notes.
Try playing this exercise but still use the 16th note counting – that is, count 1e+a 2e+a 3e+a 4e+a but you’d
only play when you count the number (C)
½ notes take up two ¼ notes (eight 16th notes) so we give each that value when we play them. (D)

Let’s try some different combinations of 8th and 16th notes. In this first bar each beat is made up of an 8th
note and two 16th notes. Therefore we’d count all of the 16th notes but only play 1, +a 2, +a etc. I’ve
included both which parts of the beat you’d play on as well as the sticking on the top line – try and play the
different variations over the next four bars. (E)

If you’re going to leave space rather than play you still need to indicate the length of space. For this we use
rests. There is a rest to represent each kind of note. (F)

16
Try to sightread these bars which incorporate rests while being sure to give them their full value.(G)

Occasionally in these exercises you’ll encounter triplets – which are a way of basically playing
three notes of consistent length in the space it normally takes to play two.
Each of those is worth two 8th notes (d), when we count 8th notes we still only say the number on
the ¼ note beat, we just count every second 8th note with the word ‘and’ (+).

As you might expect, each eighth note is worth two of 16th notes (e), and when we have a bar
of 16th notes we count it 1e+a 2e+a 3e+a 4e+a. Note that the notes are each still grouped by
individual beats.
Now we have four different ways of grouping each 16th note within each beat (F,G,H,I). You can see
that while we still count ‘1e+a’ in our heads while we play, we still wait for a note’s whole worth. For
example in pattern F we have an 8th note and two 16th notes making up each beat, so the 8th note
takes up the length of the ‘1’ and ‘e’ while each 16th note is the ‘+’ and ‘a’.

J K

17
 CHAPTER ONE
T E C H N I Q U E F U N D A M E N TA L S

18
 TECHNIQUE FUNDAMENTALS
Technique Fundamentals
Despite the fact that you’re striking them non-stop, drums can be one of the most ergonomically well-
designed instruments you can play. The key is to learn to control the stick so that it works for you, and
these exercises can show you how to do that.
With a good warmup, the right technique and proper posture, you’ll learn your limitations, and be able
to develop them to the point where you can play for hours at a time.

Stick control
How to hold

A great drum sound starts with great technique. Many self-taught drummers make the mistake of learning
the opposite of good technique; that is, clamping the index and middle finger around the stick leaving
the ring and pinky fingers completely disengaged (pictured below).

19
I’m not going to say that this is flat-out wrong, it’s just when it comes to playing doubles and other
techniques it’s far easier if your hand has the opposite shape with the ring and pinky finger around
the stick while you pinch the front end slightly between your thumb and the middle segment of your
forefinger (pictured below).

Note that your hand should be relaxed around the front of the stick. Try to mirror this technique
with your left hand.

20
 TECHNIQUE FUNDAMENTALS
When you sit at the drums your back should be straight, your arms should be relaxed and your
sticks should form a wide triangle with the heads of your sticks coming together at the centre of the
snare drum (pictured below`).

This is your resting position, and it’s how you will start when you practise anything that requires
only one drum i.e. rudiments, archs etc.

You should strike the drum with a whipping motion and release and catch the stick when you strike,
rather than gripping it tightly and digging it into the skin – digging will not only choke the sound,
but will also jar your wrists which can lead to Repetitive Strain Injury. Practice doing this with 8th
note single strokes (R, L ,R, L) for a while at 60 bpm. It can also be helpful to practise this in the
mirror so you can see if both hands are arching at the top of the stroke and both sticks are being
caught at the same level at the end of each stroke.

21
The Moeller Technique
This technique is the method of including an extra note during the upstroke of your strike. This
means you’re playing twice as fast by only slightly modifying your action, and is our way of
playing at much faster tempos easily or accenting different notes within groups. Again, practice
these patterns in a mirror if you can – if your hands are matched, the sound will be more
consistent. Remember, I’ve recommended a good tempo to start each pattern but you should try to
challenge yourself by working up to faster tempos each time you practice.
Of course, if it’s too difficult at first, remember one of our main points – slow it down until it’s at a
comfortable level for you!

Bpm (♩= 80)

Ex 1A Groups of two (8th notes) Ex 1B Groups of two (16th notes)

Alternate hands

Ex 2 Groups of three

Ex 3 Groups of four Ex 4 Every 3rd note of four

Ex 5 Groups of two groove

22
 TECHNIQUE FUNDAMENTALS
Ex 6 Groups of three groove

Ex 7 Every 3rd of four groove

23
Important Rudiments

There are many rudiments to learn on the drums, all of which will greatly benefit your time,
tone and technique when practiced. Perhaps the most well-known of these is the Paradiddle
(R,L,R,R,L,R,L,L) because it covers not only the single stroke roll, but also the double stroke roll,
which is one of the most challenging things for a drummer to play. Some other great paradiddles
to look up are flams, flamtaps, ramaques, hertas and many others – I encourage you to find and
practice as many as you can. Here I’ve written exercises around the three I’ve found the most
useful: The inverted paradiddle, the double stroke roll and the five-stroke roll.

The Double Stroke Roll – this is something that many drummers get wrong, thinking they can
bounce the double stroke instead of learning the correct action. In these exercises we start by
exaggerating the louder second note to build the wrist technique and then we ease off with the
goal of the pattern sounding as much like single strokes as possible. When incorporated into your
grooves and fills, the double stroke can be a very useful tool.

Bpm (♩= 110)

Ex 8 Building the technique

Ex 9 Flattening the accent

Ex 10 Combining with the feet

Ex 11 Doubles in a groove

24
 TECHNIQUE FUNDAMENTALS
The Inverted Paradiddle

I always use this version of the paradiddle to warm up. Not only does it warm up both the single
and double strokes, but when applied to the toms it also warms each part of your arm from the
shoulder to the wrist. Be sure to apply each of the foot variations (C,D,E,F) to all inversions of the
pattern;
Remember – when accenting the first note of each pattern, you can begin your arch during the
double of the previous hand for maximum efficiency.

Exercise: Bpm (♩= 110)

Ex 12 Standard Accented Parradiddle

Ex 13 Three inversion of the accent

Ex 14 Combining with the feet

Ex 14a Ex 14B

Ex 14C Ex 14D

25
The Five Stroke Roll

This rudiment stands out to me as being particularly useful within fills as well as some
grooves – we’ll look at some of these applications in chapter 5. Remember to keep the
doubles at a consistent volume throughout the first four strokes.

Exercise: Bpm (♩= 110)

Ex 15 Accented 5 stroke roll

Ex 16 5 stroke rolls over a 4/4 kick

Ex 17 Including the left foot

26
Kick Technique TECHNIQUE FUNDAMENTALS

Kick technique can be a problem for some players as the muscles can be more difficult to
isolate than in the arms. In general, try to leave your toes on the pedal and kick with a heel
bouncing motion. Whether you dig the beater into the skin with each kick or not is up to
you—some patterns use both i.e. samba—but be aware that the note will be more resonant
if you release the beater right after impact. This may take some practise!

Heel up/heel down – While you should ordinarily bounce the heel, some styles call for
different approaches. I’ve found the heel-up technique most useful for playing heavy metal
as it’s fast and loud, while heel down is a much quieter method and is usually more used in
jazz and latin music.

Ex 18 Straight Heel up (♩=110) Ex 19 Sextuplets (♩=80)

HEEL UP

Ex 20 32nd notes (♩=80)

Ex 21 Swung quarter notes (♩=180)

HEEL DOWN, PLAY KICK QUIETLY

Ex 22 Swung triplets (♩=110)

27
Heel/toe

While there is more than one way of playing two kick notes very fast, this technique is the one I’ve
found to be the easiest and least fatiguing.

Ex 23 Learning the technique (♩=80)

Ex 24 Changing up the hands (♩=110)

Ex 25 Triplets (♩=120)

Ex 26 Triplet groups of four (♩=130)

Ex 27 Adding the left foot (♩=130)

28
Natural Sticking TECHNIQUE FUNDAMENTALS

Ex 28

Natural sticking is simply playing an accent with the natural hand, be it right or left. There are
exceptions, but you should try to play any accents with whichever hand would be playing them
if you were playing 16th notes through the whole bar. Each pattern first plays the accents as they
would fall in groups of 16th notes, and then rests on the un-accented notes while retaining the same
sticking. The kick drum is played on every quarter note for reference.

29
Special Tools

The Rimshot – This is when you play the rim as well as the skin of the snare for extra volume.
It’s most common in rock drumming, and many recording engineers like it as it’s consistent. Try
experimenting with the height of your snare drums so you can do them comfortably.

Finger technique – this is useful for when playing extremely fast tempos for longer than short
bursts i.e. blast beats. The fingers are your smallest gear, which means that while this can be a
very fast technique, it’s also difficult to play very loud. You can practice it by holding the stick with
your forefinger and thumb and then using your other fingers one at a time to ‘sling’ the stick. After
you’ve used all three fingers, use them all together.

Push/Pull – This is another very quiet technique which has little application. You may hear some
jazz drummers use it on cymbals while it typically doesn’t occur in rock drumming. There are
two movements used; the first is the downstroke – at the end of the downstroke the fingers remain
extended and the stick is allowed to fully rebound so that the tip is now pointing up at a 45° angle.
The second movement is the extended fingers ‘snapping’ the butt of the stick back, which forces the
second strike.
The movement becomes smaller the faster you get.

One-handed roll – This old trick can be performed on any hard surface, but we usually use it
on the snare when applicable. It involves using the rim of the drum to lever the stick up and down
(similar mechanics as the push/pull) and is most commonly used in a modern context for gravity
blastbeats, which we’ll look at in chapter 3.

30
TECHNIQUE FUNDAMENTALS

31
 CHAPTER TWO
INDEPENDENCE

32
 INDEPENDENCE
Independence
True independence on the drumset means not only playing different patterns with different limbs
simultaneously, but also different dynamics. While these independence exercises will extend your
drumming vocabulary and help you to develop more creative patterns, just remember to play
appropriately, whatever the situation. If extra complexity isn’t needed, don’t try to force it – but if it
is, use these exercises to develop your own ideas to use.

Snare identity

While the normal role of the snare is to provide the back beat, snare ghost notes have
become an integral part of a modern drummer’s arsenal. Try to experiment when you write
your drum parts – ghost notes can be a great way of changing a groove drastically without
overplaying or breaking the flow of the song.
Straight ghost notes – The hardest part about these exercises is maintaining a consistent
volume with your snare hand while you use the Moeller technique on the hihat or ride
hand. Once again, if the recommended tempo is too fast be sure to slow it right down.

Ex 29 Starting to ghost (♩=90)

Ex 30 Getting harder (♩=90)

Ex 31 Splitting hands (♩=80)

Ex 32 Splitting hands (♩=80)

33
Ex 33 Right hand variations (♩=90)

Ex 34 Adding the kick

Ex 35 Ghosting groove (♩=100)

Triplet ghosting

It’s always a good idea to practice going between straight and triplet notes at the same tempo.
When you do this, you’re improving your internal sense of time as well as changing how you
subdivide (measure the time in your head) simultaneously. Here we apply it to ghost notes, and
it’s something you can always try in a 12/8 feel – whether it’s anything from swing, a shuffle or a
swung hiphop feel.
These exercises work towards the halftime shuffle feel, which incorporates ghosting as well as
requiring a special technique to accent the backbeat.

Ex 36 Swing ghosting (♩=110)

Ex 37 Filling the gaps

34
 INDEPENDENCE
Ex 38 Getting the backbeat in

Ex 39 The halftime shuffle

Creative ghosting

Something you might like to try is placing ghost notes in places they wouldn’t normally
occur. This can be a great tool for creating cool new patterns, but you could also try to
complement a melodic line on the guitar, vocal or keyboard part by copying the rhythm
around the backbeat with your ghosting. These exercises not only place the ghost notes in
odd places, but also on different drums – this is a great tool to develop.

Ex 40 Unorthodox placement

Ex 41 Ghosting with the Tom

Ex 42 Four-way independence

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The Left Foot

Your hihat foot is great for keeping in time during grooves and fills, but also it can can really fill your ride
grooves out in the same way a tambourine, shaker or cowbell can – you can almost think of it as having the
role of a percussionist. These exercises first work on splitting the feet up and then incorporating the patterns
into grooves, while the last incorporates the technique of ‘splashing’ and closing the hihats with a heel/toe
motion of your left foot.

Ex 43 Splitting the feet (♩=110)

Ex 44 Getting harder

Ex 45 Splitting the feet in 12/8

Ex 46 Right hand and foot unison groove

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Limb Rapport INDEPENDENCE
The concept of limb rapport is that independence is developed to the point where you have more
than just different patterns happening with your hands and feet – you can improvise with each
limb freely and truly independently. This means thinking holistically about each pattern and how
they complement and converse with each other, both with syncopation and dynamics. You should
practice each exercise in this book at different volumes, but with these you should challenge
yourself by trying each limb louder and quieter, independently for maximum benefit.
These are meant to be very challenging, so remember to start where you’re comfortable and speed
it up just a few clicks at a time.

Ex 48 Separating limbs (♩=100)

Ex 49 Samba kick (♩=80)

Ex 50 Irregular kick

Ex 51 Adding the left foot

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CHAPTER THREE
SPEED

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Speed SPEED

Speed alone should not be a priority with your playing. As a matter of fact, quite often playing
slowly can be just as hard, and some players tend to use speed to cover things like bad technique
and a lack of creativity. The reason I have a chapter dedicated to speed is because some of the
techniques involved can benefit all areas of your playing – sometimes it’s good to have the option
to go fast, too!
The biggest barrier most players face is not being relaxed when they attempt to play faster. When
you think about the physics of it, when a drummer plays faster, their movements become smaller
and more focused. When you apply correct technique, a good warm-up and the right amount
of speed-building practise you’ll find playing faster easier and easier, but if these important
fundamentals are missing you can run the risk of injuring yourself.

Hand Endurance

Controlled speed in the hands will usually come from a combination of wrist and finger technique.
At slower tempos it can be good to practice using only your wrists so you’re fully conscious of
when the fingers need to become engaged. Employ this method when practicing these exercises,
and be sure to play them all at an even volume and then again using accents to ‘pump’ your
hands and help your endurance. Use alternate sticking for each exercise, and make sure you keep
pushing yourself to play them faster while staying relaxed (particularly exercise 53)

Ex 52 Changing gears (♩=90)

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Ex 53 Adding triplets

Ex 54 Adding feet

Ex 55A Fast groove

Ex 55B

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 SPEED
Foot Endurance

The same principle applies here; you need to relax in order to play faster. The main difference
that I’ve found is that it’s harder to maintain control of the legs (being a bigger set of muscles) and
a good way of combating that is by practicing the control required to play in as wide a dynamic
range as possible. If you’re having trouble, try to play the exercise slower and as quietly as
possible.

Ex 56 Right foot solo (♩=110)

Ex 57 Kick drum groove (♩=80)

Ex 58 Heel toe speed (♩=120)

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Fast Styles

It’s always good to practice drum ideas in context, which usually means playing them within
a song. Some styles in particular are meant to be played faster than others, so here are a few
variations of several of them to help develop your feel at higher tempos. The recommended tempos
are not necessarily a good place to start, so feel free to slow them right down. It’s just good to have
an idea of what to expect!

Punk (2000s)– Made famous by bands such as NOFX, Millencolin, Less Than Jake and Pennywise
to name a few, this style of drumming is usually played with a single pedal and can be very
demanding on the right foot.

Ex 59 Heel toe speed (♩=150)

Ex 60A, 60B & 60C Variations (♩=200)

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Blast beats SPEED

This is known as one of the consistently fastest styles, and a special technique is required in order
to play for long sections at extremely high speed. You can hear these grooves in such bands as
Dimmu Borgir, Slipknot, Origin and The Black Dahlia Murder. Some drummers prefer to play
them with one foot, and some prefer with two. We’ll use one foot for ex. 61 and then move to the
double pedal for the rest.
When practicing patterns like this at faster tempos, remember to relax. If your shoulder is
getting sore, it probably means you’re flexing it and straining your arm – you should be using
finger technique for these exercises for tempos of 210bpm and faster. Try using the heel up kick
technique for this, something to note is that some players prefer to use the Heel/toe technique on
both feet for the faster tempi. The ‘gravity blast’ (ex 65) employs the one-handed snare roll. Refer to
the Special Tools section of Chapter 1 for this technique.

Ex 61 Basic Blast (♩=110) Ex 62 Two foot blast (♩=200)

Ex 63 Variations (♩=200)

Ex 64 Variations (♩=200)

Ex 65 Gravity Blast (♩=140)

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Drum and Bass

Drum and Bass came about through DJs and producers speeding up breakbeats (such as the ‘Amen
Brother’ break). You can try this by practicing ex 66 slowly at first and then speeding it up. The
style was originally performed only electronically, but has since been emulated by many great
drummers in bands such as Roni Size, Pendulum, London Elektricity, Nerve etc, and can be a lot of
fun to play live. Producers tended to duplicate single beats within a bar which creates a ‘skipping
record’ effect. Some people refer to the snare ghosting as ‘chatters’ in this style.

Ex 66 Basic DnB (♩=140)

Ex 67A Variations (♩=170)

Ex 67B Variations (♩=170)

Ex 68 Glitchy (♩=170)

Ex 69 16th note groove (♩=200)

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 SPEED

1: Timbale Stick
2: Teardrop tip
3: Acorn Tip
4: Ball Tip
5: Multi Rod Stick
6: Mallet
7: Brush

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 CHAPTER FOUR
CLASSIC FEELS

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 CLASSIC FEELS
Classic Feels
Part of improving as a drummer means learning from and playing with other musicians, and if
you want to feel comfortable in the rehearsal room and onstage it’s important to have some handy
go-to patterns memorised. While these grooves only scratch the surface of the styles, they contain
the important specific elements which make them most recognisable. Refer to the recommended
listening page to hear some great examples, but if you have time you should research these styles
as well – Almost every influential drummer you can think of has derived a lot from them.

I should also note that one of the hardest styles I’ve found is jazz. There are many books and
articles on the subject, and it is the most demanding technically and musically. The jazz vocabulary
is virtually endless, and a huge range of dynamic capability is required. In saying that, I get a lot
of enjoyment from playing any style, and the thing to remember is that apart from keeping time,
you’re there to have fun!

Check out the downloadable playalong tracks from themodernbeatofficial.com and put your
playing to the test!

Blues/shuffles

Ex 70 Blues patterns (♩.=110)

Ex 71 Blues patterns (♩.=110)

Ex 72 Slow blues (♩.=60)

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Funk

Ex 73 Bouncy hihat accent (♩=90)

Ex 74 Swung (♩=90)

Ex 75 Ghosting (♩=70)

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 CLASSIC FEELS
Latin

Ex 76 Bossa Nova (♩=90)

Ex 77 Mozambique (♩=100)

Ex 78 Songo (♩=100)

Ex 79 6/8 Afrocuban (♩=115)

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Reggae

Ex 80 Reggae backbeat (♩=80)

Ex 81 One drop (♩=80)

Ex 82 Early ska (♩=140)

Ex 83 Steppers (♩=140)

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 CLASSIC FEELS
Rock

Ex 84 Beat 101 (♩=100)

Ex 85 Moeller right hand (♩=110)

Ex 86 The gallop (♩=120)

Swing/Jazz

Ex 87 Basic swing (♩=110)

Ex 88 Basic jazz groove

Ex 89 Snare comping

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 CHAPTER FIVE
A D VA N C E D S O U N D

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Advanced Sound ADVANCED SOUND

This chapter contains things you should consider learning if you really want to push yourself.
As I mentioned in the introduction - flashy stuff (while fun to practice and play) isn’t necessarily
the best thing to do in a gig situation. If you’re going to work on this stuff, make sure the other
stuff doesn’t go ignored, so your playing can progress in all areas. Something to remember - the
flashiest drummer in the world will have trouble getting hired if he can’t lay down a beat! And the
better you can play that beat the more fun you, your bandmates and your audience will have.

Fills
A drum fill is essentially a short pattern or gap in the groove which can introduce the start or end
of a section. Some drummers focus on fills before more important things (like time). I used to tell
students not to do this, but now I think it’s just all part of wanting to explore the instrument and
encourage it during personal practise. While they can sound pretty cool, fills can be a time-trap,
and we can all be guilty of slowing down or speeding up either before, during or coming out of
a fill. A good way around this is to always practice your fills with a metronome. Be very strict on
yourself when practicing them and, if you can, record yourself so you can pick up on any bad
habits.

Now that I’ve explained the main function of a drum fill, it’s safe to say there really are no limits to
what you can do, and this is a great way to express your musical individuality within a song.

Rather than copying and pasting a whole lot of patterns, we’re more looking at concepts to try.

Rudiment Fills
This is a great way to apply rudiments after you’ve been practicing them.

Ex 90 Inverted sticking paradiddle (♩=110)

Ex 91 Same thing in triplets

Ex 92 The six stroke roll

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Ex 93 Two six stroke rolls

Bridging – It’s a good idea to keep fills short, but if you’re looking for a way to lengthen them or
flesh out a solo, here are some good ideas to commit to memory. I look at them like a way of taking
a breath before you execute the next idea. Make sure your buzz rolls are nice and even before
trying ex 100 and 101 and don’t forget to refer back to the ‘Special Tools’ section of the video to
properly go over the technique.

Ex 94 The left hand double

Ex 95 Three over four

Ex 96 Using in a fill

Ex 97 Paradiddle first inversion

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 ADVANCED SOUND
Ex 98 With the left foot

Ex 99 Using in a fill

Ex 100 Buzz rolls

Ex 101 Using in a fill

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Splitting Voices

This style of fill has become very popular with the advent of modern gospel music. It’s a linear
style of fill (meaning only one thing is struck at a time) and usually incorporates the kick and hands
playing syncopated groups of three or four 16th notes. Again, it’s very important to practice these
with a metronome. These exercises can be difficult as we’ll be using the left foot to reference the
time. As a sidenote, this kind of fill can sound especially cool when you experiment with playing
groups of three notes in a 16th note rhythms and groups of four notes in triplet rhythms, (as in ex
106) and changing where you start and finish the fill (as in ex 107).

Ex 102 Hand/foot combination

Ex 103 Using Heel/toe

Ex 104 Splitting the hands

Ex 105 Split triplets

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Ex 106 Groups of four in triplets ADVANCED SOUND

Ex 107 Starting before the beat

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Polyrhythms and odd meters
Polyrhythms

A polyrhythm is any instance where more than one meter is being played simultaneously. There
are lots of ways to do this, but we’ll be looking at what I would consider one of the more musical
applications – playing odd time phrases over a 4/4 meter. While this has been happening for a
long time in jazz and latin music, over the last couple of decades it has become more popular in
heavier music, thanks to bands such as Meshuggah, Mnemic, Cloudkicker and Periphery. What
we’ll be striving for is playing a polyrhythm but feeling 4/4 as our main pulse.

Like a lot of things in this book, we just scratch the surface of this technique. Working at it will
improve polyrhythmic independence and your overall sense of form within a structure. The first set
of exercises (108-111) looks at playing the first of every three 16th notes within a four-bar phrase
(3 over 4), while the second set (112-116) looks at playing the first and third 16th note of every
five (5 over 4), and then gives some variations.

Try to come up with your own variations with groups of 5, 6, 7 and even 9, and apply them using
the same methods.

Ex 108 Three over four

Ex 109 Variation 1

Ex 110 Adding a backbeat

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 ADVANCED SOUND
Ex 111 Eight notes on the right hand

Ex 112 Five over four (notes 1 and 3 of every five are accented)

Ex 113 Variation 1

Ex 114 Adding a backbeat

Ex 115 Quarter notes on right hand

Ex 116 Variation 2 (♩=120)

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Odd meters

Playing in an odd meter is playing in any time signature that has an odd number in each bar, such
as 5/4 or 7/8. The fact that 3/4 is used quite commonly (waltzes etc) means that it isn’t typically
referred to as an odd meter.
They’re not common (particularly in pop music) and for this reason they’re not considered especially
vital for many drummers. I personally think that while it’s often not a particularly musical approach
to write a part in an odd meter for the sake of it, they can be quite fun to play, and some interesting
patterns can be applied to the grooves which make for challenging practice.

Ex 117 Basic 5/4 (♩=140)

Ex 118 Variation 1 (♩=140)

Ex 119 Variation 2

Ex 120 Basic 7/8

Ex 121 Variation 1

Ex 122 Variation 2

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Focused Groove ADVANCED SOUND

The term ‘groove’ can informally mean two things when referring to drummers. The first is what
you’d call a particular beat i.e. “Play that groove from Rosanna” and the second is how good a
drummer can make that beat sound i.e. “She’s got such great groove, I love jamming with her!”.
The term ‘focused groove’ refers to the latter meaning.

Typically, good groove comes down to three things; a developed sense of time, the subdivision
within each beat (let’s call that microsubdivision), and dynamics between each of the limbs.

We’ve been addressing the issue of time since you began this book – it can be helped by
practicing every exercise with a metronome. Assuming you’re going to keep doing that, let’s move
on to the next two points.

Micro-subdivision is the method of playing in time while fractionally moving individual notes within
each beat. Sometimes this can give the impression you’re either speeding up or slowing down,
but you’re really doing neither. Most people refer to this as playing either forward or back on the
beat. Another effect you might observe is for the beat to sound slightly ‘wobbly’. Some drummers
who tend to play in this style are Daru Jones, Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave and George ‘Spanky’ McCurdy.
Many producers utilise the ability to move programmed drumbeats in microsubdivisions too – listen
to J Dilla and Flying Lotus for some good examples.

An excellent way to develop this sense is to start by practicing with the metronome playing every
16th note beat. Record yourself if possible, and then listen back - if you’re playing any notes not
exactly with the metronome then you need to go over the pattern again. When this starts to get
more comfortable (it may take a while) you can intentionally place some beats a little out from the
click i.e. you can try to play the snare backbeat a little later, between beat 2 and the second 16th
note. Repeat this exercise until the space between the 16 notes feels bigger and bigger. You can
apply this method of practise to each of the following exercises. They aren’t especially technical,
this is because you need to improvise with one limb at a time. When you do this, you need to
make absolutely sure the other three limbs remain steadily in time with the metronome.

When it comes to inter-limb dynamics, you can improve by varying both volume and rhythm while
improvising on each individual limb. As before, you need to record and check back to make sure
your volume is unaffected on the other limbs. The variations are prompted in the first four exercises,
but again make sure you apply the same method to all of them.

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Ex 123 The Money beat (♩=80)

Ex 124 16th note money beat

Ex 125 Including the left foot

Ex 126 Improvising within a groove (♩=100)

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading what I have to say – make sure you subscribe to our youtube
channel and website themodernbeatoffical.com so you don’t miss out on any other lessons!

Bye for now

Tom Pierard

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 ADVANCED SOUND

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themodernbeatofficial.com

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