Basic rock drum beats are awesome!
They sound fantastic and are relatively easy to learn.
Plus, they have this certain feel to them.
You know it:
They make your head bang with utterly joy! 🙂
For this reason, I thought of sharing some of the best basic rock drum beats for beginners today.
Please notice:
This drumming guide also includes a free PDF and helpful practice tips for you.
Your Free Basic Rock Drum Beats PDF Notes
Table Of Contents
As you can see, our basic rock drum beats are all written in the 4/4 time signature.
You’ll be playing only two different note values on your kit, being
- quarter notes and
- eighth notes.
Have you noticed?
We start with our classic standard beat and add or displace strokes.
By doing so, each bar becomes slightly more challenging.
The free drum PDF also shows that our grooves are based around the so-called backbeat, too.
Back what?
The backbeat means you play the snare on counting times 2 as well as 4.
By playing a backbeat groove, you create the head-nodding feeling in styles like
- rock drumming,
- funk drumming or
- blues drumming.
Also, most pop music relies on backbeat-driven grooves.
If you want to spice things even more up, you can play the strokes on the snare as rim shots.
Savvy Practice Tips For Rocking Your Drum Kit
There’s nothing too complicated going on with our rock drum beats.
However, reminding ourselves of crucial practice advice won’t hurt either:
1.) Practice each beat slowly at first.
Go for a tempo that allows you to practice each of your drum grooves
- mindfully,
- without mistakes
- and with relaxed muscles.
You should be able to play your grooves with ease.
Also, repeating them correctly over several minutes should be no problem.
This works out well?
Increase your tempo step-by-step from 2 to 3 bpm until you can play each beat
- slow,
- in a mid-range and
- fast
tempo.
You want to rock even harder?
Work on different dynamics as well!
And change the hi-hat pattern as you please. 🙂
2.) Make sure to really nail each stroke at the right time.
Focus on keeping the tempo from the first stroke on.
Practicing with a metronome or drumless backing track will help you play in time.
You’re not sure when to play the kick or snare?
Don’t hesitate to count or sing our basic rock drum beats.
Whatever helps you to make drumming easier for you, go for it.
3.) Have fun making music.
As a drummer, you do not only play the drum set.
You make music!
That’s why it’s always a good idea to jam with others or play along to your favorite recordings.
You’ve never played to music before?
Check out the very first song I recommend for newbies.
By doing so, you not only enjoy yourself.
- You’ll also mesmerize each beat,
- feel it, which can enhance your overall groove
- and improve your general understanding of music.
Plus:
If you’ve mesmerized every beat, also go a little crazy.
Change the instruments to get even more interesting sounds, or add some strokes.
If you like to, you can also omit notes written in your drum notes PDF.
And of course:
Don’t practice each beat from 1 to 14, and then repeat.
Instead, jump from 1 to 9, then from 11 to 6 and so on.
This way of smartly practicing will boost your reading skills and challenge your brain.
Have fun with that!
Cheers,
PS:
Which of our 14 basic rock drum beats do you like the most?
