Drum Set Fundamentals

Gain a solid foundation in drum set performance and musicianship with Drum Set Fundamentals. The course explores five main topics—musicianship, hand-to-hand technique, snare drum reading, drum set coordination, and repertoire development—with each week becoming increasingly more challenging.

The course starts with teaching the basics, such as the concept of time; how to develop proper grip, playing area, and sound; and how to achieve balance and evenness between your hands. You will perform helpful strengthening and dexterity exercises and explore drum rudiments, including the double stroke roll, single stroke roll, paradiddle, double paradiddle, triple paradiddle, drag, drag paradiddle 1, flam, and flam accent. You will develop basic snare drum reading skills and how to interpret drum set charts, including various time signatures such as 4/4, 2/4, 3/4, 12/8, 6/8, 9/8, and 5/4. The course moves on to topics related to two-, three- and four-way coordination, touch, balance, dynamics, and shadings in the context of common groove patterns found in Rhythm & Blues, Pop-Rock, Funk, Rock, Jazz, Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban music.

Throughout the course, you will be exposed to a wide variety of drumming examples from bands such as Journey, Parliament, The Steve Miller Band, Toto, James Brown, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Count Basie, Airto Moreira, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Mongo Santamaria, and Hermeto Pascoal. The goal of the course is to enable you to play with more confidence, musicianship, and overall success, and to serve as a natural springboard for study into more specific areas of drum set and percussion study. The techniques, methods, and concepts presented in the course have been developed and refined for over 25 years by course author Yoron Israel, through his extensive teaching, performing, and recording experiences.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• understand basic time
• develop proper grip, playing area, and sound
• improve the balance and evenness between your hands
• play drum rudiments, including the double stroke roll, single stroke roll, paradiddle, double paradiddle, triple paradiddle, drag, drag paradiddle 1, flam, and flam accent
• develop basic snare drum reading skills
• interpret drum set charts
• improve your overall coordination, touch, and dynamics
• play common groove patterns found in Rhythm & Blues, Pop-Rock, Funk, Rock, Jazz, Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban music
• play patterns in various time signatures, including 4/4/, 2/4, 3/4, 12/8, 6/8, 9/8, and 5/4

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