Free Drum Lessons

This free video drum lesson shows you how you can incorporate off beat hi-hat beats into your drumming. Follow Jared as he walks you through these fun exercises and gives you a few ideas that you can take back to your kit and implement into your drumming!

You can really spice up your drumming by incorporating cymbal choking within beats, fills, and even complex solo patterns. This video lesson includes important tips on how to perform cymbal chokes. In fact, it teaches two different methods that you can use to achieve this effect. First, you'll learn how to choke a cymbal using both hands. You'll use one hand to strike the crash, and the other hand to choke it. This works well for cymbals that are within reach of both hands. Second, you'll learn how to play and choke a cymbal using just one hand. This can be a little tricky, and should be performed carefully. However, it's really the only way to play and choke a cymbal that is far off to one side of the drum set. Watch the included video lesson to see both cymbal choking methods demonstrated. Once you are finished mastering these techniques, you can move on to one of our other dynamic drumming lessons.

This short drum lesson explains how to sizzle the hi-hats within your drum beats. It starts out by teaching the basic method, and then explains various ways that it can be incorporated into musical drumming. Watch the included video lesson for step-by-step training. Jared also gives a word of caution in the included training video. Don't overuse this method in your drumming. It has a far more powerful dynamic effect when it is used sparingly. If you are playing a set of about ten songs, consider sizzling the hi-hats in no more than two or three songs. This way, the audience won't get too used to hearing the sound.

This free drum lesson teaches you an exercise that can really improve you rudimentary drumming. With this doubles and singles drum exercise, you're basically switching back and forth between the double rudiment, and single rudiment. For more information on drum rudiments visit the drum rudiment section of the FreeDrumLessons.com Drum Lesson list.

This video lesson will show you how to spice up simple rock grooves by opening and closing the hi-hats at a specified time within the beat. Jared gives tips and tricks to keep in mind when first playing open-close hi-hat beats, and then demonstrates four patterns that make use of this dynamic drumming technique.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use crescendos and decrescendos within the context of playing drum beats, fills, or even solo patterns. These technical terms represent changes in the dynamic volume of a musical part over a specified time. Watch the included video lesson for a complete overview.

In this video lesson, you are going to learn how to take any regular drum beat, and change it up by playing the snare shots with cross-sticking. This is a simple and effective way to dramatically change the dynamics of any drum beat. You'll learn the technique, and four simple beats that make use of it.

Practicing this drum rudiment exercise will stretch your rudimentary drumming. Flams are a great way to add a little extra punch to your drumming. For more information on drum rudiments and how to execute a flam with ease visit the drum rudiment section of FreeDrumLessons.com.

Accenting notes within a drum beat or fill is a great way to add dynamics to your drumming. In this video lesson, you will learn a tecnique known as "rim shots" that will enable you to achieve a loud accented note on the snare drum. This method consists of having the shaft of the drumstick make contact with the rim, while the tip strikes the center of the drum. You can think of accented notes as being the opposite of ghost notes.

This drum lesson gives a complete overview of ghost notes. In it, you'll learn how to identify and play these subtle notes within dynamic drum beats. You'll also have the opportunity to see the difference between ghosted and non-ghosted notes within a looped beat. This way, you'll be able to see the dramatic difference ghost notes can make within your favorite drum grooves.

This free video lesson teaches Jared Falk's note value exercise. Basically, this exercise is designed to help you practice quarter notes, eighth notes, eighth note triplets, sixteenth notes, sixteenth note triplets, and 32nd notes around the drum kit - all at the same time.

Improve your dynamic drumming and groove with the video lessons below. They cover various drumming concepts including: ghost notes, rim shots, cross-sticking, crescendo & decrescendo, open/closing hi-hats, sizzling the hi-hats, and cymbal choking. All of these techniques are essential for any intermediate to advanced drummer that is interested in improving their overall drumming abilities!

Watch as Jared Falk of FreeDrumLessons.com teaches you the basics of learning how to play the drums.