Drum method: every track and exercise · drumdesync
The complete drumdesync method index: every track, from your first bar to full independence, with real notation. Free to practice.
From scratch: understand every symbol and play by reading the score. Start here if you never read music.
- The bass drum The ● down low, stem pointing down. It is your right foot: play one per beat.
- The snare The ● in the middle of the staff. It is the hand, on 2 and 4: the famous backbeat.
- The hi-hat The ✕ above the staff. It is the hand keeping time, tick-tick-tick-tick.
- Quarter notes One figure per beat. Count out loud: 1, 2, 3, 4.
- Eighth notes Two per beat, joined by a beam. Count: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
- Sixteenth notes Four per beat. Count slowly: 1 e and a.
- The rest The snare plays only on 2 and 4. The rest is silence, and silence is read too.
- Hole on the beat The hi-hat marks 1, 2 and 4, but skips 3. Read the silence in the middle.
- Kick and snare Two lines of ●: bottom is the foot (kick), middle is the hand (snare). They take turns.
- Hi-hat and kick Hi-hat on top the whole time, kick at the bottom on 1 and 3. Hand and foot together.
- Hi-hat and snare Hi-hat in eighths and the snare on the backbeat underneath it.
- Open at the end Hi-hat closed the whole bar, opening only on the last beat (the & of 4).
- Open and breathe Two opens per bar, on the & of 2 and the & of 4: the groove breathes.
- The first groove All three voices together: the most played rock groove in the world. Hi-hat, snare and kick.
- The kick that slips The same groove, but the kick sneaks in before beat 4. Follow the column.
- Free reading Kick on every beat, snare on the backbeat, hi-hat in eighths. Read it on your own, no hints.
- Free reading 2 Puts it all together: hi-hat opening and closing, snare on the backbeat and a syncopated kick. Read it on your own.
- Tom 1 The ● higher than the snare, played by the hand. Here on all four beats.
- Tom 2 One step below tom 1, a slightly lower sound.
- Floor tom The lowest tom, down low. Looks like the kick, but the stem points UP.
- The ride Also an ✕, but on a lower line than the hi-hat. The ride cymbal keeps time.
- The ride bell The ride cup becomes a diamond ◆. Here it accents 1 and 3.
- The crash The accent cymbal: the highest ✕ of all. Here an accent on beat 1.
- Walking down the toms The hand walks down the drums: tom 1, tom 2, floor tom and snare. Read the height fall.
- Fill at the end Three beats of groove and, on 4, the hand fills across the toms.
- Groove on the ride The rock groove with the ride keeping time instead of the hi-hat.
- Bell for flavor Ride keeping time and the bell (◆) adding flavor on 1 and 3.
- Floor tom backbeat The backbeat moves to the FLOOR TOM instead of the snare: low and fat on 2 and 4.
- The whole kit Graduation: crash, closed and open hi-hat, ride, snare, kick and a tom fill in one bar.
The basic groove: hand keeps time, foot answers.
- Kick on 1 only One foot hit per bar. Feel beat 1 as the anchor of everything.
- Basic (1 & 3) The starting point. The Billie Jean / AC-DC groove.
- Four on the floor Kick on every beat, with a crash opening beat 1.
- Snare only No kick: just the hands, hi-hat and backbeat. Lock this sway in before adding the foot.
- Call and answer Kick on 1 asks, snare on 3 answers. The simplest dialogue on the kit.
Steady eighth-note hi-hat while the kick escapes to where the hand doesn't mark.
- & of 1 Boom-b-boom: kick on 1 and the off-beat of 1, then on 3.
- & of 2 The kick answers the snare.
- & of 3 The verse of Come As You Are. Foot on the off-beat of 3.
- & of 4 Kick on the off-beat of 4, pulling into the next 1.
- Every & Kick on every off-beat.
- Pop syncopation The off-beat of 3 is the hook.
- Dotted Dotted eighth then a long silence.
- Displaced Seven Nation Army vibe.
- 'a' of 1 Kick on the last sixteenth of beat 1. Falls BETWEEN the hi-hats, with no hand to guide you.
- 'e' of 2 Kick right after the backbeat, on the 'e' of 2 — a spot the hi-hat doesn't mark.
- Stolen Sixteenth right before beat 3.
- 'a' of 3 Kick on the 'a' of 3, leading into 4.
- 'e' of 4 Kick on the 'e' of 4, between the last two hi-hats.
- Pickup Sixteenth at the end pulling into the 1.
- Two loose ones Two loose sixteenths in one bar: the 'a' of 1 and the 'a' of 3. Twice the hand's blind spots.
- Crossed The 'e' of 2 and the 'a' of 4: one early, one late. The foot crosses the whole bar unaided.
- Glued double Two sixteenth kicks inside one hi-hat.
- Double on 2 Two fast kicks on 2 (2 and 'e'), under the snare.
- Double on 3 Two glued kicks on 3 (3 and 'e').
- Double on '&' of 3 Two kicks on the off-beat of 3 ('&' and 'a') — both between hi-hats.
- Double on 4 Two kicks on 4 (4 and 'e'), pulling to the end.
- Double under the snare The 'a' of 1 gluing into 2: the second kick lands WITH the snare. Foot and left hand collide on purpose.
- Two doubles A double on 1 and a double on 3. Two bursts while the hand stays unmoved.
- Triple on 1 Three kicks at the top (1, 'e', '&') — a burst right at the start.
- Triple on 2 Three kicks on 2 (2, 'e', '&'), under the snare.
- Triple on 3 Three kicks on beat 3. Sweet Home Alabama.
- Triple on 4 Three kicks at the end (4, 'e', '&') — a big foot fill.
- Gallop Two sixteenths before beat 2 and before beat 4 (the '&-a'): the foot gallops, the hand trots.
- Without the one Every off-beat, but NO kick on 1. Losing the anchor without falling: real desync.
- Ghost kicks Only the 'a' of 1 and the 'a' of 3: two floating sixteenths, no strong beat to hold on to.
- Floating Kick only on the 'e' of 2 and the 'e' of 4 — always a hair after the snare. Count out loud.
- Shifted basic The basic (1 & 3) pushed ONE sixteenth late. Familiar groove, unfamiliar ground.
Kick anchors, hi-hat keeps time, and the snare leaves 2 and 4.
- Snare on the &s The snare leaves 2 and 4 and lands on the off-beats. The foot holds 1 and 3 steady.
- Half-time (snare on 3) Backbeat only on 3: the bar feels twice as long. Heavy ballad groove.
- Snare on 4 only The snare waits almost the whole bar and closes on 4. Holding the hand back IS the exercise.
- Snare on 2 and & of 3 Half backbeat, half syncopation: beat 2 is normal, the second snare escapes to the & of 3.
- Snare on the 'e' of 2 The beat-2 backbeat slips one sixteenth late. The one on 4 stays put as your reference.
- Snare on the 'a' of 2 Snare dragged to the 'a' of 2 — the drunken sway of D'Angelo and J Dilla.
- Snare on the 'a' of 3 The second snare anticipates beat 4, landing on the 'a' of 3. The hand arrives early.
- Snare on the 'e' of 4 The beat-4 backbeat sliding to its 'e'. The bar ends crooked on purpose.
- Double snare Two glued snares on 2 (2 and 'e') and a normal backbeat on 4. The hand doubles, the foot doesn't notice.
- Displaced backbeat The WHOLE groove (kick and snare) pushed one sixteenth. The hi-hat alone holds the truth.
- Snare tresillo The snare plays the Cuban 3+3+2 (1, & of 2, 4) over a steady kick. Two gravities at once.
- Snare echo Each backbeat gets an echo on its 'a': 2-echo, 4-echo. The hand speaks twice, the foot never reacts.
The foot holds time while the hi-hat breaks: holes and crooked hand patterns.
- Hole on & of 2 The hi-hat skips the off-beat of 2. The hand stops, everything else keeps going.
- Hole on & of 4 The hand swallows the last off-beat. Do not rush the next 1.
- Hole on beat 3 The hi-hat vanishes exactly ON beat 3 — the kick plays alone there. A hole on a strong beat is the trickiest.
- Off-beat hand Hi-hat ONLY on the off-beats, kick on every beat. The hand never lands with the foot.
- Charleston hand Hi-hat on the charleston rhythm (1 and the '& of 2', twice per bar). The hand goes syncopated, the foot keeps plumb.
- Tresillo hand The hi-hat plays 3+3+2 (1, & of 2, 4) while foot and snare stay square. Clave against groove.
- Total inversion Roles swapped: kick on EVERY beat and the hi-hat only on 2 and 4, playing the snare part.
- Broken hand HARD: a hi-hat with holes (no '&' of 2 or 4) while the foot plays syncopated sixteenths ('a' of 2 and 'a' of 3). Hand and foot almost never land together.
- Tresillo vs. foot Hand on 3+3+2 and kick on the 'e' of 2 and 'e' of 4. The two lines cross without ever leaning on each other.
- Syncopated charleston Charleston hand + kick on the 'a' of 1 and of 3. Two different syncopations, one per limb.
- Broken with doubles The same broken hand, now with kick doubles on 1 and 3 underneath.
The hand moves to the ride and the hi-hat goes to the left foot. Four limbs in play.
- Hi-hat in quarters Hand on the ride, left-foot hi-hat marking all 4 beats. Welcome to the fourth limb.
- Hi-hat on 2 and 4 The left foot closes the hi-hat with the snare, on 2 and 4. The classic jazz 'chick'.
- Hi-hat on 1 and 3 Now the left foot lands WITH the kick, on 1 and 3. Sounds easy — until the feet disagree.
- Hi-hat on the off-beats The left foot answers on the &s while the kick holds 1 and 3. The funk and jazz sway.
- Hi-hat in eighths The left foot doubles the hand: continuous eighths on the pedal. Endurance and evenness.
- Foot vs. foot: & of 3 Hi-hat steady on 2 and 4; the kick escapes to the & of 3. The feet peel apart.
- Foot vs. foot: 'a' of 1 Hi-hat on 2 and 4; kick on 1, the 'a' of 1 and 3. Sixteenth in the right foot, quarter in the left.
- Foot vs. foot: double Hi-hat on 2 and 4; kick doubling on 3. The right foot speeds up, the left must not follow.
- Crooked hands, steady feet Tresillo ride (3+3+2), snare on 2 and 4, kick on 1 and 3, hi-hat on the quarters. Four real voices.
- Feet conversation Kick on every beat, hi-hat on every off-beat: the feet alternate eighths, samba-style.
- Charleston hi-hat The left foot plays the charleston rhythm while hand and kick stay square. Syncopation in the pedal.
- All four Capstone: eighth-note ride, snare on 2 and 4, syncopated kick ('a' of 2 and 'a' of 3) and hi-hat on the off-beats.
One part stays fixed while the other varies. The classic independence recipe.
- Sixteenth ostinato Kick twice as fast as the hand.
- Foot doubles the hand The ostinato inverted: the hand plays quarters and the foot eighths, twice the hand.
- Foot tresillo The kick plays 3+3+2 (1, & of 2, 4) under square hand and snare. Half of pop music grooves on this.
- 3 against 4 Kick every 3 sixteenths (hemiola) under eighth-note hi-hats. The cycles only meet on the 1.
- Hand in 3, foot in 4 Now flip it: the hi-hat cycles every 3 sixteenths while the kick marks all 4 beats.
- Tresillo over four Hands on 3+3+2 with four on the floor below. The clave floats over stomped ground.
- Snare clock The snare becomes the clock (quarters) and the kick escapes to the off-beats. Roles fully swapped.
- Crossed ostinato Hemiola in the foot (every 3) WITH a snare backbeat. The final level: three different cycles spinning.
Nobody plays together: every hit belongs to a single limb. Maximum desync.
- Eighth-note relay Entry-level linear: hi-hat, snare and kick take turns in eighths, never together.
- Bell and answer The ride bell marks the beats; kick and snare answer on the off-beats. Nobody overlaps.
- Breathing linear A linear phrase with real rests: K-H-H-S, breath, H-S, breath. The silence is part of the phrase.
- The ladder Kick on the beats and the hand walking tom 1 → tom 2 → floor tom → snare between them. Linear across the drums.
- Perpetual motion All 16 sixteenths filled in relay: K-H-S-H the whole bar. No limb ever doubles up.
- Linear 3 vs. 4 A K-H-S relay cycling in 3 over the grid of 4. The phrase spins and only realigns on the next 1.
- Linear bell (KRRK) Linear pattern: kick, snare and the ride bell take turns in sixteenths — nobody plays together. The diamond is the cup 'ping'.
Left hand holds the hi-hat, right hand roams the toms. Breaks the lead-hand habit.
- Left hand on the hats The same basic groove, but WITHOUT crossing arms: hi-hat with the LEFT hand, snare with the right.
- Floor-tom backbeat The right hand drops to the floor tom on 2 and 4 while the left keeps the hi-hat. Tribal and fat.
- Tom-1 backbeat Now the backbeat moves up to tom 1. The right hand travels far from home; the left doesn't blink.
- Alternating toms Tom 1 on 2, floor tom on 4: the right hand alternates high and low, the left keeps the clock.
- Walking down the toms The right hand draws a melody: tom 1 on 2, tom 2 on the & of 2, floor tom on 4. A mini fill inside the groove.
- Off-beat toms The right hand hits the toms ONLY on the off-beats (& of 2 and & of 4) while the left marks the eighths.
- Syncopated toms Floor-tom backbeat with a syncopated kick ('a' of 2 and 'a' of 3). Three voices, three personalities.
- Tom tresillo The right hand plays 3+3+2 walking down the toms (tom 1, tom 2, floor) over steady hats and kick.
The hand opens the hi-hat (the 'o' above the ✕) and shuts it on the next hit. The groove's air and shine.
- Open on the & of 4 The rock classic: the hi-hat opens on the last off-beat and shuts on the next 1. The 'tsss' that pushes the bar around.
- Open on the & of 2 One open in the middle of the bar, right after the backbeat. Open with the hand and shut on the next eighth without losing the pulse.
- Open and shut Open on the off-beats of 2 and 4. Two breaths per bar, one in each half.
- Breathing hats Open hi-hat on every off-beat over the basic (1 and 3). The whole groove starts to breathe.
- Disco Kick on every beat, open hi-hat on the off-beats and a crash to open. The engine of disco and house.
- Open syncopated Opens on the off-beats of 2 and 4 with the kick escaping to the 'a' of 3. The hand shines while the foot slips away.
- Kick between the opens The genuinely tricky one: the kick lands on the 'a' of 2, squeezed between two open hi-hats (the & of 2 and beat 3). The hand opens and shuts while the foot slots into the gap. It's the feel of the Creep verse.
The accent cymbal to blow the sound up: accents, hits and fills that resolve on the crash.