Drum Town

The Curriculum

Foundations is where most of a drummer's playing actually lives — reading, rudiments, time on the kit, technique, coordination, fills, practice habits. Once foundations is solid, seven genre tracks for specialization, plus a section of cross-cutting topics that don't fit any single track. Lessons rendered with real notation. Built to be navigated, not just read.

213 of 213 lessons ready

Getting Started

Chapter 1
  1. 01 The Kit: What's What
  2. 02 Setup & Posture
  3. 03 Stick Grip & Strokes
  4. 04 How to Practice

Reading & Counting

Chapter 2
  1. 01 Reading Music: Note Values
  2. 02 Time Signatures
  3. 03 Rests: The Sound of Silence
  4. 04 Counting Eighths
  5. 05 Counting Sixteenths
  6. 06 Triplet Feel
  7. 07 Mixed Subdivisions
  8. 08 Reading Syncopation
  9. 09 Dotted Rhythms

Rudiments

Chapter 3
  1. 01 The Single Stroke Roll
  2. 02 The Double Stroke Roll
  3. 03 The Single Paradiddle
  4. 04 The Double Paradiddle
  5. 05 The Inverted Paradiddle
  6. 06 The Paradiddle-Diddle
  7. 07 The Flam
  8. 08 The Flam Tap
  9. 09 The Flam Accent
  10. 10 The Swiss Army Triplet
  11. 11 The Drag
  12. 12 The Dragadiddle
  13. 13 Accented Single Strokes
  14. 14 The Six-Stroke Roll

Time on the Kit

Chapter 4
  1. 01 Your First Beat
  2. 02 Kick Variations
  3. 03 Backbeat Color
  4. 04 Two-Bar Phrasing
  5. 05 The Shuffle Feel

Foot Technique

Chapter 5
  1. 01 Bass Drum Technique
  2. 02 Hi-Hat Foot Technique
  3. 03 Bass Drum Doubles

Hand Technique on the Kit

Chapter 6
  1. 01 Snare Voicings
  2. 02 Hi-Hat Articulation
  3. 03 Cymbal Voicings
  4. 04 Ghost Notes
  5. 05 Accent and Tap
  6. 06 The Moeller Stroke
  7. 07 Finger Control
  8. 08 The Dynamic Spectrum

Coordination

Chapter 7
  1. 01 Basic Coordination
  2. 02 Three-Limb Patterns
  3. 03 Four-Way Independence Basics
  4. 04 Limb Substitution

Independence Systems

Chapter 8
  1. 01 Singing as a Practice Tool
  2. 02 The Chapin Method
  3. 03 The New Breed System
  4. 04 Melodic Snare Over Stable Feet
  5. 05 The Clave-Foot System

Fills & Transitions

Chapter 9
  1. 01 Basic Fills
  2. 02 Pickup Fills
  3. 03 Fills Around the Kit

Practicing

Chapter 10
  1. 01 Warm-Ups
  2. 02 Practicing with a Metronome
  3. 03 Slow Practice
  4. 04 Recording Yourself

Putting It Together

Chapter 11
  1. 01 Playing to a Song
  2. 02 The Two-Minute Loop

Rock & Pop

Chapter 12
  1. 01 Eighth-Note Grooves
  2. 02 Quarter-Note Hi-Hat
  3. 03 Cross-Stick & Ballad Feel
  4. 04 Basic Fills
  5. 05 Four-on-the-Floor
  6. 06 Sixteenth-Note Hi-Hat
  7. 07 Open Hats & Syncopation
  8. 08 Shuffle Rock
  9. 09 Power Ballad Grooves
  10. 10 Tom-Driven Grooves
  11. 11 Half-Time Feel
  12. 12 Train Beat
  13. 13 Linear Fills
  14. 14 Double-Time Grooves
  15. 15 Stadium Anthem
  16. 16 Prog Rock Vocabulary
  17. 17 Odd Meters in Rock
  18. 18 Hybrid Grooves
  19. 19 Studio Polish & Production
  20. 20 Dynamic Mastery

Jazz

Chapter 13
  1. 01 The Jazz Ride Pattern
  2. 02 Hi-Hat Foot on 2 and 4
  3. 03 Brushes — First Steps
  4. 04 Slow Ballad Brushwork
  5. 05 Medium Swing Comping
  6. 06 Comping Basics
  7. 07 Trading Fours
  8. 08 Bossa-Influenced Jazz
  9. 09 Intro to Up-Tempo Time
  10. 10 Intro to Broken Time
  11. 11 Bop Vocabulary
  12. 12 Up-Tempo Time
  13. 13 Broken Time
  14. 14 Modal Comping (Coltrane)
  15. 15 Comping Vocabulary
  16. 16 Free Jazz Concepts
  17. 17 Post-Bop Independence
  18. 18 Elvin Jones Triplet Vocabulary
  19. 19 Tony Williams Concepts
  20. 20 Modern Jazz Independence

Funk

Chapter 14
  1. 01 Ghost Notes & The Pocket
  2. 02 Sixteenth-Note Feel
  3. 03 Pocket Drumming
  4. 04 Clyde Stubblefield (JB)
  5. 05 The Meters — First Steps
  6. 06 James Brown Vocabulary
  7. 07 Linear Funk
  8. 08 Zigaboo & The Meters
  9. 09 Bernard Purdie — Intro
  10. 10 Moving Ghost Notes
  11. 11 New Orleans Second-Line
  12. 12 Beat Displacement
  13. 13 The Purdie Shuffle
  14. 14 David Garibaldi (Tower)
  15. 15 Sparse Quarter-Note Funk
  16. 16 D'Angelo Time-Feel
  17. 17 Modern Neo-Soul
  18. 18 Questlove Time-Feel
  19. 19 Vinnie's Funk Drumming
  20. 20 Modern R&B Production

Latin & Afro-Cuban

Chapter 15
  1. 01 Bossa Nova
  2. 02 Understanding Clave
  3. 03 Samba on the Kit
  4. 04 Cha-Cha-Cha
  5. 05 Mambo — First Steps
  6. 06 Songo
  7. 07 Mozambique
  8. 08 Merengue
  9. 09 Cumbia
  10. 10 Cáscara on the Kit
  11. 11 Rumba
  12. 12 6/8 Afro-Cuban
  13. 13 Bembé Bell Pattern
  14. 14 Guaguancó
  15. 15 Comparsa
  16. 16 Folkloric Integration
  17. 17 Modern Hybrid Approaches
  18. 18 Batá Rhythms on the Kit
  19. 19 Iyesá
  20. 20 Yoruba Ceremonial Rhythms

Jazz Fusion

Chapter 16
  1. 01 Jazz Coordination Foundation
  2. 02 The Six-Stroke Roll
  3. 03 Half-Time Shuffle
  4. 04 Linear Playing — First Steps
  5. 05 Jazz-Rock Crossover
  6. 06 Odd Meters: 5/4 and 7/8
  7. 07 Linear Vocabulary
  8. 08 Displaced Grooves
  9. 09 Sixteenth-Based Fusion
  10. 10 Broken-Time Fusion
  11. 11 Polyrhythmic Grooves
  12. 12 Fusion Soloing Vocabulary
  13. 13 Metric Superimposition
  14. 14 Clave-Influenced Fusion
  15. 15 Tony Williams Lifetime Style
  16. 16 Metric Modulation
  17. 17 Modern Fusion (Guiliana, Nilles)
  18. 18 Prog Fusion (Liquid Tension)
  19. 19 Electronic Fusion
  20. 20 Mahavishnu Orchestra Style

Metal

Chapter 17
  1. 01 Double Bass Basics
  2. 02 Power Grooves
  3. 03 Headbanger Grooves
  4. 04 Quarter-Note Double Bass
  5. 05 Eighth-Note Double Bass
  6. 06 Blast Beats
  7. 07 Prog Metal Time Feels
  8. 08 D-Beat
  9. 09 Thrash Patterns
  10. 10 Groove Metal (Pantera-style)
  11. 11 Extreme Metal Vocabulary
  12. 12 Gravity Rolls
  13. 13 Bomb Blasts
  14. 14 Hyper-Blast Beats
  15. 15 Djent & Polyrhythmic Grooves
  16. 16 Tech-Death Concepts
  17. 17 Complex Polymeters
  18. 18 Metric Modulation in Metal
  19. 19 Mathcore Concepts
  20. 20 Gospel Chops in Metal

Hip-Hop & R&B

Chapter 18
  1. 01 Boom-Bap
  2. 02 Pocket Time-Feel
  3. 03 Classic Hip-Hop Drumming
  4. 04 R&B Basics
  5. 05 Quiet Storm Style
  6. 06 Trap on the Kit
  7. 07 Neo-Soul Feel
  8. 08 Modern R&B
  9. 09 Southern Rap Drumming
  10. 10 Questlove Time-Feel
  11. 11 Studio Drums to Live Kit
  12. 12 Programmed Displacement
  13. 13 808 Patterns on the Kit
  14. 14 Chris Dave Concepts
  15. 15 Anderson .Paak Style
  16. 16 J Dilla Time-Feel
  17. 17 Modern Production Feel
  18. 18 Drumming Around Samples
  19. 19 Louis Cole Drumming
  20. 20 Future R&B

Other Topics

Chapter 19
  1. 01 Polyrhythms: 3 over 2
  2. 02 Polyrhythms: 5 over 4
  3. 03 Odd Meters Beyond 7
  4. 04 Soloing & Improvisation
  5. 05 Brushes Mastery
  6. 06 Four-Way Independence
  7. 07 Reading Complex Charts
  8. 08 Solo Drumming as Composition
  9. 09 Transcribing from Recordings
  10. 10 Designing Your Practice
  11. 11 The Art of Accompaniment
  12. 12 Clave as Feel (Beyond Latin)