At Music Academy, when we first thought about putting together some resources for drummers,
we had two things in mind. Firstly, we wanted to create a complete course for beginners
that would give them all the skills they need to play drums in church in a step-by-step
way, competently and confidently. Secondly, for the existing drummers out there, we realized
that many of them want to take their skills up to the next level, so we put together a
complete intermediate course, which is like a year's worth of drums lessons, all on DVD,
that you can come back to time and time again completely relevant to drumming and worship.
So for beginners, you get a step-by-step course that will teach you everything you need to
know about playing drums in a worship band, even if you've never held a drumstick before.
Now before we come to our first rhythm, I just want to get you familiar with playing
the hi-hat, the snare and the kick drum. So play along with me. One, two, three, four.
Now let's see if we can get all three. One, two, three, four. So you'll start by learning
a whole range of beats and rhythms. If we put it together, this is what we've got. One
and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and the hi-hat is very
straightforward. It's just one and two and three and four and now we're going to play
all four snare drums. Don't worry if you're struggling to get this because you can take
it on your own even slower and gradually work it up to speed. Then breaks and fills. Play
it a few times. One and two and three and four and crack. And a one and a two and a three
and a four and a crack. Essential techniques like single strokes, double strokes and paradigms.
Single strokes allow us to play interesting rhythms like this. Left, right, left, right,
left, right, left, left, left, left, left, left, left, left, left, left, left, left, left,
right, right, left, right, right, left, right, right, left, right, left, right, left, right,
right, right, right. Hi-hat and sticking technique. If you put all three stages together, you
end up with this technique. The real skill is to get the hi-hat, the click, the snare
and whatever else is supposed to be landing at the same time to land exactly in time.
Learn how to play with a click and develop your sense of timing. Play in different time
signatures like three, four and six, eight. Learn how to set tempos when starting songs
and even how to play hymns on drums. Another example of this is My Jesus, My Saviour. It's
a really hard song to count in correctly if you use the verse, which is downbeat and quite
slow, but actually it's quite easy to count it incorrectly if you use the upbeat, pacey
chorus. You'll also gain other useful skills like how to tune toms, how to develop a fun
practice routine and even how to select your very first drum kit. In a church setting, the
same symbol being played again and again and again can become a bit wearing, so if you're
going to have variety in anything on your kit, I would say get variety with your cymbals.
Finally we put all these techniques together and teach you some great drum parts to songs
like Here I Am To Worship and Beautiful One. Indescribable, Blessed Be Your Name. Your
love is amazing, hallelujah. Praise is rising and come now it's time to worship. For intermediate,
we work on similar skills just at a much higher level, so this will really suit regular players
who want to take their timing, their creativity and their technique up to the next level.
One of the reasons why many drummers hit a ceiling in their ability is due to bad technique,
so we start by revisiting essential techniques like grip, posture and sticking technique.
Now the reason I don't recommend you sticking your right foot all the way up to the top
of the kick pedal will become clear when we look at kick technique as well as hi-hat
and kick techniques to allow you to play more difficult grooves in different styles. Here's
a scoop in the context of a rhythm, it might be a rhythm that you recognise. Here's another
beat which uses the foot stroke, leg stroke combination. Then we increase your whole drumming
vocabulary with a new range of beats, fills and grooves.
Develop your groove using accents, pushes and bounce strokes. You bring your wrist up
like this as though someone were pulling a string on your wrist and you lift your stick
up like this, but on the way up you just strike the skin, tap up down, tap up down, tap up
down and then snatch the stick back as you lift your hand up to create the bounce stroke.
Work on click and timing techniques. You might feel a little self-conscious doing that but
believe me it really helps you to tune into the click and to play in time. Even playing
unusual time signatures. One of the key things in intermediate is building limb independence
so by learning these exercises you will really increase your sense of fluidity on drums.
Then we put it all together so you can learn to use these new skills to play in worship
with more control, style and creativity. As well as all these drum lessons both beginners
and intermediate DVDs include many other useful features. You'll learn percussion instruments
like shakers, tambourine, cowbell and triangle, congas and jambi, how to play didgeridoo and
even how to lead a drum circle to using worship and prayer. The drum circle is unified prayer
with outblows. We also give you loads of loops and clicks so you can use the DVDs as a daily
practice tool. Plus every DVD contains top tips and advice from some of the best Christian
drummers and worship leaders in the world. So we have Nashville's session veteran Dennis
Holt, Aaron Sterling who plays from the Tasha Bedding Field and Brenton Brown, Andrew Small
who drums for big names like Kylie Minogue and Massive Attack as well as worship leaders
like Stuart Townen. Martin Neal who's played for Kevin Proch for many years as well as
Nathan Fellingham, Chris Bowwater, David Ruiz and many others. Finally we have some guest
lessons from Paul Evans who's played for many people like Tim Hughes, Matt Redmond, Vicky
Beeching, Graham Kendrick and now drums for Delirious. Also if you want some extra help
with practice we have three 20 minute drummers warm-ups on CD and video download that help
you make the best of your practice time, help you warm up before you play and stretch your
technique and repertoire. So we have a year's worth of lessons for beginners, a year's worth
for intermediates on three DVDs in each set plus some CD based practice routines that
you can use as a daily practice tool. All available from musicademy.co.uk.
