In this module, you will learn about the different types of grips, the muscles they use, and their advantages/disadvantages. We will focus on one particular grip, which strengthens and acclimatizes you to achieve proper wrist strokes before we move on to other muscle groups and techniques in the future.

Rhythm is all about spacing, and learning the theory is the best way to visualize how different spaces work together to deliver a rhythm and build a strong foundation for your understanding of more advanced topics in the future. It is also an essential tool for your instructor to communicate with you in the classroom.

For beginners, we will start with three ways to subdivide time: Quarter Notes, Eighth Notes, and Sixteenth Notes.

Once you have learned that, we will also guide you in reading proper drum scores so that you may begin searching for more materials to learn on our OSC platform or your favorite YouTube channels.

Over here, you would learn different combination patterns, also known as broken 16th Notes.

What most people deem as the most challenging part of drumming (it is not), coordination can be easily mastered if you have the right approach. Most people start learning new beats at a relatively fast pace, which causes many issues in learning the beat. However, the determination of fast or slow, is highly personal. Through our guided approach, your instructor will be able to guide you on your personalized method by highlighting issues in the learning process, to ensure continuity in proper learning when you practice at home.

As you learn your first beats, you will slowly start using the Crash and Ride Cymbals, and you can play a simple song with some basic fill-ins.

You should have gathered the above basics within the first two lessons; your instructor might have already started you with a song to help you better understand the applications involved. We want to learn a basic slow song with a relatively simple beat and fill-ins.

You may also request songs for instructors, and the instructor will determine if it is suitable for you to play at this level, simplify the song to suit your current playing level or reject the song if it is too difficult.

Fill-ins transition a song from section to section and give a break from the routine beats. They often signal fellow musicians in a certain musical direction as well. One common fill-in example is a drum roll around the drum set.

Here, you will learn some basic fill-ins based on the song your instructor is working on with you.

Rudiments are the essential fundamentals of drumming. They consist of a combination of different sticking patterns that you can use to explore different sounds. When combined with accents (playing harder on certain notes), you will be able to develop thousands of melodic combinations with just one drum alone. This is often practiced on the practice pad, hence it is compulsory for you to purchase one.

One example of rudiments would be a single-stroke roll, the sticking pattern would be

RLRL (Right, Left, Right, Left)

At the Beginner 1 stage, we will only touch on one or two basic rudiments and one or two basic accent patterns, as you will already be able to play a large number of songs with just these basic fundamentals.

An overlooked and misunderstood aspect of playing is the inability to play your notes in time or space them out evenly. This does not stem from your inability to control your hands properly. It is often caused by your inability to “hear” the spacing between the notes.

Another critical aspect of this module is training to “hear” your beats rather than follow the score. This is the crucial difference between most “self-taught” and “school-taught” drummers. School-taught drummers often have weak hearing abilities as they rely on scores. Self-taught drummers often skip the theory part and rely only on their hearing to learn, developing a much stronger hearing sensitivity.

Once you understand the basic spacing for the Quarter, Eighth, and Sixteenth notes, we will move on to learn dotted notes and triplets. These are the other two subdivisions that are commonly seen in scores. Triplets is a very often misunderstood and difficult-to-master topic, and your instructor might only choose to move on to either topic when you have a certain mastery of hearing and executing your basic subdivisions. At this point, you will also learn how to read and understand time signatures, with application examples like 6/8, etc.

Once your foundation has been set with the proper techniques to execute rudiments and accents, your instructor will start you on a few other rudiments like double strokes, paradiddles, etc., along with more accent variations. At this stage, you can briefly in simple forms, but more importantly, it sets the foundations for advanced combinations and playing at the next stage.

You would have played several songs now with different beat combinations. However, most of the time, the songs given to you require only a single beat throughout. Once you have moved past this stage, your instructor may select a song that consists of more than one beat for you to learn how to transition between different beats using either a fill-in and/or Crash cymbal, depending on the selected song’s needs.

As you start to play more and more songs, your instructor will share different fill-ins to complement the songs you are learning. These could be exact fill-ins played in the original track or a combination that the syllabus or your instructor has come up with to lead you between topics or to strengthen your understanding and capabilities of previous topics. You would also start learning some fundamentals of advanced fill-ins, such as linear patterns, different sticking patterns, or even specific rudiment applications.

Speed is of essence to playing drums. It does not matter how many combinations or independence you can achieve, but if you cannot play it at the song speed, it is as useful as a chocolate teapot (totally useless). Speed training typically focuses on a few key factors:

1. Fundamental single stroke speed (RLRL)
2. Dexterity around the drum set (rolls and fills combinations)
3. Single leg double kick; at this point, some students might also move towards double pedals.
4. Coordination and groove overall speed