[Tommatt]

Ok, so I've been playing for less than 2 months, had about 4 lessons, and am coming along nicely. Have been doing snare/bass drum independence, and can run through them all with 8th note high hat beats and 16th note bass drum in between /snares in between. If its 8th note on the high hat, I'm looking good. 16th notes, well, I'm still learning and lose my technique (Learning moeller ) when I get to a certain speed. I'm starting to learn the drums. Lookng at tab, and just playing along on my ipod.

If you put me in a room with a bassist or guitarist, I"m sure I'd be lost behind the kit though. What are the steps YOU go through to come up with the beat to the song? I keep hearing follow the bass drum, but honestly, I couldn't tell you why the drummer decided to play the bass on counts 1, 2e, and 3.

Heres my limited understanding of things, and correct my where I"m wrong.

Hi-hat. This is what you use to basically keep time. I know there are various grooves (broken 16th note patterns, triplets, etc) but from what I've seen the beat is mainly there to keep the time. My instructor said something tat threw me off, 16th note beats are usually used when the song is slow?

Snare. From what I've noticed, it seems that the snare is there to add accents and punch to your beat. I get that in a standard rock beat, 2 and 4 and your good to go. Whata makes you want to throw the snare, say 2, 3e, 3uh, and 4? I understand feel I think(I'll talk about that in a minute) but whats making you want to throw t there?

bass drum - From what I've seen this is what really drives the beat and defines it. You can play the snare on 2, 4, 8th note hi - hats, but by moving the bass drum around, I've noticed it changes the whole feel of the beat. I know from playing around to songs, when you hit the bass drum in the wrong spot, alot of times it just dosn't feel right while playing along, but when you hit it right, it just grooves.

I know I'm being very basic, but is my understanding pretty correct of these indivdual drums and their role to your beat? Also, what makes the beat come to miind?

I'm really looking forward to playing with a few guitarist/bassists in the future, and think it'll get me even more hooked, but I want to be able to sit there and understand what I"m doing. I can play some basic rock beats all day, but I want to try and understand why I'm doing certain things.

thanks everyone. Sorry my posts are always so long