[Kuecker]

Hey, I'm a relatively new drummer, and I was just going to see if anyone could give me a drill or some sort of method to help get rid of my problem. I don't know my drum terminology very well, so this could be awkward...

Ok, say I'm playing a simple beat, and hitting the hi-hat every beat, I'll try and get a two bass kicks in, and my hand on the hi-hat will follow the bass kicks. I want my hand to stay on rythym and not follow the bass kicks! Can anyone help me?

Thanks!

[CJDG]

Cool.. congrats on picking up the sticks.
Try not to get too frustrated with coordination problems... they will work themselves out over time. It just takes practice.

Pick out a good song with a steady beat or if you have a click track, etc... basically just some way to have a steady beat playing in the background. Find what works for you but here is an example of what you can do help your coordination.

Start with this...
simple beat of 4/4
Play your hi-hat or ride on each beat
Play your bass drum on each beat

Now add to the basic pattern slowly... work on getting it right. If it feels to fast then slow things down. You want to focus on playing it right... I can't stress that enough.
Mix the basic pattern like this:

Put the double bass drum beat on the four

"counted" one, two, three, four and.

repeat this pattern a few times then move the double beat to the third beat.

"counted" one, two, three and, four

do the same for the two and the one... Mix it up and have fun with it. Once you are
comfortable working on just the hi-hat and bass drum try adding the snare back in.
Hope this helps...

[cellarjammer]

Great advice from CJDG. Take it slow, don't rush. Speed kills. With practice it will become more natural, then maybe you can speed it up. Good luck!

[StickBreaker16]

The way I learned to play was this:

Trying to play everything at once was too hard to start off with, so, I found a simple beat to play, lets say, hi hat on 1 2 3 4. Snare on 2 and 4. Bass on 1 and 3. Simple money beat. I would first use my right hand to tap the hi hat untill i was comfortable enough to hit the snare on 2 and 4. Once I could do that without studdering I would add the bass in slowly.

For more complicated beats, like I remember my first song I could play was Killers by Iron Maiden. I would memorize the basic beat of the hi hats and snare. And then I would listen to what the bass was doing. I dont know exactly what happened but eventually my feet started working.

The object is to get each of your arms and legs independant of one another. Take 2 at a time. both arms and try to do certain patterns with, say, the right doing a repeated beat while the left is doing another repeated beat on one drum or several drums. Then try, say, one arm and one foot. Lets say left arm right foot. Try the bass on 1 and 3 and snare on 2 and 4 untill you can get it as equal as possible. And keep doing it for a while past the point of comfortability, to the point when you can add in an extra snare tap without studdering.

Try the right arm and right leg. Left arm left leg. Right arm left leg. I think the last one I was able to learn was keeping my left foot seperated from the rest. Like I couldnt chick the hi hat on 2 and 4 without studdering, but I learned to isolate it by simply trying and repeating.

My method of learning was completely come up by me. I didnt take any type of lesson, I just watched people and listened to people. Simple as that. Then I attemped.

Just remember to practice keeping each limb independant of each other. If you cant do that then good luck putting it all together. It will be like you dropped a set down some stairs.

[pantera]

Some very good advice here. Having just started I find I can do a lot with my arms and I've been surprised at how fast and mixed I can vary the beats without losing track of the main beat.

But the feet are another story. As soon as I do an 8th or 16th (or faster) bass beat or some foot work on the hi-hat hat my hands want to do exactly the same thing. If I go slow I have no problem, it's when I speed up the warts start coming out.

[mind_drummer]

The best advise I can give since all others gave you excellent ones is to count out loud while playing slowly. If you miss, dont give up and try it again but again start slowly, this way your muscle memory will learn the pattern and speed will come over time. Dont rush thing out, it will be worst and give you bad technique.

[Sean Francis]

Everything that the people before me say is totally true; just take it slow and have patience with yourself. The key to getting off the ground as a drummer is persistence.

The phenomenon that you were describing is an issue with coordinated independence; the limbs have a natural reflex to mimic one another when practicing coordination of any sort. Basically, any coordination exercises that you can find (drum related or not) will help you to develop greater control and independence in the limbs.

If you're up to it, there's a great book designed for exactly this sort of thing. Jim Chapin's book: Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer, Vol. 1: Coordinated Independence. The catch is that you have to already be reading rhythms, so if you're not already, just pick up a beginning snare drum book or something that leads you through the basics of reading rhythm. It totally pays off; I finished the book last May and it made a huge difference. The great thing is that it's a book you can keep coming back to for warm-ups or even for just a good workout.

Good luck, and keep it up!