In today’s lesson I’m going to show how to play 10 essential rock beats. For all these beats we’re going to play 8th notes with our right hand on the high hat. Later you can move your right hand to the ride cymbal and play all these same beat for a little bit of a different flavor. We’re going to play on 2 and 4 on the snare drum with our left hand for all these beats.
Rock Beat 1 – For the first beat we’re going to play on 1 and 3 with our bass drum. This is very similar to the beat played on Old Time Rock And Roll by Bob Seger. After you can play the beat by yourself pretty easily, put on some headphones and try playing along with Old Time Rock And Roll. Don’t worry about playing any of the fills on any of these songs in the beginning. Just try to get comfortable playing the beat with the recording.
Rock Beat 2 – For this one we’re going to add some 8th notes on the bass drum.
Rock Beat 3 – This beat is similar to Beverly Hills by Weezer. Again after you have it down pretty well try playing along with Weezer.
Rock Beat 4 – This beat is used on lots of tunes.
Rock Beat 5 – This one is similar to Takin’ Care of Business by Bachman Turner Overdrive. The drum beat follows the rhythm guitar note for note which is why it works so well for this tune.
Rock Beat 6 – This one has kind of an off-beat bass drum. Check it out.
Rock Beat 7 – This one is also off-beat but has a really open sound to it because there isn’t a lot going on. This is the type of thing that might be used in the intro of a song.
Rock Beat 8 – Try using this next beat to play along with Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett.
Rock Beat 9 – This one is off-beat and a bit busier.
Rock Beat 10 – All the beats we’ve played so far are one measure beats. This last one is 2 measures. This is also common in rock music.
These basic 8th note rock beats are a great place to start. After you have these down try adding some 16th notes to your beats.
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