A Universal Drum Beat
Add the bass-drum on beat 1 and beat 3. This is the most common drum beat in the world and your starting point for every style of modern music, with the exception of Jazz.
Every drummer needs to be able to make this beat sound good, and we need to be so familiar with it that we can almost do it without thinking, thereby allowing us to add variations and slowly work towards more complicated patterns and techniques.
In general, the more technical facility you possess and the more comfortable you are playing the kit, the more free you are to create good, interesting music.
Now try keeping the same pattern going with your hands while varying the bass-drum. Here, play the bass-drum on beat 3 + instead of 3.
Here is another variation. This time the bass drum is on beat 2 + instead of 3.
Know Your Drums…
Drum Triggers
Drum triggers attach to conventional acoustic drums and connect to a processor with stored sounds which are activated when the drum is struck. They are used to blend the sounds of an acoustic kit with recorded sounds and also to trigger musical samples, giving many interesting possibilities. The most common use for triggers is to give a consistent bass drum sound in live settings.
