Indie Lesson 2 - Introducing 8th Note Bass Drum and Snare

author-photo
RSL Awards Lesson time: (1min 25sec)

Learn to incorporate eighth notes into your indie grooves. Sophie demonstrates how eighth notes enhance timing and musicality, offering more rhythmic vocabulary for creative drumming.

Preview

# Indie Part Two: Introduction to Eighth Notes

In this lesson, we're going to introduce **eighth notes**.

## Understanding Eighth Notes

Eighth notes can be played on:

- The snare drum
- The bass drum

These notes will be really helpful for adding an extra element to our drumming. This way, we have more vocabulary when we choose the kinds of grooves we want to play.

### Clarifying Eighth Notes

- Eighth notes are sometimes called **quavers**.
- I prefer the term **eighth notes** because:
- One eighth note takes up the eighth part of a bar in **4/4** time.

It’s a very logical approach, similar to quarter notes:

- One quarter note takes up a **quarter** of the bar.

### Counting Eighth Notes

If we play a full bar of eighth notes, there will be **eight** of them. I might count them as:

*“One and two and three and four.”*

You can use your eighth note counting to help with your timing. Whichever part of the kit you're playing the eighth notes on, remember to keep counting:

*“1 and 2 and 3 and 4.”*

## Lesson Examples

In the upcoming examples, we'll explore some variations, including:

- Playing bass drums
- Playing snares
- A little snare fill that goes between quarter notes and eighth notes

Finally, we will work towards playing **Big Mouth**, which is the indie piece we'll be tackling soon.

About the instructor

author-photo

RSL Awards (Rockschool) is the world's foremost awarding body for contemporary Arts. It is known for its groundbreaking approach to popular music education, with learning material for guitar, drums and piano perfeced over decades.

MusicGurus is proud to partner with Rockschool to deliver video guides and practise sheet music for their grade books. These products enhance the experience of learning with Rockschool and are taught by top pro musicians, many of whom play on original performances and...  read more

Explore the course

What's included?

114 lessons (3h 47m) Advanced video features Mobile, tablet & desktop access 100% satisfaction guarantee
Error message
Checkmark

Payment successful

Thank you for joining the MusicGurus community.

You can start using your subscription right away. At any time, head over to your dashboard to add and view your courses.