Counting out the beat

Obviously one of the main things a drummer need to do is keep time and a great way to do that as a beginner is to count out the beat.

This helps keep you more contious of where you are in measure and helps keep your hands and feet in sycn together.

How do I count and what do I count ?

Counting can be done in a number of ways (e.g. what you actually count) and actually what drum beat you are playing.

If we look at 4/4 time or common time first (Pls see time signature article if you don't understand this) We will have 4 beats of quarter notes to a measure of music.

Now depending on the type of beat we are playing - (Pls see basic dance beats section if you don't know the basic dance beats).

First, 1/4 note beats

if we are play 1/4 note beats we would be count "1 2 3 4" and we would be playing 4 1/4 notes to the measure and as you can see we are

Click here to see a basic 1/4 note dance beat

Click here to hear this counted

Click here to hear this played at 80 beats per minute

You will see this written like this "1 2 3 4"

Second, 1/8 note beats

if we are playing 1/8th note beats we would count "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" and we would be playing 8 1/8 notes to the measure

Click here to see a basic 1/8 note dance beat

Click here to hear this counted

Click here to hear this played at 80 beats per minute

You will see this written like this "1+2+3+4+"

Thirdly, 1/8 note triples beats

if we were playing 1/8th note triplets we would count "1 and er 2 and er 3 and er 4 and er" and we would be playing 12 1/8 notes triplets to the measure.

Click here to see a basic 1/8 note triplet dance beat

Click here to hear this counted

Click here to hear this played at 80 beats per minute

You will see this written like this "1 + & 2 +& 3 + & 4 + &"

Fourthly,

if we were playing a 8th note shuffle, we would count "1 er 2 er 3 er 4 er" and we would be playing 8 1/8 shuffle notes to the measure

Click here to see a basic 1/8 note shuffle dance beat

Click here to hear this counted

Click here to hear this played at 80 beats per minute

You will see this written like this "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &"

Fifthly,

if we were playing a 16th note beat, we would count "1 er and eh 2 er and eh 3 er and eh 4 er and eh" and we would be playing 16 1/16 notes to the measure

Click here to see a basic 16th note dance beat

Click here to hear this counted

Click here to hear this played at 60 beats per minute

You will see this written like this "1 e + & 2 e + & 3 e + & 4 e + & "

Some drummers count the 2nd 16th note as an actual "e" sound "1 e + &"

Click here to hear how this sounds.

Sixthly,

which is quite a is appropriate as this is about 6 note grouping if we were playing a sextriplet based beat we would count "1 er an na na na 2 er an na na na 3 er an na na na 4 er an na na na " and we would be playing 24 sextriplet notes to the measure.

Click here to see a basic Sextriplet note dance beat

Click here to hear this counted

Click here to hear this played at 60 beats per minute I find counting "1 er an na na na ....etc" becomes one word like "1erannanana"

This is because you are playing 6 notes to one beat so at 60 bpm you would be playing 360 strokes a minute or 6 strokes per second or 1 stroke ever .17 of a second I think you get the idea....

Lastly,

I would like to cover 1/4 note triplets.

I have left this to last as it is probalby the hardest to count as you use parts of an 8th note triplet count to help give you the correct triplet feel.

But only play on the bolded counts as follows "one and er two and er..... etc"

So you count it all out but don't play on the non-bolded counts. Tough or what!!!

So you count it all out but don't play on the non-underline counts. Tough or what!!!

Hopefully you can see that we are playing 3 notes in the space of two 1/4 notes. The 1/4 notes are reflected by the beats of one and two and a triplet is 3 notes play evenly over the same time (or space) as two.

The other way you can play this is to play an 8th note triplet with alternating leading hands for example lead with the right hand on beat one and lead with the left hand on beat two.

The sticking would be as follows RLR LRL however play the left hand strokes as air shots or against your leg so as not to make a sound.

So if I take out the L hand stroke you are left with "one and er two and er" R R R which is a 1/4 note triplet. Whoa that took some explaining.

I hope you followed my all the way to the end.

Click here to see a basic 1/4 note triplet dance beat

Click here to hear this counted

Click here to hear this played at 60 beats per minute

This is quite difficult to do and is also a difficult concept to grasp so don't be hard on yourself if you don't pick it up straight away

Well hopefully that gives a good background in counting out beats in the more traditional manners

Other way to count beats that is particularly good for beginners is to use actual words

For example counting out a single stroke roll you could count out

R= Right Hand Stroke

L=Left Hand Stroke

For example counting out a double stroke roll you could count out

Mama Dada

R R L L

For example counting out a triplet you could count out

1 trip let 2 trip let

R L R R L R

But my favourite for triplet counting especially in fills is to count Ev en ly Ev en ly Ev en ly Ev en ly

The metronome on my Roland TD6K drum brain counts triplets as "1 tee tar 2 tee tar 3 tee tar 4 tee tar" which I have to said is not my favourate.