5/4 Drum Beats & Fills
Learn How To Play 5/4 Drum Beats & Drum Fills!
In this lesson, drum instructor Mike Michalkow will walk you through how to play 5/4 Beats and Fills. Understanding odd-time signatures is very important if you want to become a well-rounded drummer. Only being able to play common time will definately be acceptable for many gigs and bands out there, but if you want to make a living playing the drums you will need to broaden your horizons and learn how to play odd-time signatures.
4/4 or common time is the most popular and easiest time signature in music. When playing or practicing 4/4 time the natural thing to do is count to 4 in order to keep track of which beat in the bar you are on. When playing 5/4 you want to count to 5 instead, and make that your loop point.
Sometimes I find it easier to count in groups, so with 5/4 I would count to 3 first, and then in the second I would count to 2 or vice versa. You are still counting to 5 because 3+2=5, but is some situation is is less confusing when counting in groups.
If this lesson is too advanced for you, be sure to check out the beginner and intermediate sections. These will give you additional knowledge, and hopefully prepare you more for this lesson.
Next Lesson - Pataflafla
