Level |
Applied playing & timing |
Technique & rudiments |
Reading, theory & knowledge |
Co-ordination & independence |
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| Kids book | Playing in time with the pulse | Holding the sticks | The pulse in music | Playing around the drums | ||||
| Playing rhythms in time with music | Where to hit the drums & cymbals | Intrduction to tempo and BPM | Playing simple rhythms around the drums | |||||
| Playing basic grooves in time with music | Posture | Meet the drum family | Unisons | |||||
| Playing 4 bar phrases in time with music | Using the pedals | Meet the cymbal family | Basic grooves | |||||
| Playing rhythms by ear | Introduction to rudiments | notes on the stave (steps) | Basic fills | |||||
| Writing notes onto the stave | Getting used to left & right | Learn note positions on the stave | 4 bar phrases | |||||
| Single stroke roll | Follow simple patterns across the stave | Rudiments around the drums | ||||||
| Double stroke roll | Tea & Coffee rhythms (Quarter & eighth notes) | |||||||
| Paradiddle | Counting bars & phrases | |||||||
| Rudiments played with feet |
| Foundation | Playing quarter note grooves and fills with music | Introduction to technique | Intorduction to the drum kit | Quarter note groove and fill | ||||
| Creating fills | Good technique checklist | Basic notation | 4 bar phrases | |||||
| Playing eighth note grooves and fills with music | Basic grip options | Basic stave markings | Eighth note groove and fill | |||||
| Mixing quarter and eighth notes in time with music | Basic foot technique | 4/4 time signature | Mixing quarter and eighth notes in grooves and fills | |||||
| Creating fills using quarter and eighth notes | Introduction to rudiments | Reading quarter and eighth notes with click | Changing bass drum patterns in grooves | |||||
| Create basic grooves using quarter and eighth notes | Rudiments played over eighth notes | Introduction to stickings | Introduction to independence | |||||
| Differences in approach to playing rock & pop | Single stroke roll | Introduction to note values | Rudiments in fills | |||||
| Reading, following and playing basic drum charts | Double stroke roll | Whole & half notes | Leaving gaps in playing (rests in fills) | |||||
| Playing with pop music | Paradiddle | Whole, half, quarter & eighth note rests | Part bar fills (shorter fills) | |||||
| Playing with rock music | Using different parts of the stick to create different sounds | Pop music – History, characteristics & examples | Mixed 4 bar phrases | |||||
| Using different parts of the drums and cymbals to create different sounds | Rock music – History, characteristics & examples | |||||||
| Introduction to drum charts |
| Level 1 | Playing eighth note triplet grooves and fills in time with music | Triplet rudiments | Eighth note triplets | Eighth note triplet groove and fill | ||||
| Playing sixteenth note grooves and fills in time with music | Useful triplet stickings | Reading quarter notes and eighth note triplets | Triplet rudiments in fills | |||||
| Playing off beat grooves and fills in time with music | Basic rudiments over sixteenth notes | Sixteenth notes | Sixteenth note groove and fill | |||||
| Create fills using all notes and rests covered so far | Reading exercises with quarter, eighth note and sixteenth notes with rests | Playing sixteenth note grooves hand to hand and lead hand only | ||||||
| Playing with Blues music | Reading eighth note rests and off beat rhythms | Off beat groove and fill | ||||||
| Playing with disco music | Slurs | Playing mixed rhythm fills | ||||||
| Playing with music while changing hi-hat intensity and adding lifts | Tied notes | Various bass drum patterns with all hi hat patterns covered so far | ||||||
| Chart reading blues, disco & rock songs | Blues music – History, characteristics & examples | 2 bar phrases | ||||||
| Disco music – History, characteristics & examples | Introduction to using the hi-hat pedal | |||||||
| Feel in music – apllying feel to different styles and song types | Hi-hat intensity | |||||||
| Opening and closing hi-hats |
| Level 2 | Playing grooves & fills with broken patterns in time with music | Accents – Loud & quiet notes | Reading groups of 3 sixteenth notes | Playing grooves with broken hi-hat patterns | ||||
| Playing 4 to the floor grooves and fills in time with music | Basic introduction to down, tap, up & full strokes | Soul music – History, characteristics & examples | Mixing broken hi-hat patterns | |||||
| Playing grooves and fills with stepped hi-hat patterns in time with music | Single handed exercises | EDM music (electronic dance music) – History, characteristics & examples | Off beat sixteenth note bass drum patterns (sixteenth note independence) | |||||
| Playing with soul music | Accent patterns over eighth notes | Adding texture to different styles of music using various techniques | Playing fills with accents | |||||
| Playing with EDM music | Accent patterns over sixteenth notes | Introduction to dynamics and dynamic markings | Four to the floor grooves and fills | |||||
| Adding texture to playing using various techniques including dynamics | Applying accents to rudiments | More chart markings including 1st & 2nd time endings | Quarter note snare grooves (soul feel) | |||||
| Reading snare drum charts that include all notes and rests covered so far | Flams | Stepped quarter note hi-hat patterns | ||||||
| Reading soul, dance and house music charts | Basic flam rudiments | Stepped eighth note hi-hat patterns | ||||||
| Mixing rudiments in one full chart | Accents as flams | Stepped off beat hi-hat patterns |
| Level 3 | Playing various shuffle grooves with different styles of music | Eighth note triplet patterns with rests | Shuffle grooves & fills | |||||
| Create rhythms and fills with shuffle feel | Dotted notes | All broken sixteenth note variations (broken rhythms) applied to bass drum | ||||||
| Playing in time with punk, rockabilly & psychobilly music | All sixteenth note variations (broken patterns) | Advanced independence grooves with off beat bass drums & snare drums | ||||||
| Playing in time with Ska, 2-Tone & reggae music | Punk – History, characteristics & examples | Punk grooves | ||||||
| Introduction to ad-lib and improvisation | Rockabilly & Psychobilly – History, chracteristics & examples | Ska, 2-Tone & Reggae grooves & fills | ||||||
| Reading charts over 2 pages in various styles | Ska & 2-Tone – History, characteristics & examples | The Reggae one drop groove | ||||||
| Reggae – History, characteristics & examples | The Reggae Steppa groove | |||||||
| Dal segno & codas | ||||||||
| Different sections of a song | ||||||||
| Song structures | ||||||||
| Creating and following simple song maps |
| Level 4 | Mixing straight & triplet rhythms | Accent patterns over eighth & sixteenth note triplets | Half & quarter note triples | All triplet variations in grooves & fills | ||||
| Mixing straighth and triplet rhythms in grooves and fills with music | Ghost notes | Sixteenth note triples | Broken sixteenth note rhythms around the drums in fills | |||||
| Playing along with music with a half time shuffle or swung sixteenth note feel | Paradiddle variations (double, triple etc) over sixteenth or sixteenth note triplets | Broken sixteenth note triplet rhythms | Playing independence grooves with a half time shuffle feel | |||||
| Playing grooves and fills in 3/4, 5/4, 6/4 & 7/4 in time with music | Moving accents in paradiddles | Half time shuffle | Half time shuffle becomes swung sixteenth notes | |||||
| Playing with a triplet or shuffle feel in different time signatures | Grace notes | Time signature revision | Paradiddle variations around the drums as fills | |||||
| Playing along with funk music | Ruffs & drags | Changing the top number in time signatures (3/4, 5/4, 7/4 etc) | Patradiddle grooves | |||||
| Playing along with hip hop music | Flam, drag & ruff rudiments | Funk – History, characteristics & examples | Funk & hip hop grooves & fills with swung sixteenth feel and ghost notes | |||||
| Chart reading various styles and time signatures | Hip hop – History, characteristics & examples |