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Essential Drum Beats
​and Songs

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Chris Yeend is a percussion teacher of over 25 years experience teaching drums and percussion in both Adelaide and regional South Australia in both private and public, primary and secondary schools.  Chris is currently employed  by the Department for Education in the Instrumental Music (IM) service and is based at Nuriootpa High School in the Barossa Valley.

​'Essential Drum beats and Songs' is a step by step approach to learning the techniques and beats that are required to play contemporary pop and rock music.  These rhythms can also be applied to a variety of other percussion instruments as well as used to create drum kit solos.

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      Getting Started
           If we want to get good at anything we need to have an instrument to play then we have to                 practice.  In this section we look at the various options for choosing an instrument, and then             some of the things that can help us to become a better percussionist and musician.

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Level 1
​In this first level students learn how to  play and read the essential beats and rhythms required to play pop and rock music in today's current music styles.
Quarter  Note Rock Beats
Eighth Note Rock beats
Triplet based 12/8 Beats - Shuffle and Swing
Sixteenth notes on the Hi-Hat Beats

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Level 2 
In level 2, students learn how to add subdivisions to the beats learnt in level 1 to help create more sophisticated and complex beats and rhythms.
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Level 3 
In level 3, students begin to stretch out and explore the styles and drum beats that helped create the pop and rock music as we know it today.  This includes styles of music such as jazz, mambo, bossanova,  and samba.  We also delve into styles that have developed out of rock music like progrerssive (prog), punk and  metal.
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SACE 
SACE 
is the South Australian Certificate of Education  which is usually studied in years 11 and 12 of schooling in South Australia.  Here we learn to play repertoire that is required to to achieve a high grade in stage 1 and Stage 2 music subjects.

Tuned Percussion 
Learning to play tuned percussion instruments help students to be able to read music and also understand how to create music of their own.
In this section students learn how to read music in the treble clef and play the 12 major and minor scales.
This is followed by some popular songs that are fun to play
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Teaching Drums
There is no one way of learning or teaching the drums.  In this section I give some of my thoughts about my approach to teaching and what I want my students to achieve.
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  • Home
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Inspiration
  • Education
    • Getting Started
    • Ensemble
    • Level 1 - Drum Kit
    • Level 2 - Drum Kit
    • Level 3 - Drum Kit
    • SACE
    • PS Band 2025
    • Tuned Percussion
    • Repertoire Tutorials
    • The Creative Percussionist
    • Teaching Guide
  • Shop
  • Contact