Welcome to Episode 6 of my workshop series on practicing drums without a drum set! This episode is all about hand patterns. Hand Placement Matters When it comes to playing a sequence of notes and rests, it usually makes sense to distribute the fastest note values between both hands. In an example where 16th notes are the fastest note value, this means the 16th notes are played alternately with the right and left hands (the opposite applies for left-handed people.) In other words, all “+” beats are played with the right hand and all “e” beats with the left hand. This assignment of hands to the rhythmic grid remains consistent even when there are gaps in between. An example of this is shown below: Play the example with sticks on your pad or with your hands on your thighs and count along. You can play all the rests as air […]

September 2026 Issue