22-How to Play the Drums: Reading Dotted Rhythms

This lesson is part of the series: Drumming Lessons: Reading Rhythm, Drumming Lessons: Beginner-Intermediate, Drumming Lessons: Basics through Advanced

You may have noticed a dot next to some notes when reading some of the rhythms in 12/8 time earlier. Lets spend some time now to go through what the dot means. When there is a dot just to the right of a note, we call that note a “dotted note”. For example a crotchet with a dot is called a dotted crotchet, and a quaver with a dot is called a dotted quaver. You can also have dotted rests. A dot makes a note one and a half times as long as it would be without the dot. This means that this dotted crotchet is worth one and a half crotchets

Once you understand dotted notes, Jim will walk you through some exercises to practice reading music with dotted notes or dotted rests. You'll start with simple dotted rhythms and then progress to dotted rhythms with accents. Then, you'll go through an exercise that incorporates semiquavers between quavers on the high-hat.

This lesson is excerpted from a broader course available from www.begindrumming.com. The Begin Drumming course is a 100% comprehensive drumming course which takes you from absolute beginner to expert soloist without any gimmicky short cuts! Through a combination of video and written lessons, the course will teach you proper technique as well as how to read drum music.

• Once you purchase this lesson you will have access to these files:
• 22A.pdf
• 22B.pdf

Let me introduce myself. My name is Jim McCarthy. I'm a drum clinician and teacher and have specialized in pure technique for many years. I consider myself still a student as well, because I have a passion for constantly learning. I learn every day when I watch other drummers, and I analyze what works and what doesn’t. Performing, Educating and Learning have been my life and my living for well over 20 years.

I've had a tremendously broad background in drumming. I've played in rock bands, orchestras, marching bands - everything from high-brow contemporary music to Latin American stuff.

I spent six years at university studying percussion performance full time, and I ended up with a...

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