Free Drum Lesson: "Pyro" Cool Drum Beat (Nathan Followill: Kings Of Leon)

Submitted by DrumAce on Thu, 06/30/2011 - 07:05

In this free drum lesson I'll be showing you how to play the very cool linear, triplet style, tom based drum groove from the song "Pyro" by Kings Of Leon.

Nathan Followill uses his toms and bass drum to maximum effect for this drum groove. The way he inserts the bass drum in between the alternating hand pattern is quite exceptional. This is a really fun drum beat to play once you've taught your hands to feel comfortable!

"Pyro" Drum Beat (Kings Of Leon)

Drum Beat Notation

DOWNLOAD: You can download the music as a .PDF by clicking the link entitled "pyro_helpsheet.pdf", found at the bottom of this Blog entry.

Nathan plays four beats worth of eighth note triplets for this drum groove.

Notice that the left hand starts the tom notes just after the bass drum on beat 1 whilst the right hand starts the tom notes just after the bass drum on the "Let" of beat 2.

All high tom notes and snare drum notes are played with the left hand and all floor tom notes are played with the right hand.

Add dynamics to the tom notes to create "feel" and flow. Also, the snare drum sounds best when struck as a rim shot.

Have fun!