Free Drum Lesson: "Tom Sawyer" Famous Drum Beat (Rush: Neil Peart)

Submitted by DrumAce on Fri, 06/10/2011 - 04:41

In this free drum lesson I'll be showing you another extract from my eBook teaching the classic verse drum beat from the song "Tom Sawyer" by Rush.

You can view the Actual Page from the eBook by clicking on the image to the right ----->

Get this Book, 100's of Video Drum Lessons, many Drum Charts and MUCH MORE in the Mega Video Package Deal. Find out more about this Deal and view many MORE Video Samples from the DVD's right now by clicking HERE.

"Tom Sawyer" Drum Beat Demonstration (1 of 124 Videos available on the DVD's)

Why The "Tom Sawyer" Drum Beat Is So Great

Proof that music can be both demanding and commercially successful! Rock's finest technician navigates changing time
signatures with intricate patterns flowing one after the other.

How To Play It

This is the first eight bars of the song. The right hand plays sixteenth notes on the hi-hat throughout, only stopping for the occasional crash cymbal.

Neil slowly increases the complexity of the bass drum part as he moves through the drum beat, keeping it simple at the beginning and adding more syncopation as it progresses.

Bars 3 and 4 both have a bass drum on the 'e', straight after the snare drum backbeat. These bass drum notes are played at the same time as the hi-hat is opened. The hi-hat closes again on the next sixteenth, on the '+' of beat 4. This occurs variously throughout the eight bars with Neil opening and closing the hi-hat for a single sixteenth note, at the same time as playing bass drum notes.

Bars 5 to 8 all have a crash cymbal on beat 2, played at the same time as the snare drum. The right hand is required to move to the crash cymbal pretty quickly after playing the hi-hat on the 'a' of beat 1. If this is too quick for you to play then you could leave out the hi-hat note on the 'a' all together and just play the bass drum on it's own instead.