Free Green Day Drum Lesson: 21 Guns, American Idiot, Holiday, Boulevard Of Broken Dreams & Basket Case

To celebrate the release of the two new Green Day multi drum video and chart package deals I thought it would be cool to discuss and show you a few choice drummy snippets from each of the songs. Plus Tre Cool can write some really great drum parts that I wanted to share with you!

You can view and download these money saving drum package deals by clicking on the images below. I'm particularly proud of the "Green Day Multi Video & Chart Deal" which offers OVER TWO AND A HALF HOURS of video drum lessons at a highly discounted price!

"Green Day" (Tre Cool) Multiple Video & Chart Package Deals

 Green Day  Multi Video & Chart Deal

In this free drum lesson we will be looking at the drum parts from the following Green Day songs. You can check out the individual sheet music and video drum lessons (including video preview where available) by clicking on each of the following links...

• "21 Guns" Video & Drum Chart
• "American Idiot" Drum Chart
• "Holiday" Video & Drum Chart
• "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" Drum Chart
• "Basket Case" Video & Drum Chart

21 Guns Chorus Groove

This drum groove is based on the floor tom with both hands playing flams on beats 1, the "+", beat 3 and the "+" again. The same floor tom pattern is also played in the second bar.

Flams are played on beats 2 and 4 of the first bar while in bar two a crash and snare drum combo is played on beat 4 followed straight after by two sixteenth notes on the "+" and the "a".

Throughout both bars eighth notes are being played with the Hi-Hat foot. Tre likes to step on the Hi-Hat during the whole of the song maintaining a steady pulse in the background for the flams and tom work to sit on top of.

American Idiot Verse Groove

This upbeat drum beat occurs throughout the verse in American Idiot. Tre keeps the drum pattern relatively simple by maintaining a solid back beat on beats 2 and 4 while using the bass drum to push the groove forward with upbeat note placement.

Notice the bass drum notes on the "+"'s in both bars. This gives the drum beat momentum and drive while also emphasising the guitar and vocal parts.

Boulevard Of Broken Dreams Verse Drum Fill

Tre Cool uses crash cymbal and open hi-hat to create a unique and interesting drum fill at the end of the verse for this song.

In the second bar the hi-hat is opened on beat 2 with the snare drum and remains open for the whole of beat 2. It then closes on beat 3 and the "+" of beat 3 where the crash cymbal is struck at the same time as the bass drum.

This leads Tre into a simple but effective sixteenth note single stroke snare drum fill starting on beat 4.

Basket Case Big Drum Fill

Although this drum fill can look quite simple on paper it's actually quite tricky to perform up to speed. Tre really lets rip around the drums for this one with high speed single stroke rolls on snare and toms dashed with open hi-hats and upbeat crash cymbal accents. A real treat!

The fill starts with sixteenth notes on the "+" of beat 1 leading into beat 3 with a crash cymbal. The hi-hat is opened on the "+" of beat 3 and closes on beat 4 with the snare drum. Another crash cymbal is struck next, this time on the upbeat of beat 4.

The second bar starts with an eighth note rest with the hi-hat opening on the "+" of beat 1 and closing on beat 2. Beat 3 and beat 4 are the same rhythms and the same sticking (RRL). The first note of beat 3 is on the high tom while the first note of beat 4 is on the medium tom. You can use the floor tom if your drum kit doesn't have a medium tom tom. No probs.

Holiday Bridge Triplet Drum Groove

The whole of the Holiday song is swung which basically means it's written in triplets. This gives the whole song a "shuffled" feel.

The right hand remains on the floor tom for the whole of bar 1 while the left hand moves from the snare drum to the floor tom on the upbeats of beats 2 and 4.

For the first half of bar 2 we have the same pattern as bar 1. However, starting on beat 3 of bar 2 we have a line of single stroke (RLRL) triplet notes on the floor tom. It works out that the left hand lands on beat 4 and moves from the floor tom to the snare drum for this one note and then moves back to the floor tom again after. This means that the snare drum back beat is maintained on beats 2 and 4. A very cool idea!

Get THESE LESSONS plus 100's more with the "DrumMasters" Video Song Pack...