Home / Drum School RockBlocks Drum School A free way to learn drum beats online: 100 lessons, stepwise — each one adds a single new idea to the last. Start at Lesson 1 even if you can already play a beat; the point is to see how a full groove gets built one piece at a time. Every lesson is interactive and plays in your browser — no login, no download, and nothing you change here saves, so everyone gets the same starting point.
1. Find the Pulse Steady quarter notes on the hi-hat. → 2. Add the Backbeat Snare on beats 2 and 4. → 3. Add the Kick Bass drum on beats 1 and 3 — the basic rock beat. → 4. Eighth-Note Hi-Hat Doubling the hi-hat for a driving feel. → 5. Syncopate the Kick Moving a kick hit onto the off-beat. → 6. Fast Straight-Eighth Drive A driving, uptempo groove with the kick on every beat. → 7. Open Hi-Hat Accents Opening and closing the hi-hat for a splashy accent. → 8. Your First Fill: The Tom Run A one-bar fill that walks down the toms. → 9. Eighth-Note Fill Breaking just the last beat into a quick snare fill. → 10. Put It Together Verse, chorus, and fills arranged into one song. → 11. Sixteenth-Note Hi-Hat Subdividing the hi-hat into sixteenths for a smoother, busier feel. → 12. Ghost Notes Quiet snare hits between the backbeat, for texture instead of volume. → 13. The Train Beat A driving eighth-note pattern voiced on the snare, with the downbeat of each pair accented for a chugging feel. → 14. Halftime Groove Moving the snare to just beat 3 for a laid-back, spacious feel. → 15. Double-Time Feel The same basic rock beat, played fast enough to feel like a different gear. → 16. The Shuffle A swung, triplet-based hi-hat feel instead of straight time. → 17. Funk Sixteenth Groove Syncopating the kick within a sixteenth-note grid, plus ghost notes. → 18. Linear Fill A fill where no two limbs ever hit at the same instant, versus one that stacks hits together. → 19. Sixteenth-Note Fill Filling the last beat with a running sixteenth-note cascade instead of quarter notes. → 20. Crash Into the Groove Using a pickup fill and a crash-plus-kick hit together to mark a new section. → 21. Odd Grouping: 3+3+2 Splitting a bar of eighth notes into groups of 3+3+2 instead of four even beats. → 22. The One-Drop Landing the kick and snare together on beat 3 instead of spreading them across the bar. → 23. Disco Four-on-the-Floor Kick on every beat, with the hi-hat opening on each off-beat for color. → 24. Cross-Stick Backbeat A quieter rimshot backbeat for a verse, opening up to full snare for the chorus. → 25. Building Dynamics: Verse to Chorus Leaving the snare out entirely in a sparse verse, so the chorus has somewhere to go. → 26. The Big Fill A fill that takes over the entire bar, for a bigger moment than a one-beat tom run. → 27. Sixteenth-Note Kick Pattern A funk/hip-hop-style kick pattern built from sixteenth-note syncopation. → 28. 7-Beat Groove An asymmetric 3+2+2 grouping across a 7-beat measure, instead of four even beats. → 29. Full Arrangement: Verse, Chorus, Fills Combining a halftime verse, a driving chorus, and two fills into one arranged song. → 30. A Song of Your Own Verse, chorus, and bridge grooves plus a fill — everything from this course, in one song. → 31. Paradiddle Groove Adapting a sticking pattern (RLRR LRLL) onto hi-hat and snare instead of two hands. → 32. Half-Time Shuffle Combining the shuffle feel with a halftime backbeat and a ghost note, all at once. → 33. Displaced Backbeat Moving the snare off the downbeat entirely, onto the 'and' of 2 and 4. → 34. 5/4 Groove A 5-beat measure grouped 3+2, instead of the usual 4. → 35. 6/8 Compound Groove A 6-beat measure felt as two big pulses of three, not six even beats. → 36. Sixteenth-Note Kick Ostinato A continuous running sixteenth-note kick pattern underneath the groove, for a heavy, driving feel. → 37. Ride Cymbal Groove Moving timekeeping from the hi-hat to the ride cymbal for a more open, washy sound. → 38. Hemiola: Grouping in 3s Over a 4-Beat Bar Accenting every third eighth note, so a steady 4-beat bar briefly feels like it's in 3. → 39. Building a Groove From a Fill Taking the Lesson 8 tom run's shape and turning it into a sustained groove instead of a one-bar detour. → 40. Samba-Influenced Feel A two-beat surdo-style kick pattern (downbeat plus a syncopated push) under steady eighths. → 41. Songo-Influenced Groove A different kick/snare syncopation than the samba feel, both built from the same eighth-note grid. → 42. Afrobeat-Influenced Groove A steady sixteenth-note hi-hat with a syncopated kick and a cross-stick answering on the off-beats. → 43. Second-Line Groove A bouncy, syncopated kick-and-snare conversation instead of a fixed backbeat. → 44. Blast Beat Intro Kick, snare, and hi-hat all hitting together on every eighth note, as fast as you can hold it. → 45. Polyrhythm: Grouping in 3s Over Sixteenths Accenting every third sixteenth note across a steady 4-beat bar, for a rolling cross-rhythm feel. → 46. Odd-Time Fill A fill built to span a 5-beat measure, matching the 5/4 groove from Lesson 34. → 47. Dynamics Across the Whole Groove Accents and ghost notes on the kick and hi-hat too, not just the snare. → 48. Building an Intro A crash-and-tom pickup that leads into the groove, the way a lot of songs actually start. → 49. Full Arrangement: Advanced A shuffle verse, a displaced-backbeat chorus, and two fills arranged into one song. → 50. Fifty Lessons In A paradiddle-based verse, a samba-influenced bridge, a driving chorus, and a fill — the advanced half, in one song. → 51. Offbeat Skank Groove A hi-hat pattern voiced entirely on the off-beat 'and' of each beat, with the kick landing alone on beat 3. → 52. Jazz Ride Pattern A swung ride-cymbal ostinato (the 'spang-a-lang' shape) with soft snare comping underneath instead of a fixed backbeat. → 53. Waltz Time: Three-Beat Feel A 3-beat measure with the bass drum on beat 1 and the hi-hat keeping a gentle three-count, instead of grouping in four. → 54. Gospel Chop Groove A busy, syncopated sixteenth-note kick-and-snare conversation with the hi-hat holding steady eighths on top. → 55. Alternating Double-Kick Feel A continuous sixteenth-note kick pattern with alternating accents, the way a double-bass-pedal player alternates emphasis between feet. → 56. Breakbeat Groove A fast, syncopated kick-and-snare breakbeat pattern lifted off the sixteenth-note grid instead of landing on the obvious beats. → 57. Clave-Influenced Groove A kick-and-rimshot pattern echoing a generic three-against-two clave shape, spread across the bar instead of a straight backbeat. → 58. Funk Ghost Cascade Multiple ghost notes packed into a single beat on the snare, filling space between sparse kick hits. → 59. Dynamic Crescendo Fill A one-bar snare fill that builds from ghost notes to full accents across the bar instead of staying one volume. → 60. Full Arrangement: Groove Toolkit Combining a reggae-influenced verse, a gospel-chop chorus, and two contrasting fills into one arranged song. → 61. Triplet Fill A one-bar fill built entirely from triplet subdivisions instead of straight sixteenths. → 62. Cross-Rhythm Fill A fill that accents every third eighth note across a 4-beat bar, carrying the hemiola idea from Lesson 38 into a fill instead of a groove. → 63. 5/4 Groove: 2+3 The same 5-beat measure as Lesson 34, regrouped 2+3 instead of 3+2 — a different feel from the same meter. → 64. Odd-Meter Ghost Notes A 7-beat measure (grouped 2+2+3) with ghost notes woven between the backbeat hits, combining odd meter and dynamics. → 65. Rudiment-Style March A snare pattern using a ghost sixteenth right before each accent to approximate a flam, over a steady quarter-note bass drum march. → 66. Cut-Time Punk Drive A very fast, stripped-down groove with the kick landing on every quarter note and a pushed snare accent into beat 4 — punk and hardcore's forward drive. → 67. Displaced Hi-Hat Accents Accenting the hi-hat on the off-beats instead of the downbeats, while the kick and snare stay put — shifting where the ear locks in without moving the backbeat. → 68. Tom-Voiced Groove A groove where the toms carry the main rhythm instead of hi-hat and snare, for a tribal, low-end-heavy feel. → 69. Sixteenth-Note Hi-Hat Opens Opening the hi-hat on select sixteenth-note partials instead of just the eighth-note off-beats, for a busier splash pattern. → 70. Full Arrangement: Advanced Textures Combining a displaced-hi-hat verse, a gospel-chop chorus, and a triplet fill into one arranged song. → 71. Half-Time Power Ballad A slow half-time groove with a heavily accented backbeat and a sustained crash, the arena-ballad feel. → 72. Funk Groove with Hi-Hat Splashes Layering open hi-hat splashes onto a syncopated sixteenth-note funk kick pattern. → 73. Alternating Blast Beat A blast beat where kick and snare alternate every eighth note instead of hitting together, for a different kind of relentless drive. → 74. Bossa-Influenced Feel A relaxed Latin-adjacent feel with a steady eighth-note hi-hat and a syncopated rimshot pattern, quieter than the samba and songo feels. → 75. Ride Cymbal Dynamics Accenting select ride-cymbal hits while keeping the rest at normal volume, the way a bell accent cuts through a ride pattern. → 76. Full-Bar Linear Fill A fill spanning the entire bar where kick, snare, and toms trade sixteenth notes without ever overlapping. → 77. Syncopated Ride Groove A ride-cymbal pattern with the off-beat 'and' dropped out here and there, instead of playing every eighth note evenly. → 78. Shuffle in Five The shuffle's swung triplet hi-hat feel, now stretched across a 5-beat measure instead of 4. → 79. Groove That Builds Within the Bar A single groove where the hi-hat itself ramps from ghost to accent across the bar, so the intensity builds without the pattern changing. → 80. Full Arrangement: Grooves in Motion A half-time-ballad verse, a funk chorus with hi-hat splashes, and two fills — the busiest arrangement yet. → 81. Three-Over-Two Kick Pattern A kick pattern that lands every dotted quarter note against a steady straight pulse, a simple polyrhythm you can feel in the feet. → 82. 6/8 Bell Pattern Feel A 6-beat groove with a rimshot outlining a bell-pattern rhythm underneath a steady pulse. → 83. Snare-Led Sixteenth Groove A continuous sixteenth-note snare ostinato with the kick only accenting select hits underneath, flipping which instrument leads the groove. → 84. Inverted Accent Groove Accenting the off-beats and ghosting the downbeats on the hi-hat — the reverse of where accents usually land. → 85. Shuffle-Feel Fill A tom fill built from the shuffle's triplet skip shape instead of straight sixteenths. → 86. Kick Ostinato Meets Ghost Snare Combining the continuous sixteenth-note kick ostinato from Lesson 36 with a dense ghost-note snare pattern underneath a steady hi-hat. → 87. Dotted-Eighth Loping Feel A hi-hat pattern built from dotted-eighth-plus-sixteenth cells instead of straight or swung eighths, for a loping, uneven pulse. → 88. Sixteenth-Note Cross-Stick Groove Moving the quiet cross-stick backbeat from Lesson 24 onto a syncopated sixteenth-note grid instead of a plain quarter-note backbeat. → 89. Call-and-Response Fill A fill built as a short snare phrase answered by tom phrases, trading back and forth within the bar. → 90. Full Arrangement: Polyrhythms and Ghosts A polyrhythmic-kick verse, an inverted-accent chorus, and two fills arranged into one song. → 91. Half-Time Double-Kick Groove A half-time backbeat with a continuous sixteenth-note double-kick pattern underneath, instead of a sparse kick. → 92. Breakbeat in Five The syncopated breakbeat feel from Lesson 56, now fit into a 5-beat measure instead of straight 4/4. → 93. Inverted Paradiddle Groove The paradiddle sticking pattern from Lesson 31, with the two voices swapped — landing the accents in different spots than before. → 94. Independent Limb Dynamics Accenting the kick at the same instant the snare plays a ghost note, so each limb carries its own dynamic level independently. → 95. Full Triplet Groove A groove where kick, snare, and hi-hat all sit on the triplet grid together, not just the hi-hat like the shuffle. → 96. Full-Kit Crescendo Fill A fill where the hi-hat, kick, and snare all ramp from ghost to accent together, for a big buildup into the next section. → 97. Latin-Influenced Ghost Groove Layering ghost notes onto the clave-influenced kick-and-rimshot pattern from Lesson 57. → 98. Odd-Meter Triplet Fill A fill spanning a 7-beat measure built from triplet subdivisions, combining odd meter and triplet phrasing. → 99. Full Arrangement: The Home Stretch A polyrhythmic-kick verse, a half-time double-kick chorus, and two fills — one last full arrangement before the final song. → 100. Graduation: Everything You've Learned A full song combining sixteenth-note ghost/accent dynamics, a driving double-kick chorus, a 7-beat odd-meter bridge, and a full-kit crescendo fill — the whole hundred-lesson course, in one song. →