Counting is key - Test your knowledge here

Drumming is really just musical math. At the end of the day you are dealing with fractions and understanding how to count those fractions. The good news is, most of the time you only need to count to 4. So even if you consider yourself a not so great math person, being able to count out loud "1, 2, 3, 4", is a solid start.

The reason I say you only need to count to 4 is because the vast majority of mainstream rock/pop music is in the time signature of 4/4. This simply means every measure needs to add up to 4 quarter notes, so we count those notes as 1, 2, 3, 4. And we say quarter notes because we divided the measure into 4 equal pieces. You can think of a pizza cut into quarters. Each piece is one quarter note and the full pie is one measure.

Now if we cut that same pizza into 8 equal pieces, we now have 8th notes. And if we did 16 pieces, we'd have 16th notes. All these different notes have different sizes, but no matter what, each measure will always equal the full pizza, that's a hard rule.

Where it gets a bit trickier is when we mix and match these different sized slices. We can also take aways slices, which are called "rests". So for instance, if the first quarter of the pizza is gone, that would be considered a quarter note rest. There is an equivalent rest for every note, i.e. 8th note rest, and 16th note rest to name a couple. Counting those empty slices is important because again, no matter what, the measure (or pizza) needs to add up to 4 quarter notes.

Learning this way of counting can take time, but it is beyond essential. I can't stress enough how accurate counting leads to accurate playing. From my experience teaching, if the student can't play the beat, it's almost surely because they can't count the beat. If you are new to drumming, spend the time to really understand notation and counting. Don't skip over this step, it'll pay off down the road.

Here's some exercises I designed for my more intermediate students. Test if you are able to count them, and make sure to count in time as well. You want to be able to basically beat box each one first, your hands will then follow. If you can do all these, I would consider you to have a strong foundation for counting. If they are challenging, break it down into smaller pieces and review the areas that confuse you. The more you count, the easier it gets.