I have found that many students have trouble counting out loud while playing the drums. It is one more thing to think about, but at the same time, its benefits far outweigh the obstacles involved. I practice and use this technique to this day, especially when I’m sight reading and/or playing difficult music. It is tremendously helpful.
Counting out loud when practicing the drums is something that requires plenty of patience. To develop this, I find that it’s best to be looking at written music and count that while playing with a metronome. For some, it helps to start by writing out the counting above the rhythm being played. Do this on the snare drum only at first. Make sure to start with quarter notes and quarter rests before moving on to eighth notes with rests, and then also sixteenths. Learn to count the different subdivisions within one quarter note. Haskell W. Harr Drum Method — Book One is a favorite of mine.
http://www.amazon.com/Haskell-W-Harr-Drum-Method/dp/B001AIOULQ
Using some of the ideas in Haskell Harr as possible drum fills, this idea can be continued on the drum set. Play a eighth note-oriented groove — eighth notes on the hi-hat, 2 & 4 on the snare with a basic bass drum part (1 & 3 to start). Make sure to think and play in four and eight bar phrases in 4/4. Keep track of the bars as you play: 1234, 2234, 3234, 4234, 5234, 6234, 7234, 8234. At the end of the eighth bar, the counting will start over: 1234, 2234, 3234, etc. Try adding the “and” of the beats into your counting: 1+2+3+4+, 2+2+3+4+, 3+2+3+4+, 4+2+3+4+, etc. This is the hi-hat part, but the snare drum and bass drum parts will line up in this counting as well. Write this out and look at it while you play.
Before playing a drum fill, try to hear and sing the rhythm to be played. If the rhythm of the drum fill is more complex than the groove, make sure to change the counting to fit the drum fill. E.g., if the drum fill is going to start on beat four of the eighth bar and you want to play four sixteenth notes, then start hearing/singing/counting those sixteenths before you attempt to play them. My next posting will pick up on this idea starting with eighth note drum fills.
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