Name: Sample Lesson 4: Working Ghost Notes into Common Grooves
Uploaded: 2023-06-21T21:03:01.430Z
Duration: 1 min
Description: Ghost notes are extremely important for more advanced drumming. We want to build strong coordination between our rhythm-keeping-hand and our snare-hand. With proper practice, ghost notes will become natural and fluid within various patterns. Our rhythm keeping hand can be on any cymbal, as long as there is a push+pull. I.E. alternating between the bow and the bell of the ride, as shown.

Ghost notes are extremely important for more advanced drumming. We want to
build strong coordination between our rhythm-keeping-hand and our snare-hand. With proper practice, ghost notes will become natural and fluid within various patterns. Our rhythm keeping hand can be on any cymbal, as long as there is a push+pull. I.E. alternating between the bow and the bell of the ride, as shown. 

Drums

Yousef was a relatively late bloomer as a musician, but upon picking up the drums in High School, it became apparent that it would become more than a hobby-- but a calling. As Yousef continued playing out in university and beyond, their aggressive, but tasteful approach to drums became well-known in the DC rock scene. Yousef is recognized for unique approaches to odd-time and displaced grooves, as well as genre-bending and challenging musical norms. 

Scaffolded by a Civil Engineering degree and as an educator in the public school system, Yousef now lives in the heart of Tacoma WA, pursuing the dream of teaching drums and continuing to be involved in multiple facets of the music scene on a daily basis.

~~~

I go above and beyond to make sure that each student gets a personalized experience. Lessons (of any kind) are about understanding where the student is, playing to their strengths, and appropriately challenging them. My approach goes further than just exercises or training! It also includes what's most important in the end of the day: the student's interests, goals, and desires.

For me, it goes deeper than the drums or the teaching itself. It's really about my love of music, and how empowering it feels to share it with others!

Sample Lesson 4: Working Ghost Notes into Common Grooves

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The core belief behind my lessons is that they absolutely must be student-centered and adaptive. Every student has a completely different background and learning style. It's important to me to teach drums in a way that feels natural to the student by taking into account their interests. I'm especially perceptive when it comes to tackling personalized problems with different students. I have worked with students from ages 4 to 67 with learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, and students whose first language is not English.

Yousef was a patient and knowledgeable instructor. I was a beginner at drums when we started taking lessons and they patiently taught me the basics. I enjoyed the lessons they gave and the practice homework really helped me to advance. I highly recommend this teacher!

Yousef is an excellent teacher and a skilled musician. They have done an amazing job creating a guided, catered lesson plan that I can attest has been very effective so far. Yousef provides awesome material that reinforces what was covered in the lesson. They have been very responsive, helpful, kind, and adaptive throughout. I highly recommend Yousef for all ages.

Yousef has been providing weekly drum lessons for my 10 year old son for nearly a year.  He is a talented, skilled teacher adopting to my son's learning style and always keeping the lessons interesting and engaging--along with plenty of patience.   I heartily recommend Yousef to anyone with a thirst to expand their musical horizons!

Yousef and I did a few lessons before my life got in the way, but those lessons set me up with proper technique and good fundamental exercises that helped me out when I started coming back to the drums.  We also dabbled in different genres of music I was interested in, which made the practice that much more enjoyable.  Yousef was very professional, patient, and friendly.  Sometimes being good at what you do doesn't mean you are good at teaching it, but Yousef is great at both!

Incredible Drummer! Skills I didn't even know were achievable were reached! :D

Taking lessons with Yousef has been amazing! They seem really invested in my learning and make me excited to grow my skills.

Yousef is such a kind and patient teacher. I have some music experience but always found drums challenging and they quickly figured out best methods for improvement. I'm busy and don't always have time to practice but they were very patient and understanding and willing to move at my pace. And I feel confident that they have a lot more knowledge to share as I improve. They just seem like a really nice person and I've really enjoyed our lessons.

Yousef is working exceptionally well with our 7yo son.

I’ve been taking lessons from Yousef for a couple months now and am really enjoying them! I’m an adult beginner to drums but played trumpet and piano when I was younger - Yousef took the time to understand the level I was at when we started and check in about what I wanted to get out of the experience. They have been great about developing lessons and materials based on my goals and adapting and adjusting those based on how quickly I can pick it up or if I am struggling with a particular element. Yousef has also been helpful in recommending equipment (and is accommodating if you don’t have something like a full kit right off the bat). My lessons have been virtual so far and I’ve been impressed by the quality of the meeting platform and how easy it is to share materials. Yousef is a talented instructor and musician and always very kind, patient, and professional!

I started drum lessons with Yousef Shami recently. They are LGBTQ+ friendly and also have experience working with neurodiverse individuals.  They are really professional and their home studio is comfortable and welcoming. They have excellent communication in and outside of lessons and a great balance of positive and constructive feedback. I’m already improving and I feel like I can learn a lot from them. I’m looking forward to seeing how my skills improve over time.

I took lessons with Yousef for about a year before they moved to the west coast. Let me just start by saying I’m still very upset they have moved and miss their lessons immensely! Yousef is an incredible and dedicated teacher. Yousef is kind, patient, and very talented. It is clear that they put a LOT of thought and dedication into customizing their lessons for each students needs. 

As an adult student that is still a beginner, it can be very intimidating to get started with drumming. I also deal with depression, anxiety and am overly critical of myself, but Yousef is just so kind and flexible and understanding and put me at ease. I never felt like they were disappointed in me if my adult life got in the way of practice. Yousef will help you reach your goals. Yousef has a ton of knowledge and is an extremely effective and passionate teacher with a great personality, you will be getting more than your money’s worth.

I highly recommend Yousef! Maybe someday Iuck out and they’ll move back over to the east coast ;)

I recently started taking lessons with Yousef, and have really enjoyed the experience so far. I am a complete beginner drummer in my early 40s so am  less of a "traditional" student. Yousef has given me helpful exercises and an extraordinary repository of resources to help jump start my progress. Beyond that, they have answered each one of my more global questions about being a beginner drummer with incredible insight and wisdom. I feel extremely confident that they will be able to guide me well on this exciting journey, nurturing my creativity, honing my skill set, and setting me up for success. I look forward to many more lessons in the future, and I highly recommend Yousef for drum lessons!

As right handed drummers it can be really easy to fall into patterns where our right hand is always leading and our left is lagging behind. Even the most experienced drummers need to maintain evenness in their technique. Here are some exercises to help promote that evenness with some ideas for additional limb independence.

Sample Lesson 9: Left Hand Coordination Training

There is not a ton of material online that walks us through how to use the hi-hat foot effectively. These exercises are meant to loosen up the left foot and get it to work more naturally with our other 3 (generally more dominant) limbs. Focus on timing your left foot against your dominant hand.

Sample Lesson 8: Introduction to Opening and Closing the Hi-Hat

A lot of metal drummers want to jump right into high speed drumming, but we need to establish good control before we get there. These exercises provide some ideas for stamina building across 3 (or 4) limbs while also providing some additional groove ideas aside from the more common blast beats that we are used to hearing.

Sample Lesson 7: Introduction to Blast Beats

These exercises serve as a great entry-point into coordinating our hands and legs with eighth notes. I included a number of patterns that are musically relevant so that these can be applied and not just used as practice exercises.

Sample Lesson 6: Essential Patterns for 8th Note Independence

Working with and against the bass drum is key for these fills. Rests are shown above bass drum
notes to clarify that the hands should not play here. Make sure to think/count in 16th notes, and to
play the bass drum notes in time properly in-between your hands. This qualifies as a "linear" fill.

Sample Lesson 5: Coordinating Drum Fills with Bass Drum and Linear Patterns

In this video we explore a groove idea that doesn't depend on a consistent rhythm on the lead hand. We can take this basic framework and subdivide some of the notes to make the groove even more interesting! Take it one note at a time, and make sure to let the hihat ring out at the end.

Sample Lesson 3: Fun Linear Groove!

This exercise is all about time awareness. A good percussionist should be able to move between different note values/subdivisions seamlessly. To start, lock the metronome to the quarter notes. Any rudiment can be used, but we will start with Single Strokes. 

Sample Lesson 2: Practice Timing with Different Subdivisions

The foundation of this fill is just single strokes with some added bass drum! If we count 1 to 8 (with eighth notes) we will have implied groupings of 3, 3, 2. This makes the fill incredibly versatile as we can cut and paste the pieces we like in almost any context. Try the expanded exercises with different stickings than right-hand-lead single strokes!