3 New 30-Second Drum Lessons with Tom Tom Magazine

Our mission here at Reverb is to make the world a more musical place. To us, this means not only building a marketplace where musicians all around the world can buy and sell all kinds of music and music gear, but also fostering a community where musicians are empowered to learn and explore their instruments further. Luckily for the music world, we're far from alone in this mission.

Our friends over at Tom Tom Magazine have been dedicated to supporting and fostering a community of female and gender non-conforming drummers, producers, and beatmakers since the publication's founding in 2009. In the past year, we have collaborated with the Tom Tom team on 30 Second Rhythms, an ongoing series of 30-second instructional drumming videos that have been published on both Reverb’s and Tom Tom's Instagram accounts.

Shot and directed by Becca Farsace, each of the latest 30 Second Rhythms videos features a short lesson by the one and only Shayna Dunkelman, a Brooklyn-based musician, born and raised in Tokyo, who has collaborated with everyone from Dan Deacon to Thurston Moore to Yoko Ono. Without further ado, we present this latest trio of 30 Second Rhythms:

In this first video, Shayna breaks down a quick beat that explores a change of feel and meter. She begins in 4/4 meter, with two bars of a 16th-note beat, then two bars of a quarter note beat, back to two bars of the 16th-note beat. This is topped off with a fill in 3/4. Utilizing techniques like this can add dynamics and texture to your playing.

Shayna’s next mini lesson goes over a warm-up she often uses to get into the Puerto Rican-influenced grooves of Balùn. The key for this groove is to keep things loose. One hand will be on the ride playing quarter notes, and the other will be on the snare on twos and fours. The groove lives in the kick and tom hits, as this warm-up routine travels around your kit.

The third and final video in this round of mini lessons, Shayna shows us her take on Sheena Ringo’s song “Identity." This is a fast, energetic beat that gets the blood pumping. Here, she utilizes accents on the hi-hats and a ghost note backbeat on the snare. With a quick tempo, this beat nicely compliments the other two mini lessons for a well-rounded practice session.

Want to learn more? Check out other drum lessons on Reverb from Ilan Rubin, Jordan West, J Mascis, and more.