How To Play Tom Sawyer Drum Beat - Free Drum Lessons

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It's time to learn the drum beat that every drummer wants to play, or loves to play! Follow along with Mike Michalkow as he shows you how to play Neil Peart's classic drum beat from "Tom Sawyer" by Rush!

Click here for the sheet music:

[massihyaghmaie]

I am a 60 years old physician living in London/ England.
i have been playing drums since i was 18 yeras old.
i am not very good just playing for fun.
Mike's drum lesson are very good because:
1/ he speaks clearly and slowly.
2/ he plays clearly and slowly.
3/ he puts the drum notations with the beat and the sound.
4/ lots of the young drummers speak too fast and rush the lessons
thank you for the lovely lesson.
cheers

[mishellerauth]

Nice video :) I'm a girl who loves how Neil plays. it's rarely easy to play his beats but when you do get it down, .. Yesss!

[keithhart]

At 53 will start learning today. Never took serious, hats off to you whom put in hard work. You deserve it. I was lazy, today I'm no longer lazy; but old?

[ChrisSmith-ibzx]

Impressive the way you break it down . It's complicated yet you make it look like I could play it ? I was a drummer in high school and would like to play again. It calls to me. And I love it

[freeburgersatmcdok]

I think the neatest fill in the whole song is from 3:05 to 3:10 on the isolated track where he's ghosting the 32nd notes on the snare so lightly you can barely hear it.

[TheCocoaDaddy]

Tom Sawyer is a song a number of drummers can play, which is awesome. My question is: how does someone come up with something like this, out of thin air? Amazing!

[Douglas-qgvy]

Such a great breakdown. I never really took the time to totally nail these barks and it completely levels up the sound of the beat. Great teaching.

[KrepsyK]

My god thank you. I've been in a rut for a long time and I finally decided to learn something new. This has helped me in more ways than one.

[steventurner]

I actually learned this a lot faster than I expected. I love that I can play along with the song now and get it right. Thanks guys!

[drummerhire]

For me, the hi-hat part is one of the most difficult patterns to play feel of that song should be the 8th wonder of the world...(if 'feel' is a possible candidate for wonders of the world....lolol)

[ClarksonFisherIII]

man. this makes me mids drumming so much!! thanks for this! I love how the high hat was highlighted because I agree that it's something to analyze when learning. I remember when I started drumming on a drum set and hated how far from music my playing sounded. a lot of it was the "chang" sound my cheap high hat sounded like. I feel that a new drummer should choose a really "slosshy" set of high hat cymbals or at least top one to begin with.

[Jimboy]

You remind me of Lars Ulrich's brother. You're a far better drummer, mind! Great lesson.

[danwalker]

Really enjoying your videos guys - a fantastic tool for drummers, the world over!  

[graduator]

I hear Tom Sawyer was a mean, mean guy!

[gmckidd]

That's why Neal is know'n as the Professor.

[MauiMana]

From what I've seen on youtube most people claiming to be able to cover this song seem to completely miss the fact that Peart is running 16th notes on the hi-hat for most of the song. This takes so much more 'chops' than doing it in 1/8th notes. Thank you for pointing out within the first few seconds of this lesson video that its actually 16th notes .

[uNkieTee]

Dropping by as my 11 year old son is in love with this song and wants to play it, hopefully this will help 🙏

[freeburgersatmcdok]

If you want to learn this song well look up Tom Sawyer drums isolated. You can really hear every nuisance of peart and get a better feel for the fills.

[apieceofdirt]

I’m sure he still doesn’t have Neil’s hi-hat technique down. I’ve seen Neil play Tom Sawyer 1, 000 times and it’s a totally original groove that not many drummers can duplicate even this guy. He tries to break Tom Sawyer down as a mechanical feel but it’s not and that is what’s so important about the tune. I think Neil quickly opens the hi-hat on the down beat so it has a chick sound rather than a typical open hi-hat sound on the up beat. It’s hard to explain but once you get it down you can tell that that’s what is missing from the groove and makes it sound closer to what Neil is playing. It makes a big difference. Watch the guy from the YouTube channel Signalsmusic Or Sabianultra and watch his Tom Sawyer drum cover or Red Barchetta drum cover. His hi-hat technique is perfect.

[gredangeo]

I like how the song seems so simple at first approach. A garage band brings this up, and says to themselves, : 'yeah, I think we could do this'. Their drummer: 'you assholes, it's not THAT simple, come on now' ??

I'm not a drummer, so I didn't realize it could be this complicated. Really nice video. Well explained and nice tabs displayed.