Spoon playing: a beginners course with all you need to amaze

Tips and suggestions on how to hold the spoons correctly. This will give you a firm foundation to allow you to get the most out of the course without getting frustrated.

Double the strike rate of your spoons by bringing your other hand over the top of your spoon hand. This technique is the key to getting those spoons sounding really fast and making people go wow!

This can be a tricky concept but musicians have ways of dividing up time. Typically, at a beginners level they call these divisions 1/4 notes, 1/8th notes and 1/16th notes. Don't worry we will show you how to play them and easy ways to count them in your playing so you don't get confused.

Every now and then your spoons will start to slip. It might be your hands starting to get a bit slippy or it might be catching the spoon awkwardly. This simple tip will help you overcome that problem without having to stop.

Here's a quick example then some music for you to play along with. Remember we want to use the techniques we have covered so far, different divisions of time 1/4 note, 1/8th notes and 1/16th notes and we want to keep it in time!

Playing along with a steady tempo can improve your timing and make playing with others more enjoyable. It will be more enjoyable for them to play with you too!

For hundreds of years drummers have developed teaching tools called rudiments. We will show you a few that will help you become a more flexible spoon player. It will develop your ability to be able to think of a rhythm and then be able to play that rhythm

Start slowly and make sure you can execute your rhythm well. Then slowly build up the speed until you get to a point where it starts to fall apart. Slow it down a little and keep trying until it becomes natural. Every time it falls apart slow it down a bit and build the speed slowly.

Here's a quick example then some music for you to play along with. Remember we want to use the techniques we have covered so far and we want to keep it in time! And move those accents around

Let's change how hard we strike the spoons to create different dynamics. This will create light and shade in the rhythms that we play and will make our rhythms more interesting to listen to and play.

Slightly different sounds can achieved by striking different areas of the body and spoon. This is another device for bringing a bit more tonal difference to the rhythms we play.

Play along to this pattern, I'll be changing where the accent lands and where the spoon is struck. This is really good practice

Moving the spoons in between the cupped other hand creates a nicely lighter sound that really sounds great in amongst some of the other techniques. It's pretty simple to do but like a lot of these techniques, and this is true of kit drumming as well, it's power comes when you are able to execute it at a bit of speed.

Here's a quick example then some music for you to play along with. Remember we want to use the techniques we have covered so far and we want to keep it in time! Put those hands only bits in and some accents!

A flourish that uses 2, 3 or 4 or Fingers to produce a drum roll effect with the hand. This is the one everyone wants to learn and it sounds great when you throw it into a rhythm, if you pull it off nicely.

Play along to this exercise that combines elements of previous lessons. 1/4 nots, 1/8 notes, 1/16 notes and the Rake.

You should really start to be sounding like a spoon player now!

Here's a quick example then some music for you to play along with. Remember we want to use the techniques we have covered so far and we want to keep it in time! Try to feel the swing of the music - not quite so rigid as the Techno examle, there should be a slight swing to it.

Put in those new techniques - Trip-er-lets and Rakes - try not to overdo them though. Remember your job is to hold the rhythm down - unless you are in a prog rock spoon band in which case errrr wow...... and..... errr go crazy. I have to break it to you gently though you are not the first Prog Rock spoon dude or dudette. Check out the video in the next lesson. He was an early learn spoons graduate obviously...:)

Create visual impact with what you are doing to make it look good. You probably don't want to go too over the top with this but a little bit of flash every now and then can be fun.

One last flourish that makes it look like you are the Hendrix of spoons - using your mouth!

Want to learn the piano as well - in just an hour? Read on..

Thank you for taking the course, a few final thoughts and a thank you from me. If you want to take you're new rhythmic skills and apply them to another new instrument - My second course teach's how to play the piano - in just an hour! learn 48 chords, and remember how to play them for life. In just 1 hr

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