Why 8 On A Hand Is Great For Quad Drummers

Bet you never thought you’d ever see a blog about…8 on a hand!!!

But as a tenor drummer, I find that it is important to talk about 8s in terms of how it can help beginning quad players learn their way around the drums.

Frankly speaking, as a teacher, I don’t start my students with any arounds whatsoever. I start them on one drum, but I will probably still start them on 8 on a hand.

Once I feel like they’re starting to understand the concept of technique, stroke types and heights, I will teach them some basic arounds for 8 on a hand.

How basic you ask?

8 notes on drum 1, 8 notes on drum 2, 8 notes on drum 3 and 8 notes on drum 4.

Wow, that’s pretty basic right?

But did you see what that around teaches you?

It teaches you to get familiar with each drum by spending a little bit of time on it. That way you get familiar with how you position your hands and sticks, the sound each drum makes and each drum’s relative position to the other drums.

From there, you can crank up the difficulty level for 8s to learn different patters that ALSO teach you about the quads, without having to worry about complex patters, rhythms or rudiments.

Even as an advanced quad player, it’s good to go back to basics and review these subjects because it is the foundation any tenor drummer needs to play more complex arounds.

What do you think? What are some other good ways to learn how to play tenors?

For further perspective, make sure to watch the video below: