As someone just starting, everything about drumming can look complicated and overly harsh, and this removes the fun part of learning how to play the drums. What’s possible in the end is that you give up on learning the drums, only because it seemed too intimidating.
To truly sharpen your skills and enjoy the time you spend learning the drums, you must find the right drums song to play. Most of us come to learn a new instrument because we liked how it was integrated into our favorite musical composition. It is likely that when you start on drumming, you were primarily motivated by a specific song in which drums were integral to the whole piece.
However, not all of our favorite songs are well-suited for beginners to practice on. A few might even take us months of continuous practicing before we hone our skills to the perfect level. But that doesn’t give you a reason to be disappointed because there are still fantastic drum songs out there, which includes an easy drum track that even people who are just in the process of getting into drums can master with a few lessons.
The following is a list of easy songs to play on drums with either a beginner drum set or a kids drum set. You can also find a drum sheet transcription for each song. Click here to learn how to read drum sheet music.
10 Easy Drum Songs For Beginners
Below is our recommendation for the 10 best beginner drums songs that are played by your favorite bands around the world. These songs can be considered easy drums songs because of their slower tempo, less advanced drumming, and their overall ease of learning.
Once you have established the basics of drumming, we highly recommend you take a look at these beginner drumming songs and watch the videos to learn how to play them!
Led Zeppelin – Kashmir
Released in 1975, ‘Kashmir’ has turned into one of the most prominently sung epics for nearly every concert played by rock bands. The song’s title references to the Indian subcontinent and depicts a fantasy that’s better than the deserted reality. Currently, it’s one of the songs which mark Led Zeppelin’s rock music legacy.
The drummer of the Led Zeppelin music band remarked that the song ‘Kashmir’ wasn’t that difficult to play in terms of bass and drums. It was just a proper understanding of the drum sheet tabs, which were necessary for a true-to-form rendition of the song.
You can click here to download the drum sheet tab for Kashmir.
Be Yourself – Audioslave
After its official release, ‘Be Yourself’ topped the ranks in Billboard’s ‘Mainstream Rock Tracks’ category for seven weeks straight, turning it into an international phenomenon. The song showcases a reflective element, inspired by one of the band member’s reflections on his own life and mistakes while also talking about wanting to redeem those mistakes.
The tempo for Be Yourself ranges around 117 BPM, and it ends without a fade out. You can easily follow the pace of this song. As a beginner, this song is primarily something that will enhance your playing style and allow you to progress on to more technical tabs and notes.
You can click here to download the drum sheet for Be Yourself.
Enter Sandman – Metallica
For those interested in metal music, Metallica is a staple name. The band has garnered widespread popularity, and this isn’t without cause, as their songs are characterized by a diverse and influential quality that resonates with their fans. They have delivered masterpieces in metal music, and while most of their songs are classified with fast and aggressive beats, which can seem complicated to learn, a few songs are still elementary for beginners to master.
Initially, the song is played with a tom groove in the beginning, and here, a syncopated snare accent follows within this groove with the bass drum coming in to drive the groove. Afterward, you need to work on a couple of steady kicks before coming in with high and middle tom strokes to inculcate the backbeat.
You can click here to download the drum sheet for Enter Sandman.
Back in Black – AC/DC
The drummer in AC/DC is one of the most influential drummers for rock music. His work is so popular and technically maneuvered that most advanced drummers still study his performances to learn and improve their drumming styles.
However, that doesn’t mean all of his drumming performances include complicated tabs. The song, ‘Back in Black,’ a tribute to one of their band members who had passed away, is relatively easy to perform as opposed to other AC/DC classics, such as ‘You Shook Me All Night Long.’
You can click here to download the drum sheet for Back in Black.
Holiday – Green Day
Green Day is a household name among many enthusiastic drummers and punk rock aficionados. While a few of their songs include aggressive drumming composed by Tré Cool, the band’s official drummer, Holiday is a song that can be easily played by beginners. If you’re planning to improve your rock shuffle skills, this song is the perfect one to try out.
You can click here to download the drum sheet for Holiday.
The Beautiful People – Marylin Manson
An old-time classic, Marilyn Manson’s song, is a reference to the elite class of people who are socially declared ‘beautiful’ or what Manson directly calls as the ‘culture of beauty.’ It’s a beautiful song that was choreographed with an easy repetitive set of five drum beats, played on floor toms added with a triplet feel shuffle note.
You can click here to download the drum sheet for The Beautiful People.
Just Like Heaven – The Cure
This song is straightforward to learn on the drums as it includes nothing too complicated or fast-paced. The Cure was a 1978 British band who had written most of their songs in southern France. Just Like Heaven is among the many popular songs which had received them international fame where the song details a trip to a seashore taken by the band’s frontman with his wife.
You can click here to download the drum sheet for Just Like Heaven.
Seven Nation Army – The White Stripe
The lead drummer, Meg White, makes the drumming part in this song straightforward, where the beat itself begins with quarter notes that are played on the bass drum and floor tom simultaneously. This is one of the easiest drums songs to play by drummers at any level of expertise, and this is purely because of the underlying riff that’s integrated into the drumming composition. The song’s also written to highlight the drumming, and a lot of people consider it to be one of the best songs about drums. If you’re an absolute beginner, this is the drummer song that’s best-suited for you to learn and play on the whole list.
You can click here to download the drum sheet for Seven Nation Army.
Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
Take Me Out is a song that has received continuous acclaim for being one of the best singles performed by the Scottish indie band, Franz Ferdinand, where in July 2009, the song was on the list for Triple J’s Hottest 100 of all time. You can learn and play this song without much difficulty.
You can click here to download the drum sheet for Take Me Out.
The Smashing Pumpkins – Zero
The final song in the list for easy songs to play on drums includes a somewhat underrated classic released by the alternative rock band, The Smashing Pumpkins, in 1995. This is one of the best drum songs to play by beginners, as it’s not too overwhelming.
You can click here to download the drum sheet for Zero.
What is the Easiest Song to Play on Drums?
Honestly, you can find a whole plethora of easy songs to play on drums without restlessly searching throughout the internet. Some bands have received international acclaim and have all-time famous records with their songs. Still, a lot of them have drumming compositions that can be easily learned and played perfectly to the beat by drummers of any level. Still, in this article we discussed 10 of the most famous easy songs to play on drums.
How Do You Learn To Play Easy Drum Songs?
The first step to playing an easy song on drums is to come across one, and we have that sorted out for you with the list above. Once you figure out which one you would like to play, take your drum sticks in between your thumb and forefinger. You can play these songs on both beginner drum sets or kids’ drum sets. The left stick should be primarily used to play the snare drum while you can cross your right arm to hit the hi-hat cymbal. These are the basic drumming techniques that you need to learn first before you start playing.
Many of the songs you’ll be playing will have a drum sheet tab available for your reference and use. This is something you should keep around while practicing.
Are Drums Easy to Learn?
Drums can be the most accessible instrument for you to learn at first. Still, it can progressively get harder for when you want to turn into a seasoned pro. Many drummers have admitted that the way you can mess up the process of learning drumming is by picking a song that is too complicated and overwhelming for a beginner. It is better, in essence, to pick up from simple grooves and beats and practice them continuously with a range of easy drum songs before you turn your hand into a complicated composition. Therefore, the simple equation for mastering drumming is patience plus time.
What is The Hardest Song to Play on Drums?
The hardest drum songs that you’ll come across is probably ‘The Black Page’ by Frank Zappa. This song was exclusively written as a drum solo for the lead drummer in the band, Terry Bozzio, where he could use it to work out on rhythm with an untuned percussion. However, it was later developed with Zappa taking out the original rhythms and adding in different levels of pitches to create a melody of sorts essentially. Currently, it’s one of the best songs of all time performed by the band, but it can be quite tricky for beginners and novice players to learn.
