Recommended practice songs for intermediate drummers: a collection of tracks to develop expressiveness and performance skills
Playing the drums gets really fun once you can hit a certain level, doesn’t it? Still, many people probably struggle—tripping up on songs with difficult phrases, or finding it hard to express groove and match the feel of the song even with simple patterns.
In this article, we’ll introduce recommended practice songs for those who’ve just moved beyond the beginner stage or are aiming to level up further.
We’ve picked plenty of recent popular tracks too, so feel free to use this as a guide when choosing your practice songs.
Recommended practice songs for intermediate drummers: A collection to build expressiveness and performance skills (1–10)
OutPorukadotto Sutingurei
Despite its uptempo pace around BPM 190 and the rapid shifts between phrases and flashy fills, this track offers plenty of spotlight moments for a drummer.
That said, most of the beats used are simple, so you’ll want to focus on each individual fill and how to connect them smoothly.
It’s also crucial, when playing with a band, to lock in tightly on sections where you follow the same rhythm as the other instruments or hit the breaks together.
If you nail those parts precisely, your performance will have greater impact and a stronger sense of unity.
50%Ofisharu Higedan Dism
This song is characterized by its complex structure, and on top of that, the drum beat shifts dramatically in each section, making it a fairly challenging track.
There are two key points you’ll want to focus on.
The first is the chorus beats.
Even within the same chorus, there are three beat patterns used: the first chorus, and the front and back halves of the second chorus.
What’s more, the first chorus uses a 4-beat feel, while the second chorus switches to 8-beat and 16-beat, each with a different groove.
Be careful to maintain a steady tempo on the 4-beat, and to bring out the groove on the 8-beat and 16-beat respectively.
The second key point is the rap section that appears after the first chorus.
Here, the beat is produced using a drum pad with programmed sounds.
If you don’t have a drum pad, recreating this part on an acoustic kit as-is can give your performance a distinct appeal different from the original.
Practice with your band repeatedly so you can lock in drum parts that match each section of the song perfectly.
Last NoteOmoinotake
It’s not a fast-paced or flashy type of song, but the more you listen, the more depth you’ll find—a drum track that really appeals to connoisseurs.
Up to the first chorus, the beat is based on closed rimshots, and in the chorus, a distinctive groove unfolds with the hi-hat playing a rhythm that mixes eighth notes and sixteenth notes.
This chorus beat may feel challenging for those who’ve mainly covered standard rock band songs like guitar rock or punk.
I think it’s necessary to take a step back from the usual rock-drum context, so it should make a great practice piece for anyone aiming to improve further.
Blue HabitatKitanitatsuya
The sense of speed and sharp guitar riffs really stand out, and the drum fill that seems to sync with the opening guitar riff is super cool.
The driving four-on-the-floor beat in the chorus that uses sixteenth notes also feels amazing when it locks in with the other members’ parts.
It’s a very compelling track to listen to, but when performing it live, you need to think about how to handle the programmed sounds in the song.
In the band’s own shows, they use a drum pad for parts like the first verse (A-melo) and the interlude, but if you’re covering it, you could faithfully recreate those programmed elements—or skip the drum pad and figure out how to express them on an acoustic drum kit, which can be fun too.
Decide what kind of vibe you want to go for, make it your own, and give it a try.
exceed; surpass; go beyond; cross (over)[Alexandros]
![exceed; surpass; go beyond; cross (over)[Alexandros]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WsEhSXH497I/sddefault.jpg)
Characterized by a signature [Alexandros]-style sense of speed, this track is an uptempo rock tune at BPM 200.
To keep a steady 8-beat at this tempo and play clean fills using 16th notes and triplets, you’ll need solid, versatile stick control.
The challenge here isn’t just speed—there are also technical phrases, notably in the interlude before the chorus.
By making good use of the ride cymbal bell and splash cymbals, the phrases are crafted to be stylish and musical.
Unlike songs that are just fast or merely complex, this is a piece that demands a wide range of skills.
magnet04 Limited Sazabys
The song opens with a stylish phrase using closed rimshots, expanding into an intro marked by a heavy, impactful beat.
After the intro it jumps straight into the chorus, exploding with an aggressive two-beat typical of melodious hardcore.
This two-beat is a standard groove that intermediate players should be able to play comfortably up to a certain tempo.
However, this track exceeds BPM 200, so keeping your right hand going in steady eighth notes might be tough.
As a workaround, if you skip the hi-hat on the downbeats of beats 2 and 4, the two-beat becomes much easier to play.
The song also features multiple fills that leverage hand-foot combinations, so practice them carefully to play those phrases cleanly without losing their shape.
Savior Of My LifeTHE ORAL CIGARETTES
With a BPM of 175, it’s a relatively up-tempo track with a driving feel.
In the first half, the drum parts don’t feature particularly complex phrases, so focus on staying solidly with the tempo and keeping the rhythm tight.
The key section for the drums in this song is the instrumental break after the second chorus.
Here, the double bass drum pattern kicks in to match the chugging, rhythmically tight guitar—while still sounding refreshingly bright, almost like easycore.
If you don’t have a double pedal, this is your chance to show your creativity in how you interpret it: will you reduce the number of bass drum notes, or combine the bass drum with toms to capture the feel? Try the approach you think sounds the coolest.