How to Do a Basic Pen Tapping Beat

Pen tapping is very fun and easy, but I haven’t seen anyone create instructions to teach

people. This tutorial will teach you how to use a pen to do a drum set beat pattern ( just like the title). In addition, this tutorial will also teach you how to choose an appropriate pen for pen tapping. I hope you guys will like it. Please also leave comments (about what you liked about this tutorial or what you did not like about it), so I can improve this tutorial.

The golden rule about choosing an appropriate pen for pen tapping is: choose whatever pen that fits the best in your hand. Everyone's hand is different, so you want to choose the perfect pen for you to pen tap with instead of just followin somebody else.

However, there are some general features I prefer, such as thick and long, so that you don't drop your pen easily when you are tapping. Also, a smooth surface would ·

help you create better with sound, for instance, creating the sound "Da", which is a sound I will teach later in this tutorial.

Based on my preference, I listed the common pens that I often find in my pencil case into three levels (as the first picture shows above). Pens from the left are my most preferred pens, the middle pens are medium preferred, and right section, just throw them away.

I will also teach with the sharpie, which is the number one in my picture 1.

So, enough for choosing pens, let's move on.

Hold the pen like the first three pictures I am showing you above. Hold the pen in the middle, versus too far

towards either tip. Hold the part that you are comfortable with as long as you do not drop the

pen. Because we are making music and having fun, do whatever you are comfortable that will not make you drop the pen.)

The only rule you have to follow here is: hold the pen on the tip of your fingers so when you make the “Da” sound, you will succeed.

Try to lie down the pen on the table like the fourth picture above. Make sure when you do it, your fingers are not touching the table.

Ok, enough of that. Moving on to sounds.

The first sound is called "Do". It is imitating the sound of a base drum.

You need to lift your hand about 2 to 3 cm above the table, then you drop your wrist on the table to make a sound. At this time, you are making the sound through hit the table with your wrist, so when your wrist drops on the table, your pen should not touch the table.

Refer to the pictures above, if you are in doubt of doing this incorrectly.

Here you go, first sound is learned. Ready to move on to the next one?

The second sound imitates the hi-hat sound from the drum set. A hi-hat sound happens with two cymbals on a

drum set hit each other.

Again, hold your pen horizontally parallel and around 2-3 cms above the table, then drop the front tip of the pen on the table.

Got it? Good job.

Finally! The last sound we are making is a "Da", I told you about earlier, that imitates the snare drum.

To make "Da", you need to hold your pen horizontally above the table, then drop it vertically straight down to make the whole surface of the pen lines up with the surface of the table to make a full sound.

Now you have learned all the sounds. But wait, you need to learn the final step: combining sounds into a drum set beat pattern.

You did all the steps to get to here. The last thing to learn is how to combine the three sounds we learned to make a basic drum set beat pattern.

The combination is: "Do" "S" "Da" "S", just like I have shown above.

WOW!!! Now you learned the basic beat! It suits most pop songs in 2 beats and 4 beats swing, such as Taylor Swift's "I Don’t Wanna Live Forever" and "Shake It Off". Well, now you can enjoy the beat and have fun with tapping it along with songs.

For more advanced people who are interested in learning more combinations, please visit these links:

or

Thank you for following my tutorial! I hope you liked it and please leave a comment bellow, so I know what to improve and what to keep.