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much in the end depends on what you want to do.
if you want to play 4, if you want ba doom chuck ba doom doom chuck to play 4 all the time in a rock context then ba doom chuck what the other rb said above seems right. particularly the practice part. and within that, the process of getting co-ordination in simpler patterns and then moving to increasing levels of independence/control.
but speaking as a pianist who understands playing the rock and roll as being sent into the seventh circle of hell (this despite the fact that i am an avid listener) i would encourage you to listen to lots of styles and pay particular attention to the drumming. not that you'd be able to play what you hear right away, but to open up your thinking and your listening to other more advanced possibilities than ba doom chuck ba doom doom chuck.
like jazz. like max roach or philly joe jones or elvin jones or eddie blackwell or don moye or andrew cyrille or calvin weston or ronald shannon jackson---or some of the "freejazz" drummers who do not generally drum time at al on the order of sunny murray, milford graves.
or tony allen (of fela kuti's old bands) who is simply mind-boggling.
in more experrymental music, from what i have been seeing over the past couple years, the most influential newer drummer out there paul nilsson-love (from the scortch trio amongst other things)--you should try to see show involving this kind of approach to what amounts of treated/manipulated drumkits--most of this is about suggesting that you listen to drumming that uses pitch AND rhythm as elements.
the reason i say all this is that i have found it important to cultivate a way of practicing that is about exploring possibilities in addition to learning the basics. you need both, if my experience is any guide at least. learning the basics simply requires that you put in the work. the payoff will be when you get control over them and play with other folk and it sounds as you would prefer. but the work can be drudgery at times, and so having another area that you might think of at first as being playtime is good as well--and it may turn out that over time these will start blurring into each other. the playtime stuff is still practicing--you're still working the same skill set, still pushing toward co-ordination and through that toward independence of your hands and feet--but it can keep practicing from getting too closely associated with drudgery alone. this was important to me when i was starting to play 40 years ago (holy shit...) and it is important to me when i practice now--and the reason i say this is that while i am a pianist (the piano is a drum) the fact is that i have been able to maintain a relationship with my instrument for a very long time and this is a big part of what has made that possible.
so i pass that along.
redlemon: i thought the knocking was sped up by bass players....
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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