James Christian has been a percussionist for over 20 years. He has performed with many types of groups, including drum corps, concert bands, orchestras, jazz combos, military bands, and percussion ensembles. He has marched with two senior drum & bugle corps—Bayou City Blues and Gulf Coast Sound (both from Houston, Texas)—and spent four years as a percussionist in the United States Marine Corps Band at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
James Christian has won 16 local, state, and national percussion competitions. He was the 1998 Texas Percussive Arts Society (PAS) high school multi-tenor drum champion, and he is the seven-time winner of the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) multi-tenor drum competition (2001-2007).
He has taught several schools, including Centennial High School in Burleson, Texas and Paris High School in Paris, Texas. He is the author of "The Art of Multi-Tenor Drumming," and he has composed and arranged music for several different ensembles. In 2016, he created RudimentalUniversity.com as an online resource for percussionists and percussion instructors, and he now edits The Percussion Circle magazine.
This three-drum timpani exercise utilizes a common situation, in which you must quickly play all three drums. To avoid awkward crossover situations and to play the passage with a consistent sticking pattern, most timpanists choose to play a double split among the two drums. (Tenor drummers call these “sweeps.”)
This exercise works both the right hand and the left hand. The accents add an additional challenge. Make sure the accents are distinct, but never overplayed and harsh.
The notes in the exercise are based on an A diminished triad. Any other grouping of notes could certainly work for practicing the technical skills, but tuning the written notes is important.
As always, start slowly until you have the exercise sounding great. Then gradually build speed.
Chromatic scales are an essential skill to master for any keyboardist. Within an octave range, there are 12 notes. This makes sextuplets work nicely for building chromatic speed (6 + 6 = 12). In this particular exercise, your two “target” notes are F-natural and B-natural. Every sextuplet run begins on one of these two notes. If you can visualize these two aiming spots, your accuracy will greatly increase.
When first starting, practice slowly and ensure that you are striking the correct notes. As you gain more confidence in your accuracy, gradually begin to push the tempo. Once you get to the exercise up to a bright tempo, you may want to repeat the last two measures additional times for added endurance.
For the extra motivated, you can transpose the exercise and learn it in all 12 keys.
Accented Singles: One of the Best Things You Can Practice for Any Percussion Instrument
If you want to get the most bang for your buck in practice sessions, devote regular time to working on your accented singles. I think this exercise is extremely helpful for all percussionists, whether you play snare drum, keyboards, timpani, drum set, congas, or anything else.
Why is this exercise so great? Because singles are the foundation of everything. If you can’t play fast singles and control them with accents, then you’re going to have a hard time playing anything else very well. But if you take time and develop your singles, then everything else flows from that foundation.
This exercise has five sections; #1-4 repeat, and #5 adds a final endurance element. If you are a younger player, I would highly recommend playing just #1 over and over again (like for a month or two) until you have it sounding really good and up to a tempo of 100 bpm on the metronome. If you are already at that level, then the remaining sections provide some extra challenges with accent control and pure endurance.
At the end of the exercise, you will notice there is a “D.C.” marking—which, of course, means to go back to the very beginning and play the entire exercise again. On the second lap, follow the bottom sticking. The first time through the exercise, you will play everything with right hand lead, and the second time through, you will play everything with left hand lead. At faster tempos, this thing is a workout!
One important note about the accents: Play them! Few things sound worse than weak accents. Make a clear distinction between your accents and taps. For optimal speed, keep your taps low and close to the drum head. Take care to bring out every accent so that the rhythm is clear.
I believe it’s vitally important to practice this exercise on a single surface, such as a snare drum, because the up-and-down motion is a vital skill to master. Once you can play it well on one surface, you may want to practice it on other percussion instruments, such as multi-tenors, timpani, drum set, or keyboards. You can practice by keeping the taps on one surface and moving the accents to another surface. (You could also do the same with the rims on a snare drum.)
Finally, playing accented triplets is especially important because you have to alternate hands, and you end up working both hands equally. I would recommend adding this exercise (at least #1) to your daily practice routine. Over the course of a few weeks, you should see significant improvement on snare drum and all percussion instruments that you play.
“Fight between Satyr and a woman,” a sketch of Augustin Hirschvogel
This past week, I have seen several Internet comments that have made me realize just how brainwashed… um, “preconditioned” some of us are in our understanding of performances, especially as related to technique and sound quality.
I grew up in the American rudimental drumming scene, just like many of you who are reading this article. I always enjoyed hearing other drummers’ thoughts on technique, sound quality, practice strategies, etc. However, I did not simply listen to those from the drum & bugle corps/marching band world. I also enjoy learning about fife drumming, pipe band drumming, Basel drumming, etc. I have found the more you are aware of how other people do things, the less adamant you are that your way is the only right way. (Though sometimes, a certain way is the best way for what you want to accomplish—and that is the key.)
This is a fun exercise for keyboard percussion that focuses on the “doubles rudiments” of four-mallet playing. I regularly use it with the high school where I teach. During marching season, our front ensemble uses it to work on double vertical strokes (measures 1-4) and double lateral strokes (measures 5-end).
Additional stroke types are used for transitions—single alternating strokes (ex: measure 5, beat 4) and triple lateral strokes (ex: measure 6, beat 4). These short occurrences frequently happen in actual musical situations, so it’s good practice for being able to switch quickly between stroke types.
Take care to achieve a full sound on every note. The double verticals should strike exactly together, and the double laterals should have a clear, consistent sound. Make a clear difference between the accented and non-accented notes at the end. Do not get sloppy on the non-accented notes. Keep the continuous 16th notes precisely in time.
When you can play this entire exercise with great consistency of sound, you will have a pretty solid grasp of the fundamental “doubles” strokes of four-mallet keyboard percussion. Enjoy!
This exercise is written for either a five-drum setup or a six-drum setup. While the six-drum setup obviously has more options, the fundamental skills covered are about the same.
As the title indicates, this exercise focuses on sweep patterns. A sweep is a double stroke split among two different drums. The “A.N.S.” in the title stands for Adjacent Sweeps, Non-Adjacent Sweeps, and Spock Sweeps.
Adjacent sweeps are sweeps between two drums right next to each other. On the basic quad setup, this would cover sweeps between drums 2 & 4, 1 & 2, and 1 & 3. For a six-drum setup, this would also include the two spock drums.
Non-adjacent sweeps are sweeps between two drums not next to each other. On the basic quad setup, this would cover sweeps between drums 1 & 4, 2 & 3, and 3 & 4. (On the six-drum version of this exercise, I went ahead and included drum 4 to the farthest spock drum and drum 3 to the farthest spock drum. Technically, these would fall under what I call “spock sweeps,” but the movements are similar to non-adjacent sweeps, so they work here. These sweeps are somewhat of a gray area.) These sweeps require a farther reach than adjacent sweeps, and they are more difficult to play fast. When playing this exercise, feel free to take this section slower if needed.
Spock sweeps require a different type of movement than adjacent or non-adjacent sweeps. As the name indicates, these cover any sweeps utilizing the spock drum(s). When sweeping between the spock drum and drums 1 or 2, you must use a push-pull motion. This is quite difficult to play fast. Feel free to adjust the tempo on this section as well.
When it comes to tempo, take each section as fast as you can comfortably play it. Of course, you should initially start slowly to focus on your technique and accuracy. Once you have a solid foundation, you can start speeding it up. As always, focus on accuracy and great sound quality. If you keep hitting rims, slow down a little bit and reassess your aiming spot.
The odd-metered measures are intended to provide a little rhythmic interest between the sweep patterns. Focus on playing the 16th notes with steady time.
If you can play through this exercise smoothly, you will have a pretty solid grasp on all of the sweep combinations!
This exercise takes a basic rock groove and goes through all 15 possible 16th note-based patterns on the bass drum. For beginning players, you should play each measure several times in a row until you have it down solidly. This will help you build a strong sense of 16th note timing on the bass drum. For more experienced players, this exercise will serve as good practice for changing bass patterns quickly.
The final line serves to give a satisfying conclusion to the exercise. The final three beats are written with slash notation. You can either give yourself a rest or create your own fills as you repeat the exercise.
To make this exercise groove, it’s essential to keep steady time. The final few measures are certainly the most difficult, so it’s important that you do not start the exercise too fast—or your foot will struggle to keep up at the end. Pay careful attention to keeping every note in alignment. Ultimately, each measure should groove, and you should have fun with it!
Originally written for xylophone, this fun little exercise comes from George Hamilton Green’s Advanced Instructor for Xylophone. This book is not as well-known as his more famous Instruction Course for Xylophone, but it is still quite good. (Both books are excellent and highly recommended.)
This particular exercise focuses on double stops (both hands playing at the same time), and the harmonic and rhythmic structure come from ragtime xylophone playing. The challenge of this exercise is to play a repeating two-note pattern with the left hand while playing a three-note pattern with the right hand. On the final two beats of measures 2 and 4, the right hand plays a four-note pattern that closely matches the movements of the left hand. The difficulty comes in transitioning back to the three-note pattern in measure 3 (and measure 1 on the repeat).
On the surface, the exercise looks simple, but it can provide an interesting coordinative challenge. Once you get it down, it’s really fun to play. As George Hamilton Green would advise, make sure you take it slowly at first. Keep your mallets close to the keyboard, make sure they both strike at exactly the same time, and make sure you are 100% accurate in all of your notes.
I’ve got a brand new snare exercise for you today. I came up with it several years ago just for fun. It has been in my “private collection” of exercises that I use sometimes for individual practice and one-on-one with students, but I’ve never shared it anywhere before now.
This exercise focuses on stutters—that is, isolated diddles. These have a cool “stuttered” sound (hence the name), but they are also really good for focusing on your diddle quality between each hand. The 16th note check patterns help to keep your timing in check. Be careful to keep each “stutter” in time. If you play this with other people, it will be a really helpful exercise for checking that your diddle interpretation is the same. The last measure is particularly tricky to play cleanly with others. Happy stuttering!
I teach at Paris High School in Paris, Texas. This past year, we added a lithophone to our keyboard percussion section. Sometimes called a stonophone, this unique instrument is handmade from slate, and it spans a 3-octave range. There are only a few individual manufacturers online who make such instruments; it is a pretty unique niche. Our lithophone was custom created by Jim Doble at Elemental Designs. He did great work, and his prices are very reasonable.
This video is just a short improvisation to showcase the instrument’s range and timbre. Since this video was recorded, we have had a frame and resonators added. While the instrument has a very rich tone, it is somewhat quieter (and more fragile!) than a marimba or vibraphone. You can’t strike it with the same velocity on the louder dynamic ranges. When using it for concert performances, it works best to have it amplified.
We are primarily going to use it to substitute for bass marimba parts in percussion ensembles. It’s about a tenth the cost of a 5.0-octave marimba, so it’s a very affordable option for schools and organizations on a tight budget.
The lower octave is not quite as resonant as the upper octaves. We discovered that the instrument sounds really good when parts are played in octaves. (This creates some interesting arrangement considerations, but the result has been well worth it.) The higher octave helps to emphasize the fundamental pitch, and the lower octave brings out the rich, bassy tone underneath.
I decided to post this in order to showcase the great workmanship that can be found by custom instrument manufacturers. There are a number of talented people who specialize in custom-made marimbas, xylophones, lithophones, and other instruments. Also, I want to encourage percussion directors and band directors to think outside the box a bit when it comes to instrument purchases. The mainstream manufacturers create some wonderful products, and they are certainly going to be the primary “go to” sources. However, with a little creative thinking, you can also get some very colorful textures in your percussion section by exploring what’s out there.
For the extra adventurous, you might even want to have your students build their own instruments. This could create a deeper sense of ownership among the whole section when they have put their own time into creating the instrument upon which they play.
How about you? Have you had any experience with custom-made instruments? Have you used other instruments not mentioned above? Share your stories and thoughts in the comments section below.
