Here is a fun exercise that will put your arms in a pretzel. I won’t claim that this exercise is the most essential (or even the most logical) exercise ever, but it covers a lot of paradiddle patterns around the tenors—and it’s just plain fun to play. Some of the patterns are easier, and some of them are harder. There is a continual contrast between standard patterns and not-so-standard patterns that makes the overall flow tricky to navigate. Have fun with “Paradiddle Pretzel”!
Last time, we looked at three levels of flam exercises. Here are three more, but these are considerably more advanced. They all follow the same accent “skeleton” from the previous set of flam exercises.
The first exercise utilizes rudiments often called triplet pataflaflas (though used as 16th notes in this exercise), flam tap paradiddles, and pataflaflas (that is, the regular kind). A regular pataflafla is a group of four notes with a flam on the first and last note, and a triplet pataflafla is a group of three notes with a flam on the first and last note. A flam tap paradiddle is a normal flam paradidle with a flam on the third note creating a flam tap on the “diddle” half of the paradiddle.
The second exercise is a true coordination challenge. Essentially, the exercise is the same as the Level 2 exercise from last time, but the flams now follow immediately after the accent. The rudiments all fall into the “unofficial hybrid” category, so their names vary from place to place. Some names commonly given to these rudiments are dachudas (or tuchadas) and inverted tap flams. (I’m unaware of a name for a paradiddle with a flam on the second note. If you have a name for it, I’d love to hear it. Please share it in the comments!)
The third exercise uses three fairly common rudiments—flam drags, flam ratamacues, and flam accents. However, the way these rudiments are combined make it difficult to take this exercise very fast. Only advanced players will be able to execute this exercise cleanly at tempos above the 132 bpm range.
Best wishes on learning these! As always, make your accents strong, and keep your grace notes low and controlled!
It’s coordination time again! In our last drum set exercise, we focused on different limb combinations with triplets. This week, we take the same concept further and increase the coordinative complexity a bit. (Note: This assumes a traditional kit setup, in which the ride cymbal and bass drum are played with the right hand and right foot respectively, and the snare drum and hi-hat are played with the left hand and left foot respectively. Adjust this exercise to work the same concepts according to your setup.)
Measures 1-2: triplets in left hand and left foot (3 notes each), quarter notes in right hand and right foot (lead with hand)
Measures 3-4: triplets in right hand and right foot (3 notes each), quarter notes in left hand and left foot (lead with hand)
Measures 5-6: triplets in left hand and left foot (3 notes each), quarter notes in right foot and right hand (lead with foot)
Measures 7-8: triplets in right hand and right foot (3 notes each), quarter notes in left foot and left hand (lead with foot)
Measures 9-12: repeats the previous patterns of measures 1-4 with triplets alternating single strokes between limbs
Measures 13-16: repeats measures 9-12, except the order of hand and foot is reversed on the single stroke triplets
Measures 17-18: a “tag” ending to wrap it up
Measures 19-36: the entire exercise repeats with the opposite side leading (right hand becomes left hand and vice versa, right foot becomes left foot and vice versa)
Between this exercise and the previous exercise, just about every combination is covered. If you can play both exercises smoothly and consistently, your coordination will increase significantly.
Three levels of snare exercises are presented here:
The first level focuses on basic flam rudiments—the flam, the flam tap, and the flam paradiddle. It’s a great exercise for younger players. Use the single flams to focus on great flam spacing, then utilize the same foundational motion to lead into the flam taps. (A flam and flam tap are very similar; simply add an extra note after the initial flam.) The transition between flam paradiddles is the same as the double in a flam tap, so each of the three rudiments build off of each other. The exercise is written in cut time to emphasize that it can be taken in a faster “two” feel once you feel comfortable with it. For young players, however, it would be better to start it in a slow 4/4. Once this exercise is solid, you can move on to the second level.
The second level exercise also utilizes flam taps and paradiddles, but flam accents are heavily incorporated in the first two measures. These three rudiments are the most common flam rudiments, and being able to play patterns like this is an important skill to achieve for any snare drummer or percussionist. (Note: This second exercise is not original with me. I played it regularly in my high school drum line under the instruction of Rick Beckham. It’s a really good exercise though, and it’s worth passing along.)
The third level exercise follows the same accent pattern as the previous exercise, but the coordinative complexity is increased. All of the flam rudiments are inverted lead-hand switch patterns. The flam taps are now inverted flam taps. The other patterns don’t have names that are universally agreed upon, but I like calling them inverted flam accents and inverted flam fours.
All of these exercises are good tests of flam coordination. As you practice them, always keep the grace notes low and close to the drum head. Make a distinction between accented and non-accented notes. As always, make sure your flams are consistent with proper spacing.
Happy flamming!
This exercise has been tailored for different bass line sizes—2 players, 3 players, 4 players, or 5 players. (If you have a larger bass line, simply take the version for 5 players and have two players double one of the parts.)
It covers numerous combinations of sixteenth note triplet split patterns, a skill all bass lines must master. The constantly shifting patterns will keep everyone on their toes. I would recommend practicing each two-measure pattern (indicated by the double bar lines) separately at first. Play each two-measure pattern over and over until your whole section has it down. Once you have each pattern down smoothly, practice the entire exercise from start to finish.
When practicing, be careful to maintain correct note spacing. Usually players tend to err on the side of spacing the triplets too tightly (crushing them), and extra care must be taken to space each note evenly. Sometimes players overcompensate and spread the notes too widely, so be careful to avoid the opposite error as well. Use a metronome to help with pulse control. If possible, get someone with good timing to listen to the exercise and give feedback. If your line works it up, feel free to post a video and link to it in the comments section below.
Happy splitting!
This exercise is a lot of fun to play. It utilizes only four drums, so it can be played on quad-toms, quint-toms, or sex-toms. You especially need two things to play this exercise well:
Endurance. As a constant barrage of single strokes, you have to dig deep and keep pushing to the end in order to play this exercise without stopping or slowing down.
Fluidity of Movement. Practically every combination of drums is covered here without using crossovers or spock drums. It’s important that you take each pattern slowly until you have the spatial memory to know where you’re going from phrase to phrase. Focus on striking in the proper playing zones and maintaining consistent note spacing.
For added endurance and accuracy practice, play this exercise through 10 times, 20 times, etc. Keep building new goals, and push yourself to get to the next level.
This triplet-based exercise is a great test of your independence between limbs. Triplets are constantly trading off between two limbs while the other two limbs are keeping steady quarter notes.
Measures 1-2: triplets in hands (3 notes each), quarter notes in feet
Measures 3-4: triplets in feet (3 notes each), quarter notes in hands
Measure 5-6: triplets in right hand and left foot (3 notes each), quarter notes in right foot and left hand
Measures 7-8: triplets in right foot and left hand (3 notes each), quarter notes in right hand and left foot
Measures 9-16: repeats the previous patterns with triplets alternating single strokes between limbs
Measures 17-18: a “tag” ending to wrap it up
Measures 19-36: the entire exercise repeats with the left side leading instead of the right
A lot of combinations are covered here. Have fun with this one. Check back in two weeks for Triplet Limb Independence #2!
This exercise is great for practicing short and wide interval leaps. It is comprised of three parts:
Measures 1-24: The triplet pattern starts on a B-flat (check the key signature!), descends a half step, returns to B-flat, descends two half steps, returns to B-flat, descends three half steps, etc. I would recommend starting this section on the right hand.
Measures 25-48: This section follows the same pattern as the previous section, except the intervals move ascending instead of descending. I would recommend starting this section on the left hand.
Measures 49-74: Finally, this section also starts on a B-flat, but the intervals both ascend and descend at the same time, ultimately spanning two octaves. I would recommend starting this section on the right hand.
Due to the wide interval, the final two measures are the most difficult to play quickly. I recommend seeing how fast you can play these two measures first. That is your tempo for the entire exercise. While this exercise is good practice for various intervals, another challenge is to maintain a steady tempo. Most people will want to start too quickly and be unable to maintain that tempo throughout the entire exercise. Don’t let that be you!
These two timing exercises are quite helpful for all percussionists, regardless of your specific area of specialty. They seem simple at first, but they really great exercises for getting an ensemble to internalize the pulse together. They are also useful exercises for individual practice (with a metronome, of course!). They will help you realize how accurate or inaccurate your internal beat subdivisions are. This becomes especially evident at extremely slow and extremely fast tempos.
I should state upfront that I did not write these two exercises, but I like them, and I wanted to share them here. I helped teach at a high school drum line camp a couple of years ago, and Luke Holt was the front ensemble technician. He brought out these exercises during the full drum line rehearsal (I’m not sure if they were original with him, but they’re worth passing along). With all of the space created by the rests, it was a challenge for the entire group to play every note perfectly together.
I have since used these exercises at times to help my percussion group in the same way. They are particularly good for bass lines, since each individual player often has isolated rhythms like this.
For individual practice, I highly recommend using a metronome with the eighth note subdivision turned on. You will probably be surprised how easily you tend to rush or drag certain notes in the measure. I would recommend practicing these exercises every so often at slow tempos (about 40-60 bpm or slower) and fast tempos (160 bpm or faster). If you can play these two exercises perfectly along the entire tempo spectrum, you can be pretty confident in your sense of eighth note pulse.
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.