For the first few days of the New Year, you will undoubtedly see various individuals and organizations urging you to create new goals, set New Year’s resolutions, turn over a new leaf, and do whatever you can to make this year better than last year. Of course, I know readers would be terribly disappointed if I didn’t give similar encouragements with regard to percussion. 🙂
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.
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!
