Spring percussion is in the air! The Percussion Circle #3 is in your care. Enjoy music for marimba and snare; If you like it, be sure to share!
It’s our spring percussion issue! (Read previous issues here.) We have some great articles, exercises, and music prepared for you—with some new twists. As always, the music and articles are free to print and copy. Be sure to spread the word far and wide. Share it with students, friends, music teachers, and fellow percussionists!
The second issue of The Percussion Circle is here! (If you missed issue #1, check it out here.) As always, this is free to copy and print. Please share with students, friends, and complete strangers. (Trust us. They’ll appreciate it.) Check out the “Name the Letter Column Contest.” Be sure to order your t-shirt of this issue’s cover. And write to us and let us know what you like, what we can improve, and what you’d like to see in the future.
Last but not least, we wish you a very happy New Year!
We have been promising some big things for a while now. Well, this one is pretty exciting! We are now regularly publishing a percussion magazine. Allow us to introduce… (drum roll, please)… The Percussion Circle!
Each issue is full of sheet music, exercises, practice tips, contests, and more! This magazine is being released completely free to the entire percussion world. It is especially designed as a resource for percussion instructors and their students, but there is enough material to keep any percussionist happy for many hours.
Videos of the exercises in the articles will gradually be released after publication, so check back frequently. Better yet, subscribe to our e-mail list and follow our social media channels to make sure you never miss any updates.
To view the magazine in full screen, use the viewer below. Click on the square in the bottom right corner. You can zoom in and out from there. You can also print copies for your convenience. (This feature is currently only available on Chrome browsers. We are looking to expand this option.)
Finally, we want to give a special thank you to Keiser Southern Music and HingeStix for their efforts in making this first issue possible. Please show them some appreciation and visit their sites. (If you want to advertise with us, send an e-mail to advertise@rudimentaluniversity.com, and we will send you the details.)
Struggling with speed, accuracy, or pulse? James describes three ways you can use different tempos to maximize your practice sessions. The following is a transcript of the video above (slightly reworded for readability):
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Hello, everyone. This is James Christian with RudimentalUniversity.com. Today I would like to talk about three different ways you can use tempo to help you when practicing a piece of music.
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.
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!
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 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!
