Snare & Multi-Tenors Exercise: 12 Bucks

January 17, 2017January 20, 2017 James Christian

**Snare Drum**

*Click on the image to enlarge or click here to download in PDF format.*

**Multi-Tenor Drums**
*Click on the image to enlarge…*

*…or click here to download in PDF format.*

This exercise has gone through many tweaks and additions over the years. In its current version, I think it’s a great tool in the arsenal of any percussionist. When I first encountered this exercise, the first four sections were taught to me and the other students at Princeton High School (Princeton, Texas) by Rick Beckham. This covered the accented 8th notes off the right hand and left hand, plus the accented 16th notes off the right hand and left hand. He later added the next four sections (8th note flams leading with the right and left, plus the accented paradiddle patterns leading with the right and left).

The four main patterns—8th notes, 16th notes, flams, and paradiddles—are great for developing the control needed to distinguish accent and tap heights. I have used this core exercise with several different drum lines, and it has been quite effective.

Over time, I decided to expand the exercise. In personal practice, I used the basic accent structure on a number of different rudimental patterns. When teaching it to a full drum line, I decided that I wanted to write a mallet part that went through the circle of fifths, covering all 12 major keys.* I also wanted a bass drum part that worked split 16th note triplets and 32nd notes. So I picked two of my favorite rudimental patterns that worked with that rhythmic structure to add sections 9-10 and 11-12. In short, this exercise has something really useful for every section.

Since 12 sections are covered by going through the circle of fifths and the snare drum part is similar to the standard “Bucks” exercise, I decided to call the exercise “12 Bucks.” Here is the breakdown of the skills required for snare drum and tenors:

Sections 1-2: One-handed accented 8th notes. Focus on maintaining a clear distinction between accents and taps. Keep your taps low and controlled. Make sure your accents are strong, not wimpy. The tenor exercise is deliberately on one drum, so that the player can focus on the Y-axis motion and the fundamental accent/tap control.
Sections 3-4: Alternating accented 16th notes. This should follow the exact same technique as sections 1-2, except the opposite hand is now “filling in” the 16th notes. All taps should be consistently at the same height and volume. The tenors now move the accents to an adjacent drum. Keep the accents strong and the taps consistently softer.
Sections 5-6: Alternating 8th note flams. These sections are excellent for focusing on the three heights of accents, taps, and grace notes. The accents and taps should remain the same from the previous sections. The additional grace notes should be softer and lower than the taps. Once again, the tenors are deliberately on one drum in order to focus on the fundamentals of good flam technique.
Sections 7-8: 16th note paradiddles. These patterns get a bit trickier. Watch out for the sticking on measures 2 and 4! The key to these section is that they should sound the same as the 16th notes in sections 3-4. Do not let the “diddle” part of the paradiddles sound weaker or stronger than the singles you played in sections 3-4.
Sections 9-10: Single stroke fours and single stroke sevens. These rudimental patterns get your hands moving a bit quicker with the 16th note triplets. They also require more precise timing focus. Many drummers have a tendency to “cheat” the length of the initial 8th note by starting the triplet too soon. Of course, you should practice the whole exercise with a metronome, but this section would especially benefit from doing so.
Sections 11-12: “RLLL” quad groupings. Once again, the 16th notes patterns should sound the same as sections 3-4 and 7-8. Of course, these sections require more finger control in order to move each hand at the speed of 16th notes.
Tag ending: A final syncopated measure to cap off everything! Notice that the snare and tenor triplet rhythms are slightly different. The tenors start on the downbeat, while the snares conclude on the upbeat. Both parts should be played precisely in time in order to hear the tradeoff between sections.

Have fun learning these patterns. Once you have them down, be adventurous and create your own variations!

*[Yes, I know there are technically 15 keys, but I’m not going to get into that debate right now.]

Multi-Tenors Exercise: Paradiddle Pretzel

January 12, 2017 James Christian

*Click on the image to enlarge or click here to download in PDF format.*

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”!

Multi-Tenors Exercise: Triplet Around Patterns

December 15, 2016December 15, 2016 James Christian

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.

Multi-Tenors Exercise: A.N.S. Sweeps

December 1, 2016November 27, 2016 James Christian

Five-Drum Version

Six-Drum Version

To view the exercise, click on the images to enlarge. To download in PDF format, click here for the five-drum version, and click here for the six-drum version.

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!

Multi-Tenors Exercise: Shifting Paradiddles

November 25, 2016November 25, 2016 James Christian

To view the exercise, click on the image to enlarge or click here to download in PDF format.

This entire week, we have been looking at different approaches to the “Shifting Paradiddles” exercise for various percussion instruments. We have previously looked at applications for snare drum, keyboard percussion, bass drum splits, and timpani. Our final instrument is the multi-tenors for marching percussion.

Before attempting this on tenors, it would be a good idea to review the snare drum exercise. This variation utilizes three drums. On the surface, it is pretty straight forward. The main thing that distinguishes this exercise from the snare drum version is that the accents are played as crossovers. The first two patterns—paradiddles and inverted paradiddles—are fairly simple to play as crossovers. However, the last two patterns—mills and alternating quads—are considerably more difficult.

As with all such patterns, make sure you bring out the accents, and keep the non-accents softer and closer to the drum. Contrast between accents and non-accents is of utmost importance in this exercise. Simply changing drums is not the same thing as an accent! It’s easy for tenor players to get lazy on accents and simply allow the momentum of moving from drum to drum to create a quasi-accent. When you play the accents with crossovers, make sure you are still bringing out the accents.

On the final four measures, play each pattern slowly at first until you feel comfortable with the quick movements involved in each crossover. On every double, be careful not to drop the second note. Strive for absolute smoothness in your 16th notes. Once you get everything down smoothly, every two measures should theoretically sound identical to the first two measures.

I hope you have enjoyed the exercises this week. Let us know what you think in the comments section. Do you like having an exercise that all sections can play together? Or would you prefer to see more specialized exercises for each instrument? Were these exercises a good challenge? Too easy? Too hard? Did you play through any of them with your percussion friends? Do you have any helpful tips to share?

Thank you for your feedback. We want to hear from you!