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!
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!
All this week, we are featuring percussion arrangements of Christmas and holiday music. These two performances by the drum line and percussion ensembles at the University of North Texas are from a December 2016 concert. Enjoy music from “The Nutcracker” and “Frosty the Snowman.”
When I was a freshman in high school, I told my drum line instructor, “I didn’t practice this week. I just didn’t feel like practicing.” He replied, “What do you mean you didn’t feel like practicing!? The only way to get better is to practice when you don’t feel like it!”
My instructor’s mini-beratement led to an important shift in my thinking. As I looked around the world, he was obviously correct. If you examine the top experts in any field—whether music, sports, science, business, literature, or anything else—those who reach the top must Read more “What to Do When You Don’t Feel Like Practicing”
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.
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.
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.)
In this article I would like to dispel two myths about percussion commonly found in American percussion education. If you can Read more “Two Drumming Myths that Are Probably Hindering You from Appreciating a Lot of Music”
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!