Help! Trying out for Drumline Soon!

[ZildjianKid234]

Hey guys, I don't usually post in this session, but my band director at school wants me to try out for drumline. I'm in the 8th grade now, and I've just been doing simple multiple and single stroke rolls. I just realized I have to learn Double stroke, 15th stroke, Parididdle, Flams....etc. I need some help on the double stroke, just can't seem to be able to keep a steady beat or go very fast while doing two hits with each hand.

Any help, suggestions, or just general advice is welcome.

Practice, practice, practice. Just keep practicing them and they will come to you before you know it. I know that's not much help but it's the best advice i can give you. Good luck!

[concrete Building]

Put more pressure on the drum. That will help, and definately work on traditional grip.

And if you don't want to do that, try out for tenors. They're fun!

[gonefishin]

Like any thing else that deals with playing the drums , the best way is practice playing slow and gradually get faster. It all comes with time .Just keep practicing your rudiments too ,the more you practice the easier stuff gets .

[ZildjianKid234]

Thanks guys I'll pracitce somemore.

[pastor_bob]

ZildjianKid, keep in mind that the double stroke is tougher to master than it sounds. Once you do, though, so many of the rudiments will begin to open up to you.

[Brady]

Yes, agree with PB...
If you get sick of doing rudiments, trying doing rudiments along with songs from your iPod or something... makes it more interesting...

[xsabers]

You need a good doubles exercise. There are many out there. I wish there was a way to write notation on here.

One standard I suggest (and is easy to write here) is a paradiddle exercise.
Start slow, go for an even sound from all the strokes.

|: RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL | RRLL RRLL RRLL RRLL :|

Left hand lead
|: LRLL RLRR LRLL RLRR | LLRR LLRR LLRR LLRR :|


Do a search on you tube for double stroke technique

If your HS has a drum tech, see if he/she does private lessons.

Good luck!

[concrete Building]

http://clstrikers.com/prdrumline/exercises.html

This should help. Try some of our excersizes. They help SO much.

[RhythmStick]

ZK: What size sticks are you using? In general the larger the stick, the easier it is to control. Also, look closely at your technique. If you are not holding the stick properly it will be very difficult to play evenly. Finally, get a copy of the book Stick Control and play the heck out of the studies - use a metronome. They are great for building chops.

You WILL get it, and you will have a lot of fun playing in a snare line. I'm jealous

[Zsnare]

with doubles, start out with a double beat type exercise. go slow and gradually get faster. these take a while to get comfortable with. with other rudiments try isolating each hand and then put them together. that helps me

[ZildjianKid234]

Well i tried out, and the Band director said he was impressed. and today i got the news that i made tenors, which is pretty rare for a freshman. Anyway im really excited. thanks for the tips.

ZK

[concrete Building]

Very good. We've only had one person (as far as I know) who made tenors as a freshman and wrote some of our cadences.

[yobebs123]

I really want to try out in a drum line also...but I guess I'm not that ready for that....need more practice....

[butter]

congrats on the quads, bro!

a great way to improve your doubles is to practice on a pillow. actually, you could practice anything on a pillow and probably get results, but doubles are kinda universal i guess.
anyway, hitting a pillow provides less bounce, so you have to use your own strength to pull the stick back up. do it for about 20 minutes a day at least.

otherwise, just learn all your rudies well!
good luck, hope this helped.

[concrete Building]

Originally Posted by yobebs123

I really want to try out in a drum line also...but I guess I'm not that ready for that....need more practice....

I suggest you start off doing Bass, then. You'll get the idea of playing with others and not truly competing. You'll also learn and work on technique and marching.

[drmn4life]

ahhh, drum corps..good times. ya i remember gettin in that class and the instructor testing me to see what i should play. i ended up playin the quints... i think thats how u spell it..anyway, concrete is right tho, bass drum is the way to go at first until u familiarize urself with note values and reading the music and stuff, that way u can work ur way, i got the quints cuz i knew note values from piano lessons lol. but ya dude, drum corps helped my playin tremendously.

[drmn4life]

didn't realize the converstation was already this deep LOL..

practice is your best friend lol

[Julian]

The way you grip your sticks is important, grip too tightly, and they won't bounce well, but grip too loosely, the double strokes are going to be sloppy.

After you've got your grip worked out (which isn't difficult anyway, it shouldn't take you more than mere minutes) I suggest setting your metronome to a tempo you can play, and practice. Keep speeding the metronome up and before you know it, you'll be double tapping your way into drumline!

Good luck!

[fumbled time]

congrats ZK, hope it goes well for you.