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Thread: Practice Exercise

  1. #1

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    All I ask of you is to post one exercise that you came up with, learned from a friend, got off your teacher, or got out of a lesser known book. The point is that it isn't something obvious everyone already knows, like something out of stick control (Of course, if you have an interesting new way to practice an already established exercise or book, feel free to share).

    This forum is full of experienced drummers who have been practicing for years, so we all have something to share with one another. The exercise can be about anything, sticking, time signatures, endurance, dynamics, double bass, or anything else. Please give a detailed description, and details on how it should be practiced.

  2. #2

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    I usually start off on the snare wiht the singles to warm up abit then I will go into the double, triplets, paradidles then down to triplets, double and singles. I do this exercise without stopping just by going from one rudiment to another. Then I will start on the kit with hhats, snare and bass and work around the kit on the cymbals etc. I usualy do my Bonham triplets starting on 1 snare 1 snare 1 bass then go to 1 snare 1tom 1 bass etc all around the kit and gradually go faster and faster. Then I just play anything that comes to mind. Hope this helps

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    good thread...great thread...guessin' the teachers might take a hit on this. No feedback from me however since it's all I can do just to get motivated....so I will be taking notes
    Most definitely. As a matter of fact, there will be "NO LIMIT"... just an unending quagmire of musical genius.

  4. #4

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    I’ve talked about my warm up exercise in other threads so I’ll avoid that one. Once my warm up is finished I work on a basic sticking exercise that is 24 bars repeated 3 times at my highest speed without messing up, speeding up or slowing down – one constant speed. If I mess up, I start over. Everything is played on the snare and is basic quarters with changes up’s between which hand is striking on each count (Ie RLRR, LRLL, RLRL, LRLR, RRRL, LLLR, etc etc). It’s probably about as simple as an exercise can get but it’s been very helpful for me to get more comfortable with using both hands on different beats.
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  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by MR. G View Post
    good thread...great thread...guessin' the teachers might take a hit on this. No feedback from me however since it's all I can do just to get motivated....so I will be taking notes
    Thanks, yea I'm hoping we can get a lot of results and have resource of great exercises.

    Here's an idea to help practice stick crossovers and moving around the toms.

    Take pages 9 and 12 of Stick Control (If you don't already have the book.. Get It) All the quarter notes, play them on snare, all the triplets, or sixteenths in the case of page 12, play them around the toms. The first set of notes (First 3 or 4) are played on the high tom, the second on the low tom. Make sure you are using alternating stickings, and that you don't make any awkward motions down the toms, use cross overs where necessary.

    Sorry for the hard to understand explanation :P

  6. #6

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    I gotta build up my crossovers - I slow down when working the kit on quick fills especially and I tend to get sloppy with my technique. Last week I somehow managed to hit my right thumb nail full bore with my left stick. I gotta tell ya - that hurt.
    PDP 5 piece - 12/13/16/14/22
    16" Sabian AA Medium Thin Crash
    14" No-Name Hats
    21" TRX LTD Crash/Ride
    19" Zildjian A Custom Projection Crash

  7. #7

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    This is what I do when I'm playing on a pad, but I've adapted it to use when I play drumset. A lot of drumlines have what they call a 60 second warm up which is basically just an exercise that goes through most of the different strokes that you use when playing drums to warm you up as fast as possible.

    This is one one that I have drumlines I teach learn as it has worked really well for my own personal practice. A couple times through it and my hands are ready to go.

    It starts out with just basic 8th notes, going from 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4, just to make sure I'm not mindlessly playing 8th notes.

    Then it goes to 16th notes, starting at 3 inches then crescendoing to 16 inches then all the way back down to 3, and then it switches to the same thing only left hand lead. Next it does the same kind of thing, but only the lead hand does the crescendo, so since the first one is right hand lead, the right hand starts at 3 and gets all the way up to 16, then back down and then it switches. This is again to make sure my mind is working and to check heights between hands.

    Next it goes to a basic accent tap exercise, just to make sure my hands are playing good solid heights, and that I'm using good sound quality, whether it's on a full 12 inch accent or a small 3 inch tap, they all should have good quality. Weak taps are lame.

    Next it goes to a basic double beat exercise, to get my hands playing doubles and ready for the diddles coming up.

    Finally it goes to a section of paradiddle-diddles, alternating between right and left. This is where you can really see if your hands are warmed up, as this is for sure the hardest part. Making the accents 12 and the rest of the rudiment low is the most difficult part of this. If you're not used to doing these on the left, this will prove very difficult and will take lots of slow practice. The lefts even get me still...

    Finally it ends with a little lick, a "tag" if you will, this is mostly because whenever I write an exercise for drumlines I like to add a little "tag," a cool lick to catch the attention of anybody watching. It also is good to check to make sure your hands are completely warmed up.


    Edit: I totally forgot to say how I incorporated this on drumset! I guess it's not really too exciting. I usually just place my pad on my snare, use marching sticks (if you have never seen them, they are HUGE compared to drumset sticks) and then play bass-hat-bass-hat-bass-hat-bass-hat with my feet on 8th notes, to make sure my hands can play in time with my feet. If you don't read music this might be a bit confusing, but if you do I for sure would suggest giving it a try. I usually go through it about three times and my hands are totally ready to attack the drums!


    Sorry for the crappy looking music, I just kind of threw it together really quick.




    Last edited by isaacvining; 08-18-2011 at 02:02 PM.
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  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dagon2000 View Post
    I gotta build up my crossovers - I slow down when working the kit on quick fills especially and I tend to get sloppy with my technique. Last week I somehow managed to hit my right thumb nail full bore with my left stick. I gotta tell ya - that hurt.
    Definitely try what I posted then, my teacher had me doing them for a few weeks back in my first few months, helped immensely in moving around the toms and finding a good position for them.

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