Most challenging exercises... So far.

[skills]

Hi everyone, I finally found a practice method for stick control.
In this method you are a page for 1 week daily, the technique to use are free stroke and push-pull and you should start on 60 bpm playing cut-time/halftime 1-e-&-d-2-e-&-d-1 etc, the click is 4/4.


While playing free strokes and push-pull isn't really a difficulty for me, my biggest issues are:

1.) I get chaos in my head with the patterns (while I can already remember 4 of them) and play them wrong.

2.) I can't play this counting to 60 bpm cause I can't put the counts "e", "and" and "d" in the space between the clicks, setting the metronome slower I have too much time.


What should I do? And where should I place them?



Another difficulty is I don't know what technique to use when I play rlll rlll, lrrr lrrr, llll llll and rrrr rrrr?



I'd highly appreciate your help

Skills

[Mottster]

I will start by saying that cut time and half time are not the same. I say this because the reason stick control is in cut time (2/2) is to make it easier to count and read (especially at higher tempos). Half time is a rhythmic convention (feel change) within any given time signature that can be divided by 2. Cut time is a notational convention, always in 2/2, applied to any given rhythm that also works in 4/4. (i.e., 2/2 and 4/4 have the exact same amount of notes, you just count it differently).

So, if I'm looking at page 5, line 1 in column 1, I read the two bars of 8th notes like this: 1-e-and-ah-2-e-and-ah 1-e-and-ah-2-e-and-ah. That's because the half note is the pulse, not the quarter note. To make it easier, you can think of the two bars as just one of 4/4 and count the second one with 3 and 4 instead of 1 and 2 again.

If you're having trouble subdividing at 60bpms, try isolating that issue alone, outside of the stick control exercises (i.e., something without sticking patterns to focus on). What I do is the rhythmic scale, using just single strokes: a bar of quarters, to a bar of 8ths, to a bar of 8th triplets, etc. all the way up to 32nd notes, and back down to quarters. Paying very special attention to staying with the pulse. Learning to go slow can be just as hard as learning to go fast, so if you need to work your way down from a higher tempo, than do so! This is an exercise you should do everyday, at various tempos.

Technique-wise, the most important thing is to choose one and stick with it. This book is written in a way that you can use whatever you choose.

[skills]

I will start by saying that cut time and half time are not the same. I say this because the reason stick control is in cut time (2/2) is to make it easier to count and read (especially at higher tempos). Half time is a rhythmic convention (feel change) within any given time signature that can be divided by 2. Cut time is a notational convention, always in 2/2, applied to any given rhythm that also works in 4/4. (i.e., 2/2 and 4/4 have the exact same amount of notes, you just count it differently).

So, if I'm looking at page 5, line 1 in column 1, I read the two bars of 8th notes like this: 1-e-and-ah-2-e-and-ah 1-e-and-ah-2-e-and-ah. That's because the half note is the pulse, not the quarter note. To make it easier, you can think of the two bars as just one of 4/4 and count the second one with 3 and 4 instead of 1 and 2 again.

If you're having trouble subdividing at 60bpms, try isolating that issue alone, outside of the stick control exercises (i.e., something without sticking patterns to focus on). What I do is the rhythmic scale, using just single strokes: a bar of quarters, to a bar of 8ths, to a bar of 8th triplets, etc. all the way up to 32nd notes, and back down to quarters. Paying very special attention to staying with the pulse. Learning to go slow can be just as hard as learning to go fast, so if you need to work your way down from a higher tempo, than do so! This is an exercise you should do everyday, at various tempos.

Technique-wise, the most important thing is to choose one and stick with it. This book is written in a way that you can use whatever you choose.

Thanks. For RRRR and such patterns i go like R-R-R-R so 4 single strokes.

I'm light years away from playing 32nd.


I'm not that fast. :(

[Mottster]

I'm light years away from playing 32nd.


I'm not that fast. :(

At 60bpms, 32nd notes aren't that fast. It's equivalent to 16th notes at 120bpms. That's achievable, with daily practice, in just a few weeks even for a beginner. To solve that problem, figure out what your fastest comfortable tempo is with 16th notes, and practice at that speed for 30 mins a day, just single strokes, nothing fancy added. Every few days or so, kick it up a few bpms, ensuring that the new bpm is still comfortable. The one principle to keep in mind is that speed is best developed by developing control and endurance at slower (i.e., comfortable) speeds first.

Meanwhile, just do the rhythmic scale up to what is comfortable (e.g., perhaps just quarter notes up to 16th notes).

[skills]

At 60bpms, 32nd notes aren't that fast. It's equivalent to 16th notes at 120bpms. That's achievable, with daily practice, in just a few weeks even for a beginner. To solve that problem, figure out what your fastest comfortable tempo is with 16th notes, and practice at that speed for 30 mins a day, just single strokes, nothing fancy added. Every few days or so, kick it up a few bpms, ensuring that the new bpm is still comfortable. The one principle to keep in mind is that speed is best developed by developing control and endurance at slower (i.e., comfortable) speeds first.

Meanwhile, just do the rhythmic scale up to what is comfortable (e.g., perhaps just quarter notes up to 16th notes).

That's great I'll try.