back to basics, and then some: warmups

Even with my dreams of playing again with UBB dashed for who knows how long, I still really want to play. This weekend I went back to basics, spending time with my old copy of Stick Control, playing nothing but eighth notes in various stickings, end on end.

Stick Control is the most boring drum book in the world. And it's designed to be. The whole purpose of the book is to give the drummer a series of patterns to be played over and over again, with various stickings, at different tempi, al of which is designed to build chops and ease of motion.

I use a metronome, of course.
A metronome is a great help. It keeps me honest, and lets me know whether my evenness is slipping and I need to re-focus.

Below is the first page of Stick Control. I use it often. (If you click on it it should open larger in a new window.)

This weekend, I obtained a few new warmups, in use in modern (post-1990) corps.
Here's a nice eighth-note exercise that mixes up sticking to keep things interesting.


A more challenging exercise utilizes sixteenth notes with a check pattern in between each variation.

Finally, I got this diddle exercise, which moves the diddle around inside a fivelet pattern, requiring both timing and flow. This one is really fun to play, but I have to take it really slow and count.

Because I'm applying for a part-time job that may suck up ALL my free time, it's possible I won't have as much time to hang out with my practice pad for awhile. But when I do there will be plenty of material to work with.

Happy chopping!