Drum Diary

bass drum and snare on the upbeat

Here is an exercise that gives me a headache. You play the bass drum and snare at the same time on ‘e’ and ‘a’ of the 1 e and a 2 e and a:

    1       2
HH  X_x_X_x_X_x_X_x_
S   _____x_x___x_x__
B   x_x__x_x___x_x__

Actually, I can play this a lot smoother open-handed. I’m guessing because of bad technique in the past and not paying attention to proper execution of syncopated beats. That’s the problem when you’re self thought: there’s nobody to tell you that you suck.

Applied to the drum set:

polyrhythmic exercise

Here is something to give your foot a workout.

   
   1   2   3
HH x_x_x_x_x_x_
S  __x___x___x_
B  xx_xx_xx_xx_

That’s what it sounds like at 76 BPM with a cowbell on the downbeat:

It gets tricky once you speed it up and start counting the downbeats out loud (1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3).

Same beat at 120 BPM:

hand foot triplets

Reading John Bonham’s biography inspired me to mess around with his famous triplets between hands and feet. Here is an exercise I’ve been doing. The idea is to play the triplets (e.g. right hand, left hand, foot), but with kind of polyrhythmic feel.

1           2           3
R  L  F  R  L  F  R  L  F  R  L  F

You play four beats per measure while constantly keeping “right hand, left hand, foot” pattern. Because of that extra (fourth) note, you begin each measure on a different limb. It takes three measures to return to the starting point.

There’s many variations of the triplet like R L F, L R F, R R F, F F L, etc.

Here’s what it sounds like applied to the drum set:

faster beats on bass drum

Here are some exercises I’ve been doing lately that helped me develop better control over the bass drum pedal. Basically it’s taken from drummers’ bible and played between hands and feet. The idea is to play three consecutive beats on the bass drum.

there are four variations:

F F F H
F F H F
F H F F
H F F F

(F - foot, H - hand)

I can play them smoothly at around 106 BPM (one beat being 16th note), though the speed isn’t really the key factor here. Try to keep it nice and smooth. The speed will come by itself.

I also like to keep time (8th notes) with the other free hand or do alternations between the hands (e.g. paradiddles):

F F F RH, F F F LH, F F F RH, F F F RH, F F F LH, F F F RH, F F F LH, F F F LH