The second part of the quarter note triplet exercises adds the left foot hi-hat to the combinations seen in the past month, while with the snare drum we play some patterns. With the left hand, we play a simple cross-stick on “4” and then we move the quarter note triplets of one eight note, as … More Quarter Note Triplet Exercises Part 2
In the past days, I worked on some exercises, new drum transcriptions, and books. Something I’ll be glad to share with you. It’s going to be a hot summer! Here’s an exercise to work on quarter note triplets, developing coordination and independence. We start off with the basic pattern on the snare, then we add … More Quarter Note Triplet Exercises Part 1
Here’s an exercise to develop your independence, playing various cymbal patterns on a 3 over 4 pattern between the bass drum and the hi-hat. We start with the first basic pattern on the bass drum, then with the second one we add the hi-hat, alternating the two pedals. On the second page of the PDF, … More Polyrhythmic Independence Exercise – 3 over 4
The applications of the Afro-Cuban 6/8 feel are endless, inspiring to play new grooves. Today I’ll talk about the application of this rhythm in a funk/fusion style: adding the snare drum backbeat, ghost notes, and the dotted eight-note bass drum pattern. The 6/8 cowbell rhythm will be played on the hi-hat, as shown in the … More Afro-Cuban 6/8 Funk Application: Accent Displacement
Last month I talked about paradiddle application using the book “Stick Control”, in particular the exercises 5 to 8 of page 5. Here’s a summary of all the things discussed in the previous article. The grooves are played with the hi-hat on the downbeat. Here below the variation of the first groove (exercise 5) playing … More Paradiddle Grooves – Stick Control Application Part Two
… More Paradiddle Grooves – Stick Control Application Part 2
The possibilities of the “Stick Control” by G. L. Stone are endless. Here’s a drumset application using the exercises 5 to 8 of page 5, to create different grooves based on paradiddles. The right-hand plays on the ride cymbal and the left hand on the snare with the ghost notes, accenting the 2 & 4. … More Paradiddle Grooves – Stick Control Application Part 1
Hi folks, I hope everything is going well. Here’s a workout to develop your left hand reading the exercises 1 to 8 of the Ted Reed’s Syncopation, something that will keep you busy during this period. The exercise must be played in cut time: left-hand plays accents and right-hand fill-ins with ghost notes. Feel free … More Left Hand Workout
Here’s a workout to develop and improve your ability to play ghost notes on an eight-note groove, playing different bass drum combinations. This is the first part of a series of exercises, you can apply this of course on the ride cymbal with various left-foot hi-hat ostinato. The difficult thing is to play the two … More Grooving with Ghost Notes
I want to thank John Di Raimo for contacting me, sharing his article regarding the single-hand hi-hat technique, played by Jeff Porcaro on several tunes, in particular, I Keep Forgettin’ by Michael McDonald. Here’s the original article published by Modern Drummer in January 2009. These exercises are so helpful to master the single-hand hi-hat technique … More Groove Like Jeff by John Di Raimo
Hi folks, in the previous months I shared some exercises using the book Stick Control by G. L. Stone to play different accent combinations (single, double, and triple) on the famous pages Single Beat Combinations. Now all of these combinations, the first 12 exercises of the Stick Control, are available for free in one printable … More Stick Control – Accent Workout
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