swiftness around the kit

[drummerchick435]

How can improve my swiftness around the kit? I have trouble going around the kit when needed. I'm not talking about speed and all that crap but just being able to move from one side of the kit to another.

[thecraponline]

Probably the best way to improve your ability move around the kit is to practice doing it. Try challenging yourself to play patterns or excersizes which involve lots of movement.

[drummerchick435]

Thanks for all that crap ,thecraponline! I will definitely try that out.

[beatsMcGee]

practice stuff you are not familiar with, try going from one tom the next doing one hit on each, then two then three etc... incorperate the kick too.. and do it every day, i promis it will come.

[hookedup]

Rod Morgenstein's book Drum Set Warm-ups is the best book I've found as far as giving exercises specifically meant to move your body around the kit.

[IDDrummer]

Another thing to keep in mind is to make sure your throne is at a comfortable height and distance from the pedals. You have to be stable in order to get around the kit quickly. I used to sit very low, thinking that would keep my center of gravity low, etc. But I have found I get around the kit faster and more comfortably sitting up a bit higher. You have to experiment and find what works for your body.

Then practice lots!

[harryconway]

A lot of it just comes with muscle memory and practice, practice, practice. Like a martial art, you can't force it, it has to flow.

[theduke86]

The best way to help your dexterity in this fashion is to pick a couple of things that you like to play in fills and practice executing them slowly, in a methodical efficient fashion, metronomically of course. Take a fill you play around the kit and play it slow for two hours to a metronome. That fill will be much, much easier after you're done the practice.

[NUTHA JASON]

i second that. also when playing slow don't exaggerate your arm and body movement. watch yourself drum and see how you can economise your arm positions so that they flow naturally and don't get in eachother's way.
sometimes its just down to the sticking pattern as well... for example playing RLRL is fine when doing a roll four strokes to a tom going from left to right but not if you want to go from right to left. most drummers become excellent at playing RLRL but only later do they really practice LRLR which is a more efficient sticking for going from right to left on a kit.

j

[Wavelength]

I often employ the following warm-up to familiarise my hands with the drum set. It was inspired by Morgenstein's "Drum set warmups" and Lang's "Creative Control".

1) Play alternating triplets on the snare, and accent the first note of every triplet.

2) Play the accents on the hi-hat, but keep the rest of the notes on the snare.

3) After a while, move the accents clockwise to the next component of the kit, still playing the un-accented notes on the snare.

4) Go through all cymbals and drums of the kit this way, until you end up playing accents on the snare.

5) Play triplets on the hi-hat, accenting the first note of every triplet. Move the accents around the kit just like before and repeat the procedure with the entire kit.

This systematic approach will take you through all possible transitions from one drum or cymbal to another. Some motions will require rather difficult cross-overs, so take it slowly.

[jazzin']

My teacher gave a great simple little exercise ages ago to help with this exact problem. See if you can make sense of this...


1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
S S T T F F F S S S T T F F F S and repeat alot

S=snare T=first tom F=floor tom

1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a 1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
S S S T T T F F F T T T F F F S S S F F F T T T and repeat alot. Oh yeah, both start with right hand. Take it slow, work it up to speed.

Some fun little variations to do-on the second exercise try doing 5's in place of S triplets, or every second set of triplets (remember to start on 2 as well as 1) or just the tom and floor tom. Great sound!

The first exercise double up each eighth note so you're now doing doubles in sixteenths.

Not only does it help facility but theres some cool phrase ideas in there.
Enjoy!

[Tim Waterson]

i second that. also when playing slow don't exaggerate your arm and body movement. watch yourself drum and see how you can economise your arm positions so that they flow naturally and don't get in eachother's way.
sometimes its just down to the sticking pattern as well... for example playing RLRL is fine when doing a roll four strokes to a tom going from left to right but not if you want to go from right to left. most drummers become excellent at playing RLRL but only later do they really practice LRLR which is a more efficient sticking for going from right to left on a kit.

jGreat QUOTE NJ.......
we as drummers NEED to mirror our left hand and right.
Tim

[drummerchick435]

Thanks for all the replies ,y'all! I will most definitely give everything a try.

[SEVNT7]

My teacher gave a great simple little exercise ages ago to help with this exact problem. See if you can make sense of this...


1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
S S T T F F F S S S T T F F F S and repeat alot

S=snare T=first tom F=floor tom

1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a 1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
S S S T T T F F F T T T F F F S S S F F F T T T and repeat alot. Oh yeah, both start with right hand. Take it slow, work it up to speed.

Some fun little variations to do-on the second exercise try doing 5's in place of S triplets, or every second set of triplets (remember to start on 2 as well as 1) or just the tom and floor tom. Great sound!

The first exercise double up each eighth note so you're now doing doubles in sixteenths.

Not only does it help facility but theres some cool phrase ideas in there.
Enjoy!
I like that movement. Also try it with paradiddles, 5 stroke rolls, double paradiddles, 7 note combo (rlrllrr,lrlrrll ) , 8 note (rlrrllrr, lrllrrll) & 9 stroke rolls. Work all of these stickings around the kit like Jazzin discribs. Later......T

[ExPLiciT]

ray luzier had some good stuff in his vid check that out. i forgot whats its called

[jazzin']

I like that movement. Also try it with paradiddles, 5 stroke rolls, double paradiddles, 7 note combo (rlrllrr,lrlrrll ) , 8 note (rlrrllrr, lrllrrll) & 9 stroke rolls. Work all of these stickings around the kit like Jazzin discribs. Later......T

Yeah, it's a cool little exercise and is a very good base to build from. There is a ton of stuff that, with a little imagination, can come from these movements/phrases.

[Jeff Almeyda]

I got this from my hero Terry Bozzio.:

Try playing two hits per drum up and down the kit. Do it both with a right and left hand lead. Do it slowly at first. You'll find that leading with the right while moving to the left is difficult (and vice-versa as well).

You can then do it with 1 stroke per drum as well as 3 and 4 per drum. The one per drum really forces you to move around the kit in order to get any reasonable speed going.

Good luck

[Michael G]

Do Joe Morello's around the drum set exercises. I have been doing them for a while now, major improvement is seen!

First exercise is triplets, do a triplet on the snare, move up on the tom (Do not change the sticking to start the triplet with your dominant hand.), come back to the snare, and then go to the floor tom. Then, I added on and also did that and instead of coming back to the snare, from the rack tom straight to the floor tom. Then do 16th notes, snare rack tom snare floor tom, then try that doing it straight from rack tom to floor tom as well. Remember to alternate sticking (start with each hand). t=rack tom.

So the first one looks like this: S S S t t t S S S T T T S S S t t t etc. And going straight to floor tome S S S t t t T T T S S S t t t T T T.

The 16th note one would be: S S S S t t t t S S S S T T T T, and my variation: S S S S t t t t T T T T S S S S t t t t T T T T.

There is also this one, which is harder to explain. Here is what you are doing, work it up to speed. t=rack tom

tt S S S S S S tt S S S S S S tt SSSSSS etc. Also do that but from the floor tom.

Then does specific things like rudiments around the drums, doubles, paradiddles, etc. So do some rudiments around the drum as well.

Hope this helps.

[cantstandyourfunk]

I got this from my hero Terry Bozzio.:

Try playing two hits per drum up and down the kit. Do it both with a right and left hand lead. Do it slowly at first. You'll find that leading with the right while moving to the left is difficult (and vice-versa as well).

You can then do it with 1 stroke per drum as well as 3 and 4 per drum. The one per drum really forces you to move around the kit in order to get any reasonable speed going.

Good luck

Virgil Donati shows this on his power drumming instruction video. Great help. Thanks!

[Spreggy]

Rod Morgenstein's book Drum Set Warm-ups is the best book I've found as far as giving exercises specifically meant to move your body around the kit.

I'll second this book. It's one of the books that I've used that I can honestly say has added significantly to my vocab and ability to express. Here's a link (http://www.amazon.com/Drum-Set-Warm-Ups-Essential-Exercises/dp/0634009656/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3602293-5592718?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173794611&sr=8-1) to its Amazon page.

[xcrazzy2xbass]

Practice transitioning from drum to drum. Take it slow and build up speed till you can get clean hits in. What style do you play? Cuz that contributes alot to how fast you wanna play and how you should practice. However, books are good to and don't practice straight up 16th notes. The more complicated the sticking, the better. Do some marching/ snare warm ups, cadences, etc. good Luck