Exercise I've been doing lately

[PinkZepplin]

It's to practice single strokes on your right and left hands.

You set your metrenome to a comfortable speed. I set mine at about 92.

you start out playing quarter notes hand to hand for one measure of 4/4. Then you play 8th Notes, but playing each beat on alternating hands, i.e.

Quarter Notes for one measure
RLRL
Then as 8th notes for one measure
RrLl
Then as 8th note Triplets...
RlrLrl
Then as 16th Notes...
RlrlRlrl
Then as Quintuplets...
RlrlrLrlrl
Then as Sextuplets...
RlrlrlRlrlrl
Then as septuplets...
RlrlrlrLrlrlrl
Then as 32nd notes...

Then I do the whole thing in reverse.

I thought it was a good exercise to practice different divisions of a note so I thought I'd share it. I'm sure that a lot of you may do something simillar, but for those of you who don't I think it would be helpful.

[Therma lobsterdore]

I do a similar excercise, except I add in quarter note triplets like so:

Quarter notes
Quarter note triplets
Eighth notes
Eighth note triplets
Sixteenths
Quintuplets
Sextuplets
Septuplets
Finally 32nd notes

At the moment I do a minute on each for a total of 9 minutes, I use this to practice my freestroke and it's been doing wonders.

[PinkZepplin]

I do a similar excercise, except I add in quarter note triplets like so:

Quarter notes
Quarter note triplets
Eighth notes
Eighth note triplets
Sixteenths
Quintuplets
Sextuplets
Septuplets
Finally 32nd notes

At the moment I do a minute on each for a total of 9 minutes, I use this to practice my freestroke and it's been doing wonders.

If you really wanted to, you could start with whole notes, then half notes, then half note triplets. But the point of the exercise(at least for me) was to divide single beats not multiple beats. I do think I'll try adding the quarternote triplets and maybe some of the other stuff that I mentioned just to help practice feeling all the divisions.


I also like to play this exercise where I only play each division for 2 beats. and sometimes each division for only one beat

[smoney22]

I do this just to cycle between rates, not to work on my strokes. I do 2 beats of each going up in the divisions from quarters up to 32's. My drum teacher showed me this, its great in fills to switch between rates seamlessly, though I'm not quite there yet. My goal is to be able to switch between any rate from one to the other, for example going from 5's to triplets or any of the other combinations.

[PinkZepplin]

Yah. There's another one that I do that has nothing but odd groupings. I.E.

1, 3s, 5s, 7s, and then back down. This is kind of a dual practice exercise because you practice different subdivisions and you can also practice your single stroke roll control. I've been doing this exercise at 100BPM too which is cool cause you know the exact Rate your playing at. i.e. when your playing groups of 5's you're playing five hundred strokes a minute, when your playing 32nds, your playing 800 strokes a minute.

[Therma lobsterdore]

Excellent ideas guys. I am working towards being able to shift between the divisions seamlessly, but I struggle with the odd sub-divions so that's a while off. At the moment I have to stop and count to get the quarter note triplets, 5's and 7's right.

[PinkZepplin]

try playing it at a rediculously slow tempo so that it's easy to count the different subdivisions. Like 40 bpm or something. Or try putting a measure break in between each subdivision so that you have a measure to rethink the subdivisions, then just gradually decrease the gap from 4 beats, to 3, then 2, then one, then finally just play them straight. It's a tough exercise to learn, but it's hugely beneficial once you do. I still have a little trouble switchin to the 7's but i'm working out the kinks.