The Rhythm Shift Timing Exercise

T

thedrumninja

Senior Member
Hey Drummerworldies, I was originally going to do this as a blog post but thought it would be cool to fire it up here in the forum instead.

This exercise is great for developing your stick control, timing and focus. It seems simple enough but when you give it a try you'll see how challenging it actually is.

The goal is to play a bar each of quarter notes, eighth notes, eighth note triplets, sixteenth notes, etc. all the way up to thirty second notes while maintaining a consistent tempo, volume and overall sound. When you reach the end you go back to the beginning and repeat.

Rhythm-Shift.jpg


Tempo - Find a tempo that you can play thirty seconds notes comfortably and start there. As you become more skillful you can play it faster but start off slow and shoot for consistency.

Sticking - This exercise is designed to work on your single strokes but you should try alternate stickings as well. Play through the exercise first as singles, with both hands in unison then take the idea further by coming up with your own variations.

Accents - A great way to begin this exercise is by accenting the quarter note. That will give you more control and help you to keep the pulse. Once you are comfortable doing this you can then try to smooth out the accents and play all the notes at the same volume.

Reverse - When you are happy that you can play the exercise try playing it as written then on the repeat play it in reverse. It feels like you are accelerating then slowing down and it's really tough to make those changes smooth.

Dynamics - Don't forget to practice this exercise over the full range of dynamics.

Good luck!
 
This is a well known exercise, I've also seen it called the Time Table. A good addition is to play, for examples quarters on the kick with a hi-hat pedal on every 2 and 4 beneath what the hands are doing. It is a good foot workout for double kick playing too (while playing a straight rock beat with hands on top for example). One might also want to add quarter note triplets between the quarters and the eight notes.
 
You can also split the patterns between your hands and feet and use it to practice linear playing, hand/foot coordination and odd time playing all at once, nice!
 
YES. love Morello's time table. i start at 60 & then warm up. you should check out Morello's version because of the 9s, 10s, 11s, 12s shown in his Master Studies book. 9s & 10s are just a blast. Morello also has great advice on how to play it relaxed & how to use accents or not. i sometimes put in 13s or 14s if i am relaxed enough. and then on the front end quarter note triplets & 5:2. really great for solidifying slow tempos & hearing the front/back & middle of the beat.
 
I definitely include this in my practice all the time. Subdivisions are so key to what we do, and this really ingrains them. Throwing in accent patterns is fun, too.
 
How do you play/count the groups of 5 and 7, I've tried to play these kinds of figures in the past but I always ended up playing them as 5 or 7 stroke rolls with a bit of a pause inbetween. I've looked around for people playing these things but I wasn't able to find any examples of people actually playing them. Pat petrillo has a video on the site where he plays a ratamacue but replaces the drag with a tap, is that the sound I should go for?
 
IPC said:
How do you play/count the groups of 5 and 7, I've tried to play these kinds of figures in the past but I always ended up playing them as 5 or 7 stroke rolls with a bit of a pause inbetween. I've looked around for people playing these things but I wasn't able to find any examples of people actually playing them. Pat petrillo has a video on the site where he plays a ratamacue but replaces the drag with a tap, is that the sound I should go for?
Click to expand...

Hey IPC,

I'm sure there are a few ways to count groups of 5 and 7 so hopefully some
of the guys on here will offer up some different options. The way I learned them
is by starting out with the metronome super slow and simply counting out the whole
group 1,2,3,4,5 or 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. After drilling it a few times you learn how it feels
and no longer need to count.

Try to smooth out those pauses so that each note is evenly spaced apart. That's
how they are meant to be played. It's hard to describe but a group of five, for me,
feels like a group of 6 with the breaks on - all the notes the same distance apart.

Hope this helps
 
Thanks Drumninja for replying and for this great excercise. That seems like the most logical way to get it down. Do you think it would help to try it by counting quarter notes in 5/4 time?
The feeling on the 5's and 7's are much harder to reach for me. Triplets seem very natural and fluid but getting those other odd groups is a little trickier. Ill take your advice though and try to get comfortable with them.
 
Agree with IPC - I can't hear the 5s and 7s. That Steve Smith video gives me a small clue but as soon as he starts I start thinking in 5 time rather than 5 subdivided into 4.

I think a video or hear a sound clip where someone runs up the divisions from 2 to 8 (say 4 bars or 8 of each division) would help.
 
IPC said:
Do you think it would help to try it by counting quarter notes in 5/4 time?
Click to expand...

IPC,

Try your best to count/feel it in 4/4 because it might be hard to adjust later on if
you count it any other way. It will take a while but if you spend even a small amount
of time each day with the exercise it will click for you eventually. It took me a while
to get my head around so you're definitely not the only one.

I think a video or hear a sound clip where someone runs up the divisions from 2 to 8 (say 4 bars or 8 of each division) would help.
Click to expand...

Great idea Pollyanna - I was thinking the same thing myself.

But, instead of me making the video I'm going to set a wee challenge to the community.
Whoever can best demonstrate this exercise with accents on the quarter note and without
will get a $50 gift certificate for Amazon.com.

No big rules to abide by or anything like that other than use a metronome so that we
can hear a clear pulse. Play one bar, two bars or four bars of each division and work
your way up the chart.

Post your videos up on YouTube with Your Name - Rhythm Shift Exercise as the
title before 1200 PST on Friday 3rd September and the winner will have some Amazon
shopping to do.

Let's see what you guys are made of! ;-)
 
I've found the best way to get a handle on the odd groups, 5,7,9s is not to concentrate on counting every note but to ensure that an alternate hand is landing on each consecutive quarter note click, then to listen to the density of the notes. The tricky bit then is to eradicate the tendency to sound the accent on the first note of each group. Concentrate on even stick heights to acheive this.
 
Ok I see what you mean Poll, what helped or helps me to play quintuplets or septuplets is practicing Pollyrhythmic figures like 5:2 or 7:4. If you're able to play 5:2 (the second of the "2s" must be placed exactly in the middle between stroke 3 and 4 of the "5s"), you can then play the whole pyramid or time table over 2 notes, so eg. play half notes with your left foot on the hihat, and then quarter notes for "4", and then try to switch to "5", keeping the half notes on the hihat.
Hope you understand what I mean.

For those very much interested in that kind of stuff (maybe Joey Jordison? :p) - Gavin Harrison has released two fabulous books on those topics, called Rhythmic Illusions and Rhythmic Perspectives. Rhythmic Illusions contains all you need to know about polyrhythmics and polymetrics.
 
Thanks for a brave effort, Matthias, but I need to hear it to understand it.

Are you going to enter Ninja's challenge? He's (incredibly generously) offered to put up a $50 gift certificate for Amazon, and it doesn't look like there's much (any) competition at the moment ...
 
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