Tables of Time - David Stanoch

Larry

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
Just got this book. The very first exercise, the Tables of Time itself, is showing me how bad I am at subdividing. I believe this book should be the first book along with Stick Control as it really helps establish a firm pulse through all the different subdivisions. In particular it is showing me my severe lack of uniformity going from a measure of triplets to a measure of straight 16th notes with the metronome.

You have to do this to a metronome, it's utterly useless without it. My subdividing was so off I couldn't believe it. Specifically my meter would waver going from triplets to straight time, I think that must trip up everyone in the beginning. Subdividing in either triplets or straight time is fairly natural for me, but going from triplets to straight time, and not lose or rush meter, was much more difficult than I thought. I am loving what these exercises are doing to my internal pulse. Only 2 days (about 4 hours) of focused work and I can feel progress already.

Counting in straight time while playing triplets took longer than I thought to separate properly.
 
that book changed so many things about my playing

it will go down as a classic within the ranks of stick control

I hope you use the web page that accompanies it........so worth it

pg 7 may be my favorite page in the book
 
Moon I am working this book slowly and completely. It immediately hit me as a fundamental door you must pass through in order to understand time. I've been playing for a long time and I felt like such a tool trying to do the first exercise! 40 BPM is slow! Thanks for the tip on the web page. But at the rate I'm going, I won't get there for a bit. I'm gonna work this mother, I'm gonna wear it out. My gig playing has already benefited. I didn't get one look tonight lol, but that's more due to the metronome, which I haven't used in some time. If I were a teacher, I'd use a metronome, Stick Control, and Mastering the Tables of Time as the first 2 books.
 
This book sounds really good, and I've been eyeing it up for a while. I don't have a kit at the moment and won't do for a few months, so just hitting the pad for the time being. Do you need to work this book on the kit or is it suited to pad-only practice?
 
Actually Larry I'm in the same boat as you. I bought the book a few days ago and have played through the tables of time and pretty much the first couple of exercises in 1A. I whole heartedly agree that this book is going to be a game changer.

I found it more challenging than I expected with the time table. Especially changing into half note triplets at a slow tempo. Something that I'm not used to playing at all. It felt like a really healthy excercise though.

I played through the first few exercises in 1A and progressed to mixing and matching them. Then started playing the subdivisions and accents around the kit too. I could feel new connections being made in my brain as I was playing!

I can't wait to really get in there and immerse myself in it. Fantastic book.
 
Mr Mantalini said:
This book sounds really good, and I've been eyeing it up for a while. I don't have a kit at the moment and won't do for a few months, so just hitting the pad for the time being. Do you need to work this book on the kit or is it suited to pad-only practice?
Click to expand...

you can get plenty out of this book on a pad.......absolutely

you dont have to be on a kit understand Davids approach here

its actually better to work it all out on the pad then apply it to the kit later
 
moontheloon said:
you can get plenty out of this book on a pad.......absolutely

you dont have to be on a kit understand Davids approach here

its actually better to work it all out on the pad then apply it to the kit later
Click to expand...

Yes Moon speaks the truth. For not being much of a book guy, I know I made a great choice with this one. Best 20.00 I ever spent. I already feel I've gotten 20 dollars worth of improvement by just working this text for a few hours.
 
larryace said:
Yes Moon speaks the truth. For not being much of a book guy, I know I made a great choice with this one. Best 20.00 I ever spent. I already feel I've gotten 20 dollars worth of improvement by just working this text for a few hours.
Click to expand...

this book is literally full of endless possibilities

http://www.rhythmelodic.com/AVchapters_1.html

check this out to see David running through some of the options these exercises offer

...and I love the Tony Williams quote he opens the book with...its as follows

" It's all in time. Don't do things faster; faster doesn't get you anywhere. You have to play in time, in context. Pick a meter and play it, double it then triple it. Do i in eighth note triplets, sixteenth notes, sixteenth note triplets, thirty second notes, thirty second note triplets. Don't play arbitrarily faster or slower. It has to be in time. The goal is to play clearly. If you don't, you're not expressing yourself; you're not playing something that people can hear. When I first recorded myself ... I realized you have to play things that are clear to you so they will be clear to somebody else."

that is this book in a nutshell

the perfect drum book .....Perfect
 
I just discovered something that REALLY helped me in dealing with 3 against 4.

I put my metronome on a 3 beat setting with the first beat accented. I fit 4 - 16th notes in between the accents. It's like polyrhythmic ear training.

Now my met plays the triplets. I can easily do the non triplet stuff, but I was confused if my triplets were landing in the right place when counting straight. So now that the met does the triplets, I can hear EXACTLY where they are SUPPOSED to land.

I realize that I shouldn't do this all the time, but to show me exactly where the triplet fits in, it really helped me.

It's great ear training. This really helped me.

I realized that you could think of the count as: 1 e trip and let ah, 2 e trip and let ah....
 
Is this book too advanced for a beginner?

Probably going to end up with a gift card or two for Christmas and may want to pick up a new book.

I have Great Hands For a Lifetime DVD and still have a long way to go with that one, but I was thinking of picking up Groove Essentials, and now maybe Tables of Time.
 
THC said:
Is this book too advanced for a beginner?

Probably going to end up with a gift card or two for Christmas and may want to pick up a new book.

I have Great Hands For a Lifetime DVD and still have a long way to go with that one, but I was thinking of picking up Groove Essentials, and now maybe Tables of Time.
Click to expand...

this book is great for every level.....if you can read you can learn amazing things from it

its the most logical approach to improving your drumming that I have seen in my 30 years of playing the instrument
 
larryace said:
Just got this book. The very first exercise, the Tables of Time itself, is showing me how bad I am at subdividing. I believe this book should be the first book along with Stick Control as it really helps establish a firm pulse through all the different subdivisions. In particular it is showing me my severe lack of uniformity going from a measure of triplets to a measure of straight 16th notes with the metronome.

You have to do this to a metronome, it's utterly useless without it. My subdividing was so off I couldn't believe it. Specifically my meter would waver going from triplets to straight time, I think that must trip up everyone in the beginning. Subdividing in either triplets or straight time is fairly natural for me, but going from triplets to straight time, and not lose or rush meter, was much more difficult than I thought. I am loving what these exercises are doing to my internal pulse. Only 2 days (about 4 hours) of focused work and I can feel progress already.

Counting in straight time while playing triplets took longer than I thought to separate properly.
Click to expand...

When I studied at McNally Smith from 97-00 Dave was having us as a class run through the different subdivisions even then.
 
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