Rock And Roll Snare Hand Exercise

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I've been playing simple 8th notes with my snare (weak) hand with an alternating upstroke/downstroke motion and it's doing wonders for my snare hand. I also do a "rim shot" on my pad by slapping the shank of the stick across the surface of the pad on the back beats and add rebound control 16ths on the 3-e-and once I get warmed up, so I have dynamics going on too. I just concentrate on staying relaxed and make sure it sounds like my snare hand is grooving and chugging along by itself without my dominant hand playing anything for it to cue off of. This exercise is so simple, but after a period of not having played for a long time, it is getting my weak hand back to feeling adept and natural again really quickly.
 
Good stuff man. After you're comfy with that try shuffling, with an accented back beat. Killer weak hand conditioner. I'm all for "riding" the left hand...for hand conditioners....and they make for really cool sounding beats at gigs. The weak hand...made strong...is where the really cool drumming comes from IMO.

Carter Mclean espouses this too.
 
Word brother.

Having both hands being able to pull this off, straight, shuffled, and in between, with good feel and dynamics, along with a bit of independence and syncopation thrown in, is where it's at. Seriously. That one sentence covers about 90% of everything that I ever really care to express or aspire to, as it encompasses pretty much everything that I would actually use in a musical context. In my mind all the advanced technique above and beyond that, while totally worthwhile and valid, is time spent working on things that just impress other drummers. The only other thing I can think of to add to that sentence is being comfortable doing those things ahead, behind, and right on the beat.
 
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