Single Stroke Chops - Good Book?

TMe

Senior Member
Can anyone suggest a good book for developing single stroke chops?

I just spent a year working on the 40 standard rudiments and now I'd like to put the same kind of energy into developing better single stroke chops.

Realistically, almost all I ever play on the kit is single strokes, so I'd like to work more on those. Hertas, triplet rolls, etc.
 
Tom Grosset, the World’s Fastest Drummer contest winner, said to just practice slow singles. You can see his videos on YouTube.
 
I think it would kind of depend on what you want to do with single strokes. There are several cultures and idioms that use almost exclusively single strokes, but they do different things with them.
 
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Morello’s stone killers are really good. Key is to play with no tension and to increase bpm gradually. You play with one hand at a time so it’s a great opportunity to A/B your hands and match tone and rebound to develop smooth singles
 
any of the Bachman books are great for chops building. I love his Rudimental Logic book!!

but honestly, the quickest way to fast singles is just doing them, starting "slow with flow" (as I tell my students), and then slowly speed up the tempo. When you get to a tempo where your hands are not flowing together, meaning that tension is no blocking the smooth movement, back off 10 bpm, and then stay at that tempo for about 5 minutes straight. Take a short break, and then start the process again. It will take a bit of time, but you should notice better flow at faster tempos.

Even simpler, do just 8th notes on one hand the same way. I do this in "down time" when I can, and it has helped a lot...

The KEY is not to let tension into the stroke...that means you are at your muscles threshold. This system has been working for me and my students for 25+ years, and I do it with my feet as well for double bass
 
Just play Three Camps as accented singles fast with brushes 10x every day.

I already took your advice about Three Camps. When I was working on rudiments I made a version of Three Camps for almost all of the 40 rudiments. For single strokes, I have five nine versions of Three Camps.

What I'm looking for are exercises or solos that are fairly involved, but mostly single strokes, using rests and accents for syncopation, triplets and fours, hertas, etc. It would be nice to find some more alternative rudiments that use singles, like the herta.

There are several cultures and idioms that use almost exclusively single strokes, but they do different things with them.

Good point. I should probably look for books that teach styles of drumming that aren't so influenced by rudimental drumming.
 
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I already took your advice about Three Camps. When I was working on rudiments I made a version of Three Camps for almost all of the 40 rudiments. For single strokes, I have five nine versions of Three Camps.

Oh cool!

What I'm looking for are exercises or solos that are fairly involved, but mostly single strokes, using rests and accents for syncopation, triplets and fours, hertas, etc. It would be nice to find some more alternative rudiments that use singles, like the herta.

You might look up Savage Rudimental Workshop. He includes a full page study for each of the major rudiments, plus some preparatory studies for learning them. Also try Mitchell Peters's intermediate snare book, and just play it at faster than the indicated tempos.
 
1. There's a few great pages of single stroke stuff in Chaffee's Technique Patterns.

2. In Bill Bachman's Rudimental Logic, there's a breakdown of the Heirta, with at least a handful of "builder" exercises.

3. In Syncopation, the few pages of 8th and 16ths exercises -- some of these lines have a "Heirta" sticking, if played with an alternating sticking.

4. Thomas Lang has some exercises and warm ups in his Creative Control that are great for training hands (and feet). Specifically the alternating 3s, 5s, and 7s, and the 32nd note warm up.

5. If you really want to address hand speed w.r.t. single strokes, Tom Grosset offers lessons. No one here has given any bad advice, but still -- it couldn't hurt to see what the fastest drummer on earth has to say, right?
 
Oh cool!



You might look up Savage Rudimental Workshop. He includes a full page study for each of the major rudiments, plus some preparatory studies for learning them. Also try Mitchell Peters's intermediate snare book, and just play it at faster than the indicated tempos.

I second the Matt Savage Rudimental Workshop book as well
 
If you really want to address hand speed w.r.t. single strokes...

I'm not really worried about speed so much. I just don't want to be going 1e&u 2e&u 3e&u 4e&u for every fill.
 
What I'm looking for are exercises or solos that are fairly involved, but mostly single strokes, using rests and accents for syncopation, triplets and fours, hertas, etc.

If you don't have much luck finding such a book, how about buying a book of snare drum solos and changing the stickings to single strokes?
 
If you don't have much luck finding such a book, how about buying a book of snare drum solos and changing the stickings to single strokes?

I tried that, but it doesn't quite work for a few reasons. It doesn't translate as well as I expected.

Probably my best bet is just to find some killer Rock tunes and use the fills as the basis for exercises. I'm thinking about buying transcriptions of Neil Peart's stuff. He did some amazing stuff with singles (in addition to his rudimental stuff). I could just slow his ideas down to human speed and rework them into 4/4.
 
I'm not really worried about speed so much. I just don't want to be going 1e&u 2e&u 3e&u 4e&u for every fill.
Ah, ok. So you’re more interested in building up vocabulary to use in fills. Most of your vocabulary should come from transcribing the sort of playing that you like. When you do this, you also get some context for the fill as well, which will help you choose another appropriate moment for that fill.

Many years ago there was a series of articles in Modern Drummer called the Third Hand, which I found useful. Maybe see if you can find it online. It’s not really a list of fills; it’s more about using a musical device in order to create your own fills, with many examples thrown in for demonstration purposes.

Learning to move around the snare and toms, at various note rates, without crossing your sticks over one another, is very helpful.
 
This is probably a horrible suggestion for most, take it as you will, but go listen to some metal. That's where the single strokes live. The songs are more complicated than most. You can get it from slow as dirt to fast as hell. And there's tons of it. Something for everyone if you just look around.
 
look into drum corps. exercises such as Pantera etc ...

Also it is probably best to work on your own ideas ... our ideas are far more important than any physical prowess pretty much 100% of the time. Even when just practicing exercises on a pad. Keep the brain muscle lubricated.

exercise books just regurgitate the same stuff over and over ... they are basically all born from Stick Control and Accents and Rebounds when you boil it down to the bare root essence so you may as well build off those roots with your own ideas.

I'll link a video and sheet music below to Pantera


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I'm not really worried about speed so much. I just don't want to be going 1e&u 2e&u 3e&u 4e&u for every fill.
Sounds like what you're really looking for is vocabulary rather than chops.
I don't think any one book in particular is going to be the perfect fix. Maybe try some of the infinite number of ways of using Syncopation. You could also try, as some others have suggested, various snare solos: Mitchell Peters, Wilcoxon, etc. There's also a Joe Morello book called "Rudimental Jazz" that you would probably find helpful and enjoyable, regardless of whether or not you play jazz.
Have you thought about transcribing at all?

look into drum corps. exercises such as Pantera etc ...
Man, I haven't thought about this exercise in years!
 
Sounds like what you're really looking for is vocabulary rather than chops.
I don't think any one book in particular is going to be the perfect fix. Maybe try some of the infinite number of ways of using Syncopation. You could also try, as some others have suggested, various snare solos: Mitchell Peters, Wilcoxon, etc. There's also a Joe Morello book called "Rudimental Jazz" that you would probably find helpful and enjoyable, regardless of whether or not you play jazz.
Have you thought about transcribing at all?


Man, I haven't thought about this exercise in years!
Couldn’t agree more on the Morello book.
These are both phenomenal and I steal from them regularly ?
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Thanks, but the idea was to get away from the standard rudiments (double strokes in particular), not learn rudimental solos or drum corps stuff.

I'm still working on rudiments, so the suggestions about rudimental stuff are great, but right now I'm thinking of a different project - learning to do a lot more with single strokes (and some super slow rudimental stuff).
 
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