whitecatcafe
Senior Member
Just thought I'd start a thread on the Patterns series! I'm just starting to get into these books and would love your valuable input..
I take it you've seen forum member Mighty_Joker's excellent YouTube series on the books?
"Sticking Time, Linear Time, Rhythm and Meter."
extensive ideas for how to begin work on the books"
I've shared advice via private messages with a few forum members on how to work on the patterns series.
Saw that for a reasonable price just recently. I did wonder at the time if it was designed as a supplement to the books. Do you think it makes a good addition from the outset, or am I better just starting off with the suggestions Gary outlines in the books themselves and coming back to the DVD for more extensive ideas at a later time?
Could you PLEASE share this info with the rest of us here? I know that we could all benefit from it greatly!
Sure, I could put something together for you. Keep in mind, it would only be my approach based on my years with the books, my use of the books with numerous students, and my studies with Gary. If you get a chance, I highly recommend studying with him in person, as last I heard he's been teaching again for the past two years.
Anything in particular you're interested in? I like the idea of a thread where people share the ideas they've come up with while working on the books, and I'm also surprised there isn't one. I think it's a sign of the strength of the material; everyone who plays the books or studied with Gary sounds different, based on what they're interested in musically.
I would love to have a lesson or two with Gary in person, but he is quite far away... upstate NY I think? Maybe I'll email him and ask him if he is interested in doing Skype lessons...
The dvds are good from the beginning, even if you don't use certain sections right away. The concepts are good in their own right, and many can be used without a deep study of the books. In fact, many sections develop 1 or 2 ideas extensively, and are relatively easy to do. Ideally the concepts can be applied to anything. The VHS used to come with a sheet with some stuff written down, so you didn't even need the book to make use of it. In fact, the explanations and demonstrates are so clear that I don't remember even looking at the sheet more than once. That was some time ago though.
About the hand/foot combos in technique patterns have helped me incredibly, with limitless possibilities for practice in itself.
Any recommendations on a good starting point, or do you all suggest just picking what I believe covers my biggest need or most logical place that I think I should start?
Brian, care to share some of these 'limitless possibilities' that you speak of?
When I was starting out, my instructor gave me advice to learn the systems and exercises sequentially and memorize them. Discipline is not my strong suit but these books made me want to practice. Also great for reading.
Part of my warm-up routine every day was going through many sticking and technique pattern exercises forwards and backwards. Later on my own, I've added more challenging things such as playing the hi-hat on upbeats, triplets, with the hand/foot permutations; also playing them open-handed, left-handed, moving hands around the kit, etc. Haven't even begun to scratch the surface of all the possibilities, myself.
Much of the technique side comes down to developing muscle memory and practicing very slowly with a click, of course.
Partly. Before all of that, the first several pages of sticking patterns (green book) are the single double accents, etc. I worked out and memorized all of those, including the exercises. Beyond that, I would add the feet and work on different ostinatos to make it a challenging 4-way thing. A paradiddle at the end and the exercise is reversed, to work the weak side. There's seemingly no limit as to how you can practice and apply the material.Cool, I guess it does make sense to memorize the Compound Sticking patterns. That's what you were referring to right?