Desert Island Exercises

[Hewitt2]

Which 1-3 exercises in your routine are so versatile they can be adapted to whatever you are practicing at a given point in time?

Here are a few of mine that I have been using for years that are easily adaptable to whatever I am focusing on (speed, control, endurance, coordination, etc.). I never get bored using them and continue to learn more about my capabilities and opportunities to improve when I revisit them:

- Stone’s Stick Control, especially the first 3 pages . Exercises 5-8 (the paradise variations) provide endless fodder for accents and groove ideas.

- Morello’s Stone Killers from his Master Studies book. Extremely simple exercise but so amazing! I’ve used them for hand/foot speed, endurance, developing ostinatos, and improving my touch and tone on drums and cymbals.

- Dom Famularo’s Free Stroke exercise from his It’s Your Move book. Very similar in concept to Stone Killers…. I move it around on different surfaces, change up the speed, add in my feet, etc. as a barometer to ensure consistent dynamics between my hands. Having a full and confident free stroke to me is so foundational to knowing how to use (versus rely on) rebound to optimize my touch, conserve energy, and sound great.

What about you guys?

 

[cbphoto]

David Garibaldi’s groove exercises where he places the Stick Control exercises 5–8 (paradiddles) in triplet format over 4/4 time.

 

[Philaiy9]

The first exercise in Benny Greb's The Language of Drumming. It's a 16th note grid exercise with singles, doubles and triples. Great to get the blood flowing and it's done wonders for my timing.

 

[toddbishop]

Three Camps, p. 38 (formerly 37) from Syncopation (most of the book, really), pp. 5-7 from Stick Control.

 

[Hewitt2]

David Garibaldi’s groove exercises where he places the Stick Control exercises 5–8 (paradiddles) in triplet format over 4/4 time.

Ex. 5-8 are deceptively simple yet provide a lifetime of study.

I remember this drumeo video where Garibaldi did something as simple as move the accents around for those exercises at a fairly slow tempo and it so befuddled Jared Falk he could barely clap in time. Check it out at the 20 minute mark.

 

[mrthirsty]

David Garibaldi’s groove exercises where he places the Stick Control exercises 5–8 (paradiddles) in triplet format over 4/4 time.

I use that exercise, it's one of my favorites.

 

[Push pull stroke]

The Stone Killer exercise.

A shuffle with all 4 limbs doing the shuffle at the same time,

 

[Jeremy Bender]

Stuck on a deset island? Kegel's

 

[Push pull stroke]

Stuck on a deset island? Kegel's

Helps you balance on the throne when you’re playing double bass heel-up

 

[jazzerooty]

singles around the set while keeping quarters on the bass drum. Then doubles; then paradiddles.