20 Minute Drum Practise Session – Part One
If I only have a small amount of time to practise drums, and I don’t want to practise a particular song, this is the program that I follow. This is also an excellent warm up before a gig. I hope it helps some of the other drummers out there.
Single Hand Four Stroke Roll
This little exercise is great for limbering up the forearm muscles. It’s also a great practice exercise for developing arm and hand strength and speed! The idea is simple: play quarter notes only with the right hand. When you have finished with the right hand, move to the left hand. When you have finished with the left, go back to the right. Do three reps of this (the second and third rep can be just at your fastest speed, not speeding up and slowing down).
Paradiddle
It’s our old friend the Paradiddle. The object of this one is to maintain a consistent tempo through the various speeds. Again, start slow, then speed up; first leading with the right, then with the left. Do three reps.
Triplet
With triplets, each quarter note gets three beats, instead of just one
Flams
A flam variant that works through those little, fast, intricate doublets and triplets. Work at a steady speed.
Double Stroke Roll
Start this one slow and work up to speed, hold, then slow down. Pause for a minute, then repeat. Three reps.
Accents
Example one will help with dynamics while working on doubles and triples. Work through it as previous routines. The second example is the Paradiddle but with accented strokes on the ONE.
Example One
Example Two
Paradiddle Rhythm
In Rhythm 1, the paradiddle is played between the snare and the bass drum. This is probably the simplest application. “Pattern 1″ above starts the paradiddle with the snare; “Pattern 2″ starts it with the feet.
In Part Two I mention the songs I like to practise if I only have 20 minutes to play and I don’t feel like doing these rudiment excerises.