A Quick Drum Exercise

Hey everyone, I actually got a decent amount of e-mails off of my "How to Practice" Blog that I wrote a little while back so I figured that I would take a little time a share with you a drum exercise that I've been working on recently. I've found that it's quite helpful in building independence and just filling in your playing.

I actually stumbled upon this while learning Led Zeppelin's "Fool in the Rain". When I had a hard time doing the "tradition shuffle" I decided to go into the studio and just spend a day working at it. So I started with this..

Basically I just played that for about 30 minutes to an album (even if the song was in 4/4 just make it fit and use the song as a time piece).
(playing this as 16th note triplets)

1	2	3		1	2	3		1	2	3		1	2	3
R	R	L		R	R	L		R	R	L		R	R	L

Kay, so after about 30 minutes I was feeling that this pattern had become 2nd nature so I started adding in kick.

1	2	3		1	2	3		1	2	3		1	2	3
R	R	L		R	R	L		R	R	L		R	R	L
K				K				K				K

Var2

1	2	3		1	2	3		1	2	3		1	2	3
R	R	L		R	R	L		R	R	L		R	R	L
K						K		K						K

and lastly I changed the hand pattern slightly to involve a flam tap

1

2

3

1

2

3

1

2

3

1

2

3

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

L

L

L

L

L

L

L

L

K

K

K

K

Finally on the kit after learning different patterns well. (Keeping time on the hi-hat in quarter notes or eighth notes)

1	2	3		1	2	3		1	2	3		1	2	3
H	H			H	H			H	H			H	H
		s				s			s	S				s
K						K						K

The drumbeat should ALMOST feel like the "Purdie Shuffle" if you are unfamiliar

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie is a great great man.. extremely entertaining to watch.

Hope this helps some of you

Talk soon and keep practicing!
Sincerely
H