strictly technique
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Dynamics Mechanics - Loud, Soft, and Everything in Between
Strictly Technique Dynamics Mechanics Loud, Soft, and Everything in Between by Bill Bachman I believe that a drummer should be able to pick up sticks and make music on any sound source. The two biggest keys to doing this are…
Strictly Technique: Triplet Gear-Shifter
This month we’re going to apply two alternate stickings to the triplet gear-shifter exercise. To review, 12th notes are 8th-note triplets (twelve notes to a bar of 4/4). In the exercise, a bar of 12th notes is followed by a…
Strictly Technique - The Missing Stickings
The inspiration for this article came from years of studying out of George Lawrence Stone’s Stick Control for the Snare Drummer. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
Strictly Technique - Part 1: Volume and Accent Character
Most of us tackled basic rudimental patterns when we first learned to play the drums. For me, these endless combinations were fun to practice, but I soon wondered why I would choose to play a more complex sticking when I…
Strictly Technique - Playing the Sixes
It can be difficult to get young students to feel excited about sitting down and working on rudiments. The material in this two-part series is designed to encourage drummers to dig into some of the basic rudimental sticking patterns and…
Strictly Technique - Chops Builders: Hemiolas, Part 1
This month we’re going to start a three-part series on hemiolas. The word hemiola has Greek roots and means “containing one and a half,” “half as much again,” or “in the ratio of one and a half to one (3:2),…
Strictly Technique - Chops Builders
In part two of our hemiola series, we’re going to add another accent to the half-note-triplet patterns we covered last month. To review, a hemiola is defined as a two-against-three (2:3) or three-against-two (3:2) pattern. TO READ THE FULL STORY:…
STRICTLY TECHNIQUE - One-Sided Hairtas, Grandmas, and Grandpas
This month we’re going to look at three unusual rudiments: one-sided hairtas, grandmas, and grandpas. These three closely related rudiments are especially useful for drumset fills when playing the accents on toms or cymbals and the unaccented notes on the…
STRICTLY TECHNIQUE - A Twist on the Buzz
A drummer once approached me after a show and said, “Your rolls sound as smooth as running water.” This statement gave me a new sonic goal, and that’s now what I think about when playing a closed roll. This lesson…
STRICTLY TECHNIQUE - Nine Over Two
The simplest way to think about a nine-over-two polyrhythm is by dividing each partial of a quarter-note triplet into another triplet. In this lesson, we’re adding accent patterns to this polyrhythm. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG…
Strictly Technique - Hearing The Click On The "E"
In this lesson, we’ll work on shifting our perception of a metronome so that we’re hearing each quarter-note pulse as the second 16th note, or “e,” of each beat. Benny Greb has talked about using this concept to help improve…
Strictly Technique - Swiss Rudiments
Welcome to the first of a four-part series on Swiss rudiments and Basel drumming. In this lesson I’ll focus on some specialties of the Basel style that aren’t usually included in the standard list of forty Percussive Arts Society rudiments.…
