Strictly Technique Following Groupings and Fill-Ins Exercises for Increased Single-Stroke Control by Bill Bachman This month we’re going to work on playing flowing groupings of notes with one hand while gradually filling in the spaces between the notes with the opposing hand. The leading hand will play groupings of two, three, four, and six notes, and each grouping will comprise an accent followed by flowing taps. The key to mastering these exercises with maximum flow and speed is to train your mind to think about the two hands independently. Focusing solely on the lead hand will make it seem as if you can play twice as fast, since you’re thinking about only half of the information. At slow or medium tempos, the four basic strokes (full, down, tap, and up) will work just fine with these patterns. What I want to focus on here, however, is the technique required at […]

July 2015 Issue