The Best Exercises to Get Those Chops Moving!
The current record holder for the world’s fastest drummer is Mike Mangini with an absolutely mind-boggling 1203 strokes a minute! That is 20 strokes per second!
If that makes you feel a little awkward about your drumming speed – then you better get up on that stool and start practicing! You don’t have to be a world-famous death-metal drummer to benefit from the ability to play fast!
From Latin to jazz there are a ton of styles that have tempos and drumlines that will blow your mind, challenge you as a musician, and serve as a source of pride once they are mastered. We must add, getting the right teacher can be a huge boost to getting where you want to be. If you want to learn more about lessons and education, click here.
Otherwise, here are some tips and exercises to help you train that hand-eye coordination and get you breaking the sound barrier like the greats. Let’s jump in!
The Rudiments
Always start with your rudiments. Drumming rudiments, as you may know, are 26 fundamental patterns of drumming. These give you the fundamental skills to develop your technique, control, and of course, speed.
This is the most important tip we can offer: Get the rudiments down extra solid, at a comfortable speed, before trying to accelerate. Learning the drums, as with most instruments, is about training your body to perform a task – and a big part of that is the ‘feel’. Use a metronome and get the rudiments down pat, first, or you are just going to be training your body to play the wrong thing faster – and it won’t do you any good.
The Exercises
OK, now it’s on to the good stuff: the meat and potatoes. But first, some notes: these exercises should be done regularly and as a warmup. Adding these to your regular routine may add some practice time, but in a couple of weeks, you will start to notice you are becoming far more comfortable at higher tempos.
Loose Hands / Single Stroke Rolls
Have you ever seen somebody attempt something that requires time and coordination – but when they went to do it, they were all tense and tight? This is usually a result of nervousness or overthinking.
Loosen up – drummers can’t do uptight, man. We have to stay loose – that’s the only way we’re going to hit all of those strokes. So get loose with some single-stroke rolls.
You’re going to alternate one stroke from each hand with a kick on the 1 and the 3 (it’s 4:4). We’re just playing some techno music: kick and left snare on the one, left stick snare on the two, kick on the three, right stick snare on the two, and repeat for the second half of the measure. It’s all about technique – keep your wrists up, and don’t flam on the hits.
Double Stroke Rolls
Ok, all we’re going to do is take the same pattern from before and double up our snare hits. This means you are going to go: kick and right stick snare on the 1, right stick snare on the off-beat, left stick snare on the 2, and again on the offbeat, and repeat to finish the measure.
Triplets
Alright now that we’ve got some straight time exercises down, let’s get our triplet chops up to speed as well. The time signature is still common, but you are going to hit 3 snares with alternating sticks on each beat. To clarify, it will to Kick and right stick snare on the one, with 2 more right stick snares to make a triplet before the second beat. On the second beat, you will hit the snare in a triplet with the left stick, and repeat to finish the measure with the kick falling on the first and third beats.
Paradiddle
Hey, diddle diddle – Get back on that drum set. It’s time to paradiddle. This is a fun, fairly easy exercise and the name is plain silly to say as well. Ok, this one is straight time again (still 4:4) and it is going to be a coordination game.
With every hit on the 16th note you are going to follow this pattern on your snare: Right, Left, Right, Right, Left, Right, Left, Left. Repeat. It sounds easy, but as you add more speed it becomes almost a tongue twister for your body. Get this down and speed it up and you will improve your coordination and speed drastically.
In fact, what we are training isn’t, in fact, speed. We are training coordination and applying that to higher and higher speeds. Use these exercises for a few weeks and you’ll notice the drums become easier as a whole. Happy drumming!