I also teach drumming to beginners. I am far from being a world class drummer but I have loved the drums all my life and I have played the drums in various bands over the years. I am a learner myself and consider myself in the middle of my drumming journey. So I am discovering some of the fundamentals these days that I have not payed much attention to in the past. I try to connect my newly aquired knowledge with the skills that I have learned by mindlessly playing drums and by drumming what I thought sounded right. I am now taking a much more methodical approach as I am trying to become a better drummer every day. It is hard though when your body is already used to playing a certain way. But I am also practicing much more than I used to.
Here’s one of my favorite warm-ups. I consider this the perfect warm-up because it is easy to remember and that is the most important aspect. I need to be able to remember what I want to practice and I want to be able to play it anywhere anytime. Whether on a drum set before band practice, in my bathroom on a drumpad (as seen below) or on a pilow in the kids room while they are playing legos. The idea is simple:
- Start as relaxed as possible
- Tap your foot and feel the pulse in quarter notes (count 1, 2, 3, 4)
- Play one bar of quarter notes, hands and feet hit simultaneously but the hands alternate right > left > right > left or vice versa (count 1, 2, 3, 4)
- play one bar of eight notes (count 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and), the hands continue to alternate
- play one bar of sixteenth notes (count 1 e and a, 2 e and a, …), the hands continue to alternate
- here comes the most important part, at least that’s where I spotted my greatest weakness. You then go back to eighth notest, and then to quarter notest. So it is a constant back and forth and you practice playing as fast as you can but you stay in a constant tempo and you manage to control the sticks at different velocities.
Here are the notes to the exercise in case you want to play it from a sheet…