The Number Hack

This is a video request from Sara Neilson, one of my very good friends. Here I demonstrate a hack that was shown to me in college. Basically, to practice transitions between different number groupings of beats like triplets and septuplets, you take a phone number and play the phone number.

The Bolero

Video 4: This exercise was given to me by Marc Damoulakis, principal percussionist of the Cleveland Orchestra. It takes the snare drum part of Bolero and inserts accents, subdivisions and hand to hand flams. Not a walk in the park, but hopefully this breakdown makes it a little easier to catch on.

Hand to Hand

Video number 3! This exercise is based off of the classic "8 on a hand" warm up with some twists inspired by Jeffrey Irving, freelance percussionist and timpanist in New York, and Peter Erskine, jazz drum set player and composer in Los Angeles. You can implement the concept using almost any rhythm you want as well.