Video transcript
The Arts Unit @home Art Bites - Drumming - 2. Warming up those sticks

[music playing]

DAVID LOCKRIDGE: Hey, everyone. I'm so glad you could join me today. Today we're going to be looking at warming up those sticks. Oh, yeah. We're going to look at a whole bunch of things today. We're going to look at things like stretches. We're going to look at the origins of rudiments and their importance in warming up. We're going to look at exercises that are going to strengthen our rudiments, as well as give us a great routine in preparing our muscles for practise sessions, concerts.

And to kick us off, let's go in to some stretches. Thought I'd mix it up and do some stretching outside. The first stretch I want to look at is about the thumb. So what I want you to do is I want you to put your hand out like that, both hands. Thumbs down into the palms, fingers around, and then what we're going to do is we're going to pull down. Now when you do this, just be careful that you don't put too much tension on your thumbs. And hold, then we're going to bring up, release, and relax.

Let's go again, and down. Hold to 10. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And relax. Our second stretch is going to use a stick, so grab a stick. And I want you to grab your fulcrum, which is your thumb and your first finger. You're going to put it in the middle of the stick. And what you're going to do is you're just going to rotate, like that. And then we're going to switch to the next finger, so second finger. Third. Gets tricky when you get to the third. And our pinky, which is really quite tricky.

You also want to alternate, so you want to do it in the other hand. Same thing. Middle of the stick. First finger, second finger, third thing, and fourth finger. Doing these stretches is going to be a great first thing to do before we actually start playing, because if we go straight away into playing, we're actually shooting vibrations into our tendons that haven't been warmed up. And that's really dangerous, because we got to make sure we avoid things like RSI.

The history of rudiments come from a military nature. They were actually traced all the way back to the Swiss mercenaries, who used to have these really massive poles, and they could never seem to get them in time. So what they would do is they'd get a drum, and they'd play a small, rhythmic pattern, and that would give them something to focus on. So that's really where rudiments started.

The modern rudiments that we know really come from an American tradition, and that goes back to things like the American Civil War, the War of Independence. All those wars, these rudiments were played on field drums, and they were played by drummers who were usually at the front of the battle. So if we were born a couple hundred years ago, we would have looked probably more like this.

[military music]

So after hundreds and hundreds of years, these rudiments have actually developed into what we call the 40 essential rudiments, which have been published by the Percussive Art Society. You can also see it on Vic Firth. And these are rudiments that everyone studies. Drummers study, percussionists study, but it's really important to understand that their background actually comes in that military nature, because that alone sets different parameters. For example, we wouldn't be playing on this lovely practise pad or on a concert snare drum. We'd be playing it on a field drum, and that field drum was held together by rope, so it was quite loose. So all those rudiments were geared towards playing on those instruments.

But we can use these rudiments to really help us in our warmups. Now remember, again, we're lucky to live today and not like this.

[military music]

The 40 essential rudiments are grouped into families. An example of that is the roll family, where the multistroke roll comes from. Another example is the flam family, where the flam accent comes from. Let's look at the first rudiment that we're going to use as part of this warmup. It is the single stroke four. This is one of my favourite rudiments to use at the start of a warmup, because it requires great consistency and great control, two important things to focus on at the start of a warmup.

So let's have a look at what it looks like in notation form. Being split into three semi-quavers and a quaver, you can see how important it is to have that evenness going through the rudiment. All the triplets need to be even. All the quavers need to be even. I always like to start my rudiments at 60 bpm. The other thing is at tempo, I can really focus on the front strokes and the back strokes. Let's try the rudiment. 60 bpm. Metronome on. I'm going to really aim for that and of the beat, so I'm going to subdivide the quavers. Like this.

A 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. Let's start it on the left hand. 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. Let's move a bit quicker. 70 bpm. Now as we get a bit quicker, I'm going to focus on those back fingers, making sure they're always connected to the stick. I'm really trying to aim for that and of the beat. 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

And remember, we're going to alternate. 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. 80. Going to work a bit harder. Start really feeling that warmup. Same thing, a little bit faster. Pull the height down just a little fraction more. Really focus on that front stroke and that back stroke and what the fingers are doing in the back of the hand. They should never leave that stick. 1, 2, 3, 4. Aim for that and. 90. 3, 4.

Here we go. 100 bpm. This time, I'm going to start it with my left hand. 3, 4. And our last tempo that we're going to use in the single stroke four is going to be 110. 2, 3, 4. So you can take this a little bit further if you like. You can actually do the rudiment starting one hand with the right, and directly after that, starting with the left. So it's a little bit tricky when it's faster, because you have that double stroke. Ready? 1, 2, 3, 4.

The next part of our warmup is we're going to take the single stroke four, and we're going to put it in an exercise. This exercise is going to be two bars. The first bar is going to be just the rudiment as it is, the semi-quaver triplets at the start and the quaver, like we've been doing. And the second bar is going to start with the quaver on the beat and the semi-quaver triplet on the end of each beat. So let's have a look at the exercise, what it looks like. And let's get going on it. Again, we're going to start with our favourite tempo, 60 bpm.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. So like we're doing before, we're making sure at this tempo, we're really focusing on that subdivision like I just was. 70 bpm. Get those sticks down a little bit as we move a little bit quicker. 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1.

For the sake of time, I'm skipping 80. Same thing applies. 90, getting quicker. Sticks down, connect. 3, 4. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. Here we go. 100. 2, 3, 4. Here we go, our last tempo. 110. This is the fastest that we've gone. Consistency. Even. Control. 2, 3, 4.

Let's move on to our next rudiment, the single paradiddle from the diddle family. Now even before we start this rudiment, it's important to remember that historical significance of the rudiments I talked about before. Now remember, if we were playing this a couple of hundred years ago, this rudiment and even single stroke four, we would have actually been playing it on drums that looked like this. Field drums. The tension on the heads of these drums were created by rope. That actually has a big significance in why we actually do some of these patterns. And the paradiddle is a great example of that.

So let's have a look at what the rudiment looks like in notation form. So you can see, we have semi-quavers, and we have an accent on the beat. So let's just remind ourselves of the sticking. Right, left, right, right, left, right, left, left. The reason we have a double, which is just there, is so the opposing hand, the other hand, can come up ready for the next accent. So if I did it slowly, so you can see why it's important that we get that double in with the height, because if we're playing on a rope-tension drum, or a field drum, it's going to be quite hard to get that speed up.

60 bpm. 1 ee and 2 ee and 3 ee and 4 ee. Just bring down that accent a little bit, so we get a little bit more control, because we're getting faster. 4, 1, 2. Now the great thing about this rudiment is it already alternates, but you should practise starting with your opposite hand. 80 bpm. We're going to start with our opposite hand. Remember, this is focused on warming up. 1, 2, opposite hand.

90. Just bring it down a little bit further. Here we go. 100. Starting to really move now. Really feel those fingers connecting in that stick. You can see my height has dropped. Now final tempo, 110. Keep the subdividing going. 1, 2. Let's put that paradiddle into an exercise now. Check this exercise out. So you can see a couple of things here.

You can see, first of all, that the paradiddle starts on the beat and then eventually goes to the offbeat, to the end of the beat. 2 ee and 3 ee and 4. Now we're going to just bring it down a little bit. 2, 3, 4.

Here's 90. Remember, no exaggeration, just that height while the double sets it up. Finally, hit three digits. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

One of my favourite drummers is a guy called Steve Gadd. Have a look at how he takes the paradiddle and applies it into a modern groove for the drumkit. It's time to check out the last exercise in this video. Two bars of single strokes, two bars of double strokes, two bars of single paradiddles. We're going to focus on evenness, consistency, and control. Here we go. 60 bpm. Remember, it's that tempo where we really need to focus on the connection of everything. 2, 3 ee and 4 ee and singles. One more bar. Here's the doubles. One more bar. Paradiddle. Don't forget that choreography.

2, 3, 4. 2, 3, doubles. Paradiddle. 80's always a fun tempo. Push everything down a little bit. 2, 3, 4. Keep that subdivision going. Connect the fingers. Excellent. Here we go, 100 bpm. This time, let's start with our left hand. 2, 3, 4. 2. 1. 2.

We're going to be a bit adventurous and skip 110, which I never do, and I'm going to jump to 120. 1, 2, 3, 4.

We've now got to the end of our warmup. Let's do a bit of up wrapup. So remember, one of the most important things to do at the start is always stretching. Having historical knowledge also helps us in preparing things stylistically. Single stroke four, focus on the evenness of the triplet and also practicing that exercise of getting it on the beat and off the beat.

Single paradiddle, no more lack of choreography. Remember the drums that we played it on 300 years ago. [military music]

My three favourite words in this video-- consistency, evenness, and control. That final exercise, take your time. Focus on the semi-quavers, three different stickings. See how even you can get it. Thanks so much for watching my video. Warming up those sticks. I really can't wait to see where everyone gets up to with their warmups and how it's going to affect their practise, their rehearsals, and their concerts. I really had a blast. Thanks so much, guys. Bye.