In this lesson I will show another hand to foot pattern that is very useful as an exercise in separating your hands and feet and is also a great building block for fill construction. This time you will be using a six note pattern that is a straight run of single stroke roll with the 2nd note played on a foot. Another way to think of this is as replacing the first left hand with a bass drum.
As with the similar lessons on this topic, there isn't a lot to the exercises presented on this page, you will just be learning it in various forms in preparation to apply the part to fill construction. Spend a lot of time making sure the kick is falling exactly in place then work on pushing the tempo. Our Hand/Foot Independance Exercise will be incredibly useful for sorting out the foot placement here. The important thing to remember is that when you replace a hand stroke with a foot stroke, the foot should be playing as loud and confidantly as the hand would have.
This sticking pattern is quite versatile and can be applied over many different rhythms and time signatures easily. I have shown some examples of this below, a note is included with each example to explain what is happening.
Example 1
The pattern played in 4/4 as eighth note triplets. This is a slower versions of the full part to help get you used to the sticking movement.
Example 2
The pattern played in 4/4 as Sextuplets.
Example 3
The sticking syncopated over 4/4 sixteenth notes. This could be extended over multiplet bars.
Example 4
As simple eighth notes in 3/4.
Example 4
As sixteenth notes in 6/8.
TASK
- Using the 2 minute rule, get the exercises up to a tempo of at least 110bpm.
- Experiment with orchestrating the parts.
- Try adding a left foot count. This will increase the co ordination challenge drastically.
- Add this short pattern into your fills.
