In all rudiment lessons there will be several exercises on adding feet. These kind of exercises are incredibly important in developing independence and co ordination and when used practically they are great for your timing. The aim of this lesson is to build up the very basics of these exercises so that when you start working through the more complicated patterns it should be a little easier.
The four exercises on this page involve playing various combinations of hands and feet together, as both eight and quarter notes. The most important thing here is to ensure the hands and feet play at exactly the same time. If they fall out of sink it will start sound sloppy and that is what you will be trying to avoid.
Exercise 1
In this first exercise you are going to play Crotchets on the snare drum and bass drum at the same time. The sticking here refers to the hands, it will always be the right foot used here:
Exercise 2
Next you are going to play the same exercise but substitute the bass drum for a hi hat played with the left foot:
Exercise 3
Finally we are just going to double up the note values, so these next two exercises are exactly the same as the two above only Quavers are used instead of Crotchets:
Exercise 4
TASK
- Using the 2 minute rule, get all exercises up to a tempo of at least 120bpm. Watch you hand technique and make sure the hands and feet are playing at exactly the same time.
