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There are a bunch of explanation videos as well as lot of demonstration videos that will clear up any questions you might have. If the book wasn’t enough to help establish a daily routine, Shaun’s website is a great supplemental resource for the book. The etude is clearly rudimental but also has influences from the French style and is very similar to the work of Joe Tompkins. The more complicated rhythms, syncopated rhythms, and metric modulation make this etude really cool. The next etude, The Stuttering Scott, is much more difficult and will take more than a few hours to perfect. Those dynamic contrasts make the grace notes and rolls rather difficult to control. The first, Off-beat Kicker, is a very approachable etude with lots of dynamic contrasts. The book concludes with two etudes written by the author to encapsulate the various topics covered in the book. The two most difficult things to do on snare drum. The caption at the top of the soft section is “Everyone eventually finds a way to fake it loud, but it’s almost impossible to fake it soft.” I don’t know who said that, but it’s true!!! Once I am warmed up, I would say the majority of my practice time is on my soft playing and on my roll. After rolls, he has some great exercises on playing soft. The types of exercises that don’t work on your roll specifically, but focus on skills that will ultimately make your roll better. Thanks for the shout out to my book Shaun! Most of the exercises are more advanced exercises for finger and roll control. Shaun touches on basic open and closed roll techniques and then dives right into some exercises. Beginner students tend to play very flat, or tight flams, and I think this should be pointed out to those approaching flams for the first time. This is the best place to start in my mind as it is significantly easier to tighten up a flam than to open it up. Most of what Shaun is presenting is influenced by rudimental playing, which suggests a more open flam. I spend a lot of time talking to students about how wide or how closed flams should be, depending on the style. While Shaun presents a lot of great options (including some new to me!) I wish there was a section on flam placement. There is a nice section on flams and variations on how you can practice earlier exercises by adding flams. ![]() When you start making permutations of all these elements the options are endless, but this book has a nice sequence. Shaun clearly thought about the flow of the book, because it has a logical progression. He discusses the Moeller stroke and when to use it in these scenarios. Then multiple strokes are added, combining accents and single stroke combinations. A vital concept to understand at the start of one’s technique. THE SYNTHESIZER HAS VIRTUALLY NO STANDARD REPERTOIRE HOW TOShaun discusses in detail how the arm, wrist, and fingers all have roles and how to use them appropriately when playing these single strokes. I believe, no matter what path you take in percussion, a solid rudimental foundation will pay off on any instrument.Īfter an introduction explaining his philosophy and goals for the book, Shaun starts with single stroke control and accents to establish basic stick movement. The beginning of his book sets up much like my first snare drum lessons with focus on rudiments and stick control. Shaun obviously has deep roots in rudimental playing. Some of the more obvious influences to me were Stone’s Stick Control and Accents and Rebounds, Moeller’s The Art of Snare Drumming, Morello’s Master Studies for Snare Drum, and Wilcoxon’s Modern Rudimental Swing Solos for the Advanced Drummer. Shaun has blended those together into his own take on many of the standard technical issues we face on snare drum. The book is obviously influenced by a lot of the standard resources the percussion community has used for years. My old buddy Shaun Tilberg, has written The Regimen for snare drum that is designed to be your “one stop shop” for your daily snare drum needs. ![]() While my routine was built from multiple resources, assembled together over many years, there is a new resource where you can get a lot of that in one. THE SYNTHESIZER HAS VIRTUALLY NO STANDARD REPERTOIRE SERIESI wrote a series of blogs about my warm up routines this winter. Over the years I have collected many books and routines that make up my daily practice sessions outside of learning new music. Some of these strange routines can even be seen as quirky to others, but they can put you in the right mental or physical state to perform well. While it can be fun to break routine just to make life interesting, our bodies and minds really do function better when we have consistent behavior. There is something very human about a daily routine. ![]()
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