snarescience

I'm humbled and honored to present the "Single Stroke Take Away" exercise breakdown video featuring Former Blast! Soloist Mike Rabinowitz, produced and edited by Kevin Troyanos of GridU Fame.

Snare Science presents "Grid University", an online educational series in Summer 2010 Video Preview Coming to Snare Science in Summer 2010, an online educational series called "Grid University" hosted by snare drummer Kevin Troyanos. Grid University will be a bi-weekly educational series designed to help expand the rhythmic vocabulary of all drummers, from beginners to advanced, rudimental to drum set. Learn how to be prepared for anything. The "Grid" is an exercise model used by drummers to quickly and efficiently learn and practice various rhythms in different contexts. They are designed to exploit mathematical permutations to efficiently learn all possible ways a rhythm can be played. This series will explore various grid patterns, and build from the very simple to the extremely advanced. Kevin is excited to team up with Snare Science to bring this series to life this Summer. To learn more about Snare Science, please visit: http://www.snarescience.com Visit Kevin's Youtube page at: http://www.youtube.com/optsyn ### Kevin Troyanos Kevin began his marching career with the White Plains High School marching band from White Plains, New York. Receiving the John Philip Sousa Award upon graduation, he joined up with the Rutgers University Drumline marching both in the snare line as well as the quad line. Kevin is a current member of the 6-time DCA Champion Bushwackers Drum and Bugle Corps, having marched in the "All Star" snare line of 2008, and then again in 2009 as section leader of the Quad Line. Kevin's teaching experience includes the Percussion Caption Head position with the well respected NJ State Champion Edison High School Marching Band and Indoor Program. He also specializes in private instruction, both online and off. Known for his mathematical and analytical background, Kevin strives to bring the scientific method as well as cutting-edge educational methods through the use of technology to the forefront of Marching Percussion. He is currently studying Mathematics at the University at Buffalo.

You should really be adjusting which fingers you use based on the speed of the diddles. For slow double strokes, you should be using the back fingers quite a bit. As the speed increases, slowly shift the work up to the front fingers. Very fast diddles SHOULD be played with primary the the thumb, index, and middle fingers. If you think about the lever system we are creating with our hand, when we use the back fingers we have a long lever arm that is good at producing large (albeit slow) motions. When we shift up to the front fingers, the lever arm is very short and is good for high frequency motions (fast diddles!) I hope that makes sense.

I started an extensive discussion about this exact topic here: http://www.drumlines.org/threads/showflat..../0/fpart/1/vc/1 I am convinced that it has very little to do with drum (shell and / or rim) vibrations, and more to do with how the stick is reacting to hitting the rim. I believe that the bead of the stick gets 'whipped' into the head as a result of striking the shoulder of the stick on the rim. There is evidence against the drum vibration theory: I have a marching snare with the top free floating section removed from the rest of the drum (i.e. there is no shell). When I hit rimshots on this, it is just as loud as on a regular drum.

Do any of you have any to offer? I am trying to put together a huge collection of drum corps snare breaks here. If you can tell me the author of the music as well that would be very helpful - I want to make sure that I have permission before I post the beats. Thanks, Ryan

I don't think you should completely drop the height practice, but I don't think it should be as big a focus as you are giving it. As others said in the 'anything' thread, focus a lot of your practice time on basics exercises. Play these exercises as a 'warmup' before you move on to more difficult rudiments, but don't think of them simply as 'warmups' - Basics provide the foundation for all other rudiments!

Hi nextyear, 4-2-1 is a commonly used structure for various exercises. It works like this: play a grouping of 4 things once play a grouping of 2 things twice play a grouping of 1 thing four times. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so check out this exercise for one of the most basic 4-2-1 patterns.

I don't quite understand the heights thing - what do you do if you are practicing a two-height rudiment? Also, what is your total practice time per day with this schedge? If I am really breaking down a rudiment (like it appears you are doing), I like to throw in a lot of hands-separate reps, perhaps with double stops to see that the hands are agreeing with each other on rhythm, heights, and motion.

and just for fun,

Thanks! My education is in aerospace engineering - Perhaps we can nerd out together?

Very good points. I updated the article with your suggested revisions. Thanks for the input!

here. Agree / Disagree?

Dennis Delucia hit on me in 1998. Discuss.

I like this exercise. I don't know who came up with it, but Troy Hommerding (scouts 93-94, MN Brass every other year) taught it to me in 1998.