Lesson time: (8min 35sec)
Paul Elliott introduces the Rockschool technical exercises - dynamics, accents and flams - and breaks down the single stroke roll.
This lesson is part of the course Rockschool Drum Technique - Foundation (Grade 0-5)
Watch this lesson for free below.
Lesson transcript:
Okay, here we go with some top tips on how to approach and practice your technical exercises. Now, I'm not going to give a detailed technical lesson here. It's more a case of going through the technical sections in the Rock School books and breaking down the key components.
What I feel to be most important when you're approaching those exercises includes:
So, it's just an overview of the things that I think will give you an easier technical ride through your Rock School journey.
I'm going to break that down into different family groups, including:
There's quite a lot to look at there, but I'll give you as much information as I can in a short space of time.
Let's get started with single strokes. Single strokes can be played with or without accents, and that's a key consideration because that will affect the physical technique used. We need to pay attention to that physical technique at all times, as it provides:
Overall, we're trying to achieve a nice, efficient feel. We want to feel like we're playing the right notes and moving in the correct way to get that sound. Technique is all about sound and feel. The end result is how it sounds, and as a drummer, you need to feel as good and as efficient as you can.
If I was playing a very typical classical single stroke roll (right, left, right, left), without accents, I would play like this using a natural bounce technique. In many of the technical study exercises, you're required to play through a range of subdivisions.
In my technical demonstrations, I approach everything, even the slow rates of notes, with a bounce technique. So, if you start at a slower tempo, you might end up faster while using that same technique.
Moving on to the patterns that have accents requires a different physical technique. If I was playing a group of three or four or more notes, as you'll see in the later grids, you might go from one note per beat up to ten notes per beat (including deck tuplets).
We're required to play accents, most typically on downbeats. This requires us to employ a sequence of stroke techniques (sometimes called stroke sequences). Each of those strokes has a dedicated name that has evolved from other techniques.
For example, if I play a group of three notes, I'm going to play these as triplets at this tempo:
You can see I'm playing an accent on the downbeat on the quarter note, incorporating different physical motions to achieve the required dynamics.
Now, we're incorporating accents and quiet strokes. It's not possible to just bounce the sticks because we won't be able to create that dynamic difference. The same goes for working through 16th notes, quintuplets, or 16th triplets, where we incorporate a series of stroke sequences.
These strokes are given names, such as:
This evolved from the molar technique, a very common concept. It's something you should research further or discuss with your teacher. The terminology has evolved through generations of drummers, and familiarity with it is crucial.
So, what I'm playing here in a group of three is:
This sequence gives me a nice flow of notes and the required dynamics:
It's very important to understand that the stroke sequences provide those dynamics, and there's a physical motion attached to every sequence. As a summary:
If you play accents, do some research or discuss it with your teacher. Think about how you're going to move the sticks and the specific motions to produce specific sounds.
That's it! Here are the technical exercises for your grade, played at the tempo stated in the book. I wish you good luck!
Paul Elliott is a respected drum educator and clinician whose students hold top gigs across the industry, including drummers for Kylie Minogue (Tom Meadows), Ricky Martin (Laura Fares) and The Cure (Jason Cooper). He has shared clinic stages with Steve Smith, Manu Katché, Simon Phillips and Gary Husband, and his own playing career included work with Frank Gambale, Guthrie Govan and Shaun Baxter. Drummers such as Phil Selway (Radiohead) and Ash Soan (Adele) come to him for technical advice. In his courses he works through the technical requirements grade by grade, demonstrating each rudiment and explaining not just how to play it but what mastering it lets you do on the kit. read more
