Looking for a new and fun way to apply some of the world’s most popular drumming exercises on the kit?
Stick Control by George Lawrence Stone is one of the most legendary drum books out there. If you’ve ever had a drum teacher, they’ve either mentioned it or inadvertently shown you exercises from it. Millions (probably) of teachers and students have flipped through its pages since it was first published in 1935. It’s the book that gets handed down from generation to generation.
If you haven’t heard of it until now, there’s no time like the present to get acquainted! Click here to go through some of the exercises with an awesome teacher.
There are just under 200 sticking exercises in the book, and each one can be applied to the drum set. That means you can play at least the same number of exercises as drum beats!
In this 7-minute lesson, Ryan Van Poederooyen from the band iMonolith (ex-Devin Townsend Project) will show you how you can use tried-and-true exercises from Stick Control to come up with new beats and ideas on the drum set while practicing your coordination.
To translate snare exercises into drum set exercises, play the bass drum where the exercise has right hand sticking, and play the snare drum for left hand sticking. Then add a cymbal with your other hand over top.
The very first rudiment in Stick Control is alternating right hand/left hand. On the kit, you’ll alternate right hand/left foot, and add 8th notes on the hi-hats with your right hand.
Ryan also loves to play exercises #6, #8, and #24 on the drums. Start at 60 BPM and work your way up (he suggests to his students that they not move on to the next page until they get to 150 BPM).
You can practice these over songs, too!
Next, try it with quarter notes on the ride. Since you’ll be playing to a click, you’ll know that you’re on time because each ride hit will line up the click.
To connect these two exercises together, play 8th notes on the hi-hat for first pattern. Then improvise a one-bar fill as you transition into quarter notes on the ride. After a few bars, throw in another drum fill and move back to 8th notes on the hi-hats.
What other rudiments from Stick Control do you think would sound awesome on the kit?
If this lesson got you itching to give your rudiments that oomph, watch this full-length lesson with Dorothea Taylor on applying paradiddles to the drum set.
Ryan Van Poederooyen is a Vancouver-based educator and clinician. He’s currently the drummer of Imonolith and Ten Ways, and the former drummer of Devin Townsend. With many years of world tours, albums and live CDs/DVDs under his belt with Devin, Ryan has also been hired for sessions with producers such as Brian Howes (Nickelback, Hinder, Puddle of Mudd, Daughtry), Chad Kroeger (Nickelback), Rhys Fulber (Fear Factory, The Tea Party, Josh Groban) and many others.
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