Bill Powelson's School of Drums

(Page 3) LAST RESORT!
Teaching Coordination, at the Drum Set,
to the very, very young.

As I mentioned on the previous web page, this material may not be necessary at all! I'm hoping you will NOT need this. It's actually pretty boring!. Still . . . these very simplified exercises may come in handy, if the student or teacher just can not seem to play the 8th rock beat in any other way, shape, or form.

Challenge your student to competetive 'races' with you, on all the following exercises. Just tap on a tabletop or your knees while seated. You do not have to be on a drum set to practice these exercises.

EXERCISE #1:

Ask the student to hit BOTH HANDS together at the same time and repeat, repeat, repeat. Begin slowly, but increase the speed a little with each repetition.

Think of it this way:

R R R R (Right-hand)

L L L L  (Left-hand)

Both hands will always be hitting together at the same time, on each repetition. The objective is to see how rapidly the student (or teacher) can do it, without becoming confused.

EXERCISE #2:

Now do the same exercise (while seated) but, this time, you'll strike the right-hand and the right-foot simultaneously. The objective is to see how rapidly it can be done. Continued practice wth this, will help coordinate the right-hand/right-foot.

Think of it this way:

R R R R  (Right-hand)

F F F F  (Right-foot)

Begin very slowly and gradually increase speeds. Push to the maximum rate. Challenge the student to match your 'eventual' fastest rate of speed.

EXERCISE #3:

This time (while seated), you and the student will strike the right-hand twice, but you'll strike the left-hand only on the first of every two strikes.

Think of it this way:

R R R R  (Right-hand)

L   L    (Left-hand, every other time)

Repeat, repeat, repeat . . . to maximum speeds. Run a race with your student. Who is faster?

EXERCISE #4:

Next, do the same thing (while seated), but this time . . . with the right-hand and right-foot.

Think of it this way:

R R R R  (Right-hand)

F   F    (Right-foot, every other time)

Repeat, repeat, repeat . . . to maximum speeds. Continue to race with your student.

EXERCISE #5:

This time, we'll alternate exercises #3 and #4. This (incidentally) is the 8th rock beat . . . and it's our prime objective. How many times can you or the student repeat this without becoming confused? How fast can you do it?

Think of it this way:

R R R R  (Right-hand)

    L    (Left-hand)

F        (Right-foot)

Repeat, repeat, repeat . . . to maximum speeds. Continue to race with your student. After enough repetitions, it will become a second-nature habit. Keep reinforcing and repeating this last exercise until the student can do it rapidly, without effort. Then; go back to the previous lesson and teach the student to play it along with the song clips, provided.

After that has been accomplished, just follow all the other lessons in my free 125-lesson course. The most important basic lesson in that course is the Basic Beats, lesson. Break all those beat patterns into similar 'easy' steps, like the steps you've learned in this short course.